2015 Articles

Songs of the Century

Graham, Thomas Austin

What is the historical context of a popular song? This essay considers a few possible answers, exploring the ways that a song can exist in something as brief as a passing moment and as broad as a century. It also suggests that when we hear those songs whose times have been the longest, we might not be hearing “songs” at all, but rather “musicking” behaviors that have survived their first iterations and been propounded by various artists over many years.