Anti-pastoral and the prophetic mode in Moddi’s climate songs
This article explores aspects of apocalypse and the pastoral in the climate-themed song lyrics of Norwegian indie folk artist Moddi. Through close listening and contextualizing of the songs “Noens ark” (“Someone’s ark,” 2013) and “En sang om fly” (“A song about planes,” 2013), apocalypse and pastora...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2024 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Alcalá (UAH) |
| Repositorio: | e_Buah Biblioteca Digital Universidad de Alcalá |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ebuah.uah.es:10017/64715 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10017/64715 https://dx.doi.org/10.37536/ECOZONA.2024.15.2.5177 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Norway Song lyrics Climate change Disaster imaginary Indie folk Noruega Letras de canciones Cambio climático Imaginario de desastres Literatura Medio ambiente Literature Environmental science |
| Sumario: | This article explores aspects of apocalypse and the pastoral in the climate-themed song lyrics of Norwegian indie folk artist Moddi. Through close listening and contextualizing of the songs “Noens ark” (“Someone’s ark,” 2013) and “En sang om fly” (“A song about planes,” 2013), apocalypse and pastoral emerge as key concepts. These are navigated in an exploration of a conflicted Norwegian response to global warming. The songs express a critique of the unrelenting pursuits of economic growth and personal consumption in the face of climate risk. Each in their own ways, elements of the selected songs are tailored to express an unsettling encounter with a global environmental risk scenario. “Noens ark” employs forceful instrumentation and polyrhythms to evoke a sense of alarm and urgency in response to the projection of future disaster. “En sang om fly” is a soft composition projecting nostalgia for the material conditions of the present. The desire for these conditions ultimately locks the singer in a cycle of repetition that destabilizes the very conditions he desires, which are linked to connections at the local level. The nuances afforded by this expression in musical performance allows song lyrics to sustain contradictory attitudes towards globalization. In their pursuit of these contradictions, Moddi’s climate songs can be seen as aligned to an anti-pastoral tradition. Features of musical genre and a prophetic lyric mode are employed to evoke and subvert the pastoral response to apocalypticism. By musically sustaining contradictions between pastoral and apocalypse, Moddi’s songs reflect a conflict between Norwegian identity and a global cultural imaginary in the face of global warming. |
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