An Introduction to America’s Music

542 PART 4 | SINCE WORLD WAR II

outside the tradition on which she comments, Welch adopts a traditionalist stance

to disg uise what in fact is innovative music making. It is left to the listener to tr y to

fi gure out what that traditionalist rhetoric has to do with the actual music.

HIP-HOP, THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION,

AND REMIX CULTURE

As hip-hop entered its second decade as a national and international phenome-

non, it acquired new shades of cultural sig n ifi cance. W hereas earlier hip-hop DJs

and MCs had been communicating within tight-knit social groups, big-name rap

stars were now portray ing lifestyles unfamiliar to many of their listeners. In this

new, larger context, misunderstandings were certain to arise. Yet hip-hop also

became a musical language embraced by a multitude of people worldwide who

saw in the African American experience parallels with their own conditions.

With the rise of digital information technology, the technical processes used

in the creation of hip-hop raised legal questions about copyright and owner-

ship, questions made even more vexing by the rise of peer-to-peer downloading

technology. In the fi rst decade of the twenty-fi rst century, the sampling practices

of hip-hop gave rise to a broader artistic movement incorporating remixes and

mash-ups (see below), calling into question basic notions of originality and artis-

tic creation.

CD 4.14 Listening Guide 22.2 “Orphan Girl” GILLIAN WELCH

timing section lyrics comment

3:09 chorus Be my mother... At the last phrase, crescendo of distorted electric

guitar and organ to reach the song’s peak volume.

3:34 coda I am an orphan girl The last line of the chorus is repeated on a plagal

(“Amen”) cadence, IV–I; voices and guitars drop

out, leaving an organ chord that fades to silence.

Listen & Refl ect

1. Contrast and compare “Orphan Girl” with “Can the Circle Be Unbroken” (LG 11.2), “Mama
   Tried” (LG 18.4), and “Coat of Many Colors” (LG 19.2). How does each song convey, or fail
   to convey, a feeling of authenticity? How does knowledge of the singers’ actual life experi-
   ences affect your reception of the songs?


2. Each chorus begins with slightly altered lyrics. Why, and what is the effect?

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