ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to outline an analytical strategy of narrativity and the art of record production in reference to several areas in which the art of record production may support narrative interpretations. It provides a working understanding of narrative before discussing several analytical concepts which will be used to address aspects of setting, characterization, event sequencing, and point of view or mood. In a traditional sense, the term “narrative” is used to refer to a text that consists of a particular rendering of a sequence of events in the form of language. Even linguistic aspects of popular music in the form of lyrics or accompanying prose offer potentially competing possible narrative interpretations for different listeners. Developments in the study of narratives have sought to reconceptualize narrative as a cognitive phenomenon. The chapter considers the contribution of record production to narrativity in terms of several basic parameters of narrative. It discusses setting in terms of place and time.