Some Medievalist Roots of Pop Music
If you lived through the '90s, you probably remember that strange-upon-reflection moment where everyone was into Gregorian Chant. It's pretty strange that a religious tradition that is more than 1000 years old, and not even that common in actual Roman catholic practice these days, was suddenly a hot topic. The album Chant , recorded by Benedictine monks, was actually recorded in the '70s. It had been reissued several times over the ensuing years, but it never made much impact, until its 1994 reissue. It peaked at #3 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. Why was it a hit? Maybe it was better marketing, maybe it was the right confluence of cultural currents—but the success was not entirely out of the blue. Medievalisms have been a part of popular music, across many genres, for decades. The working (and workaday) title of my dissertation is Medievalism in Popular Music since 1960. In last week's post where I tried to begin defining terms , I talk about why I start with
