Brock professor explores history of humour in music
From Bob Dylan to Lou Reed to Eminem, some of the best protest music has come with a side order of humour.
And if you dig deeper, the relationship between music and laughter stretches back to jazz and even classical compositions. From gimmick songs to earnest love songs, writers have always used comical metaphors to communicate with their audience.
It’s a link Brock University associate professor Nick Baxter-Moore has been exploring since 2016 with his colleague Thomas M. Kitts of St. John’s University.
The result is the 421-page “Routledge Companion to Popular Music and Humour ,” a collection of essays from 42 different writers digging into popular music’s funny side.
Not the obvious subjects like satirist Weird Al, who played nearby Artpark in Lewiston, N.Y., Tuesday night. But traditionally serious artists such as Joni Mitchell, whose classic “Big Yellow Taxi” ends with a laugh, or the numerous protest songs by John Lennon not named “Imagine.”
Baxter-Moore, a professor with Brock’s department of communication, popular culture and film, says the idea stemmed from Kitts after he did some research on American band The Turtles (“Happy Together”). They put out the call for submissions, and received pieces ranging from humour in hip hop, to sexuality and politics, to music mockumentaries.
“There’s all kinds of interesting work in this book,” he says, pointing to the chapter on jazz that explores how the music itself — no spoken words — generated the humour.
“We weren’t really interested in comedians who use music,” he says. “We didn’t write about Monty Python’s ‘Lumberjack Song,’ for example.
“What we were really more interested in is the way that musicians use humour as one way of telling a story and getting their message out to their fans.”
Baxter-Moore contributed a chapter on protest songs, which have long used humour to offset some of the anger. Randy Newman, to no surprise, gets his own chapter, as do female rappers.
Metal to reggae to K-pop are all accounted for, he adds. There’s even a chapter on Unintentional Humour in Popular Music, which is where you’ll find William Shatner’s take on “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.”
While many of the songs and artists in the book are decades old, Baxter-Moore says they still have a presence today.
“Any time you get a demonstration, whether it’s against Trump or for Indigenous rights or environmental demonstrations, people often take old tunes and set new words to them,” he says. “They’re often satirical and funny and ironic.
“It’s such a great way of reaching an audience, right? If you want to make a protest song big and earnest, you’re probably going to turn more people off than win over to your side. Put a little humour in, and then you’ll start making an impression.”