Abstract
The Images of Kent: A Case Study of Music Journalism, Authenticity, and Music Mythology
Lars Lilliestam
Kent is undoubtedly the most popular rockband in Sweden during the early twenty-first century. This study analyzes what was written in the press about their album “Vapen & ammunition” [Guns & Ammunition], which was released in April 2002. The texts analyzed consist of about sixty different articles-including reviews, reports, columns, and interviews. I examine both how different authors write about the music, that is, the language they use, and what they write about, that is, the themes developed in the texts. My analysis shows that the language used by music journalists is close to everyday speech about music (using adjectives, metaphors, references to other artists and songs, value judgements etc.) and very different from musicological analytical discourse. Thematically the texts connect to a kind of authenticity discourse as analysed by Allan F. Moore, Torgny Sandgren, Motti Regev, and other scholars of popular and rock music.