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    City Music Research Seminar 23/11/2022: Dr Peter Grant - Annie Clark: Re-gendering the Guitar for the 21st Century



        23/11/2022

        17:00 – 18:30

        Room AG09, College Building

        City, University of London



        https://www.city.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/2022/november/research-seminar-in-music-annie-clark-re-gendering-the-guitar-for-the-21st-century



        Dr Peter Grant - Annie Clark: Re-gendering the Guitar for the 21st Century



        Guitar World has dubbed Annie Clark (St Vincent) a ‘postmodern guitar hero’ while

        Rolling Stone labelled her a ‘bona fide guitar god’ (Rogerson-Berry, 2020). In

        discussing Clark this paper will suggest she should be considered a pioneering

        rock artist and will agree with Sasha Geffen that: “No other contemporary

        musician imbues the guitar with quite so much fantasy… Clark frees her

        instrument from its historical stratus [sic] as a masculinity amplifier, an

        assertion of gendered power. She doesn't use it to embellish her songs; she

        uses it to build worlds.”



        Clark’s highly expressive and distinctive playing style merges complex, discordant and

        angular sounds with strong traditional melodies. Her understanding of music

        theory combines with her love for a wide array of musicians including Nirvana,

        David Bowie, Slayer and Kate Bush. The influence of Robert Fripp can be heard

        in her playing style, breaking from the expected melody lines, and Frank Zappa’s

        son Dweezil compares Clark’s use syncopation and distortion effects to that of

        his late father. When one adds her use of alternative tunings, off kilter chord

        progressions, the choreography of her live performances, her destabilization of

        the traditional relationship between voice and accompaniment and her drawing on

        aspects of contemporary classical music (she has written chamber music for the

        American ensemble yMusic) she can be considered as having re-gendered the

        guitar for the 21st century.



        Biography



        Peter Grant devised the world’s first full masters-level programme in grantmaking and

        philanthropy at City University, London where he also teaches on the history of

        charity and women in popular music.



        He has published widely on philanthropy, history (notably the period of the First

        World War) and popular culture.



        Peter is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, trustee of the Amy Winehouse

        Foundation, former Chair of the Voluntary Action History Society and President

        of Kennington Cricket Club.









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