Richard Allen Rischar, Ph.D. 2000
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| Advisor | Dissertation Awards |
Advisor: John Covach
Dissertation Title: One Sweet Day: Vocal Style in the African-American Popular Ballad, 1991-1996
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Dissertation Abstract:
This dissertation is devoted to the study of vocal style in African-American popular ballads released between 1991 and 1996. There is intensive musical analysis of selected songs, with “One Sweet Day” by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men as a centerpiece. The analysis serves as a springboard for considering larger questions of identity in modern society. Chief among these is the notion of “musical blackness” as it has developed in recent years. I claim that musical stylistic features of contemporary ballads represent multiple cultural systems and traditions, including but not limited to race.
Dr. Rischar is an assistant professor in the Music Department at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. In 2004, he published an article in the journal American Music that drew from his dissertation research on African American popular song of the early 1990s.