Christa Bentley, Ph.D. 2016

Advisor: Jocelyn Neal

Dissertation Title: Los Angeles Troubadours: The Politics of the Singer-Songwriter Movement, 1968-1975

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Dissertation Abstract:

Los Angeles, known for the glamorous, impersonal, and fast-paced lifestyle of Hollywood, may seem an unlikely place for the emergence of the singer-songwriter, whose identity conjures the ideas of earnest delivery, folk presentation, and a sense of personal or meaningful connection to the artists. Yet, in the midst of the manicured neighborhoods of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills stands Doug Weston’s Troubadour, the venue credited as the birthplace of the singer-songwriter movement in the late 1960s. 

Using ethnographic research with participants of the singer-songwriter movement, oral histories of venues central to the scene, and analysis of the musical products created by singer-songwriters, I construct a cultural history of the ways that the community in Los Angeles shaped the singer-songwriter identity. Furthermore, I demonstrate how the political situation surrounding this development imbues the term “singer-songwriter” with the notions of authenticity it holds today. My dissertation challenges the perception of the singer-songwriter movement as self-indulgent and apolitical. I explore the contemporary circumstances that contributed to a widespread distrust of the American establishment, particularly through attitudes towards the Vietnam War and Nixon’s presidency, as well as social and political movements that promoted the idea of individual agency, primarily through the women’s movement and anti-war rhetoric. The intersection of these attitudes with an emergent musical style that promoted the value of self-discovery and personal experience suggests that artists and audiences were using music as a way to fashion themselves and their places within a rapidly changing society. 

Recipient of the Glen Haydon Dissertation Award

Dr. Bentley is currently Assistant Professor of Musicology at Oklahoma City University. She is working on a monograph that examines the function of political songs in the private sphere through the roles of singer-songwriters in the Civil Rights Era.

Pruett Fellow, 2011