In my tomb: Unveiling the Beach Boys state historical landmark
Issue: Vol 13 No. 3 (2020)
Journal: Popular Music History
Subject Areas: Popular Music
DOI: 10.1558/pomh.39054
Abstract:
In recent decades, popular music in the USA, UK and elsewhere has increasingly been addressed as cultural heritage: by state authorities, commercial and professional interests, and fans. This article contributes to the growing scholarship on popular music heritage through a case study of the 2005 dedication of a California state historical landmark at the site of the Beach Boys’ childhood home and the process that enabled it. Drawing on concepts rehearsed by scholars in popular music, heritage studies and related fields, it identifies the discourses and interests attached to the exercise, and argues that the landmark’s establishment saw a high degree of cooperation between public officials, professional interests and grass-roots activists. Although the landmark risked enshrining and entombing the group in a monument to their early-era image of surf, sand and romance, its dedication ceremony saw fans recognizing the group in more informed, realistic, respectful and up-to-date ways.
Author: Dale Carter
References :
Allen, Michael Patrick, and Anne E. Lincoln. 2004. ‘Critical Discourse and the Cultural Consecration of American Films’. Social Forces 82/3: 871–93. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3598360
Baker, Sarah. 2015a. ‘Identifying Do-it-Yourself Places of Popular Music Preservation’. In Preserving Popular Music Heritage: Do-it-Yourself, Do-it-Together, ed. Sarah Baker, 1–15. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315769882-1
Baker, Sarah, ed. 2015b. Preserving Popular Music Heritage: Do-it-Yourself, Do-it-Together. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315769882
Baker, Sarah, and Alison Huber. 2013. ‘Notes Towards a Typology of the DIY Institution: Identifying Do-it-Yourself Places of Popular Music Preservation’. European Journal of Cultural Studies 16/5: 513–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549413491721
Baker, Sarah, Catherine Strong, Lauren Istvandity and Zelmarie Cantillon, eds. 2018. The Routledge Companion to Popular Music History and Heritage. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315299310
Barol, Bill. 2015. ‘In Their Room’. Home: Stories From LA (podcast), Series 1, Episode 2. 22 September 2015. http://www.homestoriesla.net/page/5/ (accessed 5 April 2019).
Bennett, Andy. 2009. ‘“Heritage Rock”: Rock Music, Representation and Heritage Discourse’. Poetics 37: 474–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2009.09.006
Bennett, Andy, and Susan Janssen. 2016. ‘Popular Music, Cultural Memory, and Heritage’. Popular Music and Society 39/1: 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2015.1061332
Bondi-Springer, Paula. 2005. ‘A Friend Indeed’. Endless Summer Quarterly 18/3: 16.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1983. ‘The Field of Cultural Production, or: the Economic World Reversed’. Poetics 12 (4-5): 311–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-422X(83)90012-8
Brandellero, Amanda, and Susanne Janssen. 2014. ’Popular Music as Cultural Heritage: Scoping out the Field of Practice’. International Journal of Heritage Studies 20/3: 224–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2013.779294
California State Historical Resources Commission. 2004. ‘Quarterly Meeting Minutes’, 6 August 2004: 1–15. http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/pages/1067/files/august%2004%20minutes%20draft.pdf (accessed 5 April 2019).
California State Office of Historic Preservation. n.d. ‘California Historical Landmarks Registration’. http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21747 (accessed 24 May 2019).
Carlin, Peter Ames. 2006. Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. London: Rodale.
Carter, Dale. 2005. ‘Warmth of the Sons: The Landmark Dedication Weekend’. Endless Summer Quarterly 18/3: 34–37.
Collins, Jez, and Oliver Carter. 2015. ‘“They’re Not Pirates, They’re Archivists”: The Role of Fans as Curators and Archivists of Popular Music Heritage’. In Preserving Popular Music Heritage: Do-it-Yourself, Do-it-Together, ed. Sarah Baker, 126–38. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315769882-10
Cro Magnon Productions. 1995. Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times. Cro Magnon Productions/Palomar Pictures. Directed by Don Was.
Curnutt, Kirk. 2012. Brian Wilson. Sheffield: Equinox.
Darvill, Timothy. 2014. ‘Rock and Soul: Humanizing Heritage, Memorializing Music and Producing Places’. World Archaeology 46/3: 462–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2014.909096
Davis, Fred. 1979. Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia. New York: Free Press.
DeNora, Tia. 2000. Music in Everyday Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489433
Ephron, Nora, and Susan Edmiston. 1973. ‘Bob Dylan Interview’. In Bob Dylan: A Retrospective, ed. Craig McGregor, 32–37. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
Flory, Andrew. 2016. ‘Fandom and Ontology in Smile’. In Good Vibrations: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in Critical Perspective, ed. Philip Lambert, 215–41. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Gaines, Steven. 1986. Heroes and Villains: The True Story of the Beach Boys. London: Grafton.
Geertz, Clifford. 1993. The Interpretation of Cultures. London: Fontana.
Gibson, Chris, and John Connell. 2005. Music and Tourism: On the Road Again. Bristol: Channel View Publications. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781873150948
Green, Ben. 2018. ‘Popular Music in Mediated and Collective Memory’. In Baker et al. 2018: 208–16. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315299310-21
Hamilton, Richard. 2005. ‘Letter to Peter and Alison Smithson (1957)’. In Pop, ed. Mark Francis and Hal Foster, 198. London: Phaidon.
Hawthorne Community Television. 2005. ‘Beach Boys Monument Dedication, May 20th 2005’. Produced by Paul Knapp.
Istvandity, Lauren. 2018. ‘Popular Music and Autobiographical Memory: Intimate Connections over the Life Course’. In Baker et al. 2018: 199–207. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315299310-20
Jarnagan, Harry W. 2004. ‘Application for Historic [sic] Landmark Registration: Site of the Childhood Home of The Beach Boys at 3701 W. 119th Street, Hawthorne, California’. California State Office of Historic Preservation, Department of Parks and Recreation, Sacramento CA, 6 February, 1–82.
—2005. ‘A Fan with a Dream’. Endless Summer Quarterly 18/3: 14–15.
—2006. ‘The Beach Boys Historical Landmark Project’. American Association of Cost Engineers International Transactions PM.13: 1–11 http://www.icoste.org/AACE2006%20Papers/pm13.pdf (accessed 5 April 2019).
Keightley, Emily, and Michael Pickering. 2012. The Mnemonic Imagination. Remembering as Creative Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137271549_3
—2017. Memory and the Management of Change: Repossessing the Past. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kershaw, Sarah. 2003. ‘Rock Idol’s Legacy Devolves into Family Feud’. New York Times, 23 July 2003: A12. Business Insights: Essentials (accessed 20 January 2020).
Kong, Lily. 1999. ‘The Invention of Heritage: Popular Music in Singapore’. Asian Studies Review 23/1: 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357829908713218
Lashua, Brett D. 2018. ‘Popular Music Heritage and Tourism’. In Baker et al. 2018: 153–62. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315299310-15
Leonard, Marion. 2010. ‘Exhibiting Popular Music: Museum Audiences, Inclusion and Social History’. Journal of New Music Research 39/2: 171–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/09298215.2010.494199
—2018. ‘Representing Popular Music: Music Histories and Heritage in Museums’. In Baker et al. 2018: 261–70.
Long, Paul. 2018. ‘What is Popular Music Cultural Heritage?’ In Baker et al. 2018: 121–33. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315299310-12
Love, Mike. 2005. ‘Cousin’. Endless Summer Quarterly 18/3: 33.
Mazza, Sandy. 2011. ‘Beach Boys Shrine Draws Fans, Graffiti’. Daily Breeze [Torrance, CA], 6 September 2011. https://www.dailybreeze.com/2011/09/06/beach-boys-shrine-draws-fans-graffiti/ (accessed 5 April 2019).
Mortensen, Christian Hvild, and Jacob Westergaard Madsen. 2015. ‘The Sound of Yesteryear on Display: A Rethinking of Nostalgia as a Strategy for Exhibiting Pop/Rock Heritage’. International Journal of Heritage Studies 21/3: 250–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2014.938765
Nora, Pierre. 1989. ‘Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire’. Representations 26: 7–25. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0734-6018%28198921%290%3A26%3C7%3ABMAHLL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N
Nowak, Raphaël, and Sarah Baker. 2018. ‘Popular Music Halls of Fame as Institutions of Cultural Heritage’. In Baker et al. 2018: 283–93. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315299310-28
Pickering, Michael. 2018. ‘Popular Music and the Memory Spectrum’. In Baker et al. 2018: 191–98. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315299310-19
Pickering, Michael, and Emily Keightley. 2014. ‘Retrotyping and the Marketing of Nostalgia’. In Media and Nostalgia: Yearning for the Past, Present and Future, ed. Katharina Niemeyer, 83–94. London: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137375889_6
Pool, Bob. 2005. ‘It’s Fun, Fun, Fun for Beach Boys Fans’. Los Angeles Times, 21 May 2005: A1, A14.
Pound, Ezra. 1972. ‘A Few Don’ts’ (1913). In 20th Century Literary Criticism: A Reader, ed. David Lodge, 59–62. London: Longman.
Priore, Domenic. 2005. Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece. London: Sanctuary.
Rhino Home Video. 2005. Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile. Rhino Home Video. Directed by David Leaf.
Roberts, Les. 2014. ‘Talkin Bout My Generation: Popular Music and the Culture of Heritage’. International Journal of Heritage Studies 20/3: 262–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2012.740497
Roberts, Les, and Sara Cohen. 2014. ‘Unauthorising Popular Music Heritage: Outline of a Critical Framework’. International Journal of Heritage Studies 20/3: 241–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2012.750619
Schmutz, Vaughn. 2005. ‘Retrospective Cultural Consecration in Popular Music: Rolling Stone’s Greatest Albums of All Time’. American Behavioral Scientist 48/11: 1510–523. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764205276617
—2018. ‘Cultural Consecration and the Creation of Canons’. In Baker et al. 2018: 67–75.
Smith, Laurajane. 2006. Uses of Heritage. Abingdon: Routledge.
Stebbins, John. 2011. The Beach Boys FAQ: All That’s Left to Know about America’s Band. Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books.
Stengs, Irene. 2018. ‘Popular Music and Contemporary Ritual: A Material Approach’. In Baker et al. 2018: 229–37. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315299310-23
Strong, Catherine. 2018. ‘Burning Punk and Bulldozing Clubs: The Role of Destruction and Loss in Popular Music Heritage’. In Baker et al. 2018: 180–88. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315299310-18
Upton, Dell. 2013. ‘Why Do Contemporary Monuments Talk So Much?’ In Commemoration in America: Essays on Monuments, Memorialization, and Memory, ed. David Gobel and Daves Rossell, 11–35. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.
Vail, Fred. 2005. ‘Manager, Friend and Fan’. Endless Summer Quarterly 18/3: 20–21.
van Dijck, José. 2006. ‘Record and Hold: Popular Music between Personal and Collective Memory’. Critical Studies in Media and Communication 23/5: 357–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/07393180601046121
Wilson, Brian, with Ben Greenman. 2016. I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir. London: Coronet.
Wilson, Carnie. 2005. ‘Daughter and New Mother’. Endless Summer Quarterly 18/3: 30.
Wilson, Scott. 2005. ‘Son and Endless Worker’. Endless Summer Quarterly 18/3: 17.
Wilson-Bloom, Carole. 2005. ‘Home is Where the Heart Is’. Endless Summer Quarterly 18/3: 23.
Withers, D.-M. 2018. ‘DIY Institutions and Amateur Heritage-Making’. In Baker et al. 2018: 294–302. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315299310-29