Creole prestige and code-switching in popular music

Creole Prestige and Code-switching in Popular Music
Christina Märzhäuser (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
This paper shows how code-switching in contemporary popular music, especially
regarding alternations with Creoles, is linked both to official and sub-cultural language prestige.
In a comparative focus on post-colonial situations in which Creoles co-exist with their colonial
lexifier-languages, based on the case study on Capeverdean in rap from Lisbon (Märzhäuser
2011a-c), on Mauritian in Sega, Seggae et Dancehall (Panzer 2010) and on rap in Haitian in
France (Primé 2013 and fresh data), this research investigates the motivations of native speaker
artists to include or omit creoles in their song lyrics.
It analyses the ways in which creoles compete with official and ‘global̕ languages on
these local music markets, based on the analysis of song-lyrics and on qualitative interviews
with musicians. Code-switching patterns will be described with the multi-dimensional
framework for the analysis of language alternation in song texts developed in Märzhäuser
(2011a). General insights on overt versus covert language prestige will be linked to the analysis
of the specific dynamics in the domain of popular music.
The analysis shows how language choice in popular music reflects trends and social
dynamics in local linguistic communities and in broader contemporary youth cultures. It
addresses flexibility and limitations of the music markets, where language politics of labels,
consumer preferences and the different musical genres interfere with the personal preferences
and linguistic attitudes of the musicians. It will be shown how creoles compete with local
languages in in popular music production. As visible for example for Jamaican Creole in
Reggae and Dancehall, music can function as an important domain for the use, maintenance
and even spread of creole languages. The close links between language use with different
musical genres and market niches will be addressed.
This way, post-colonial linguistic dynamics become visible in a field in which linguistic
actors (musicians) and audiences dynamically engage in the negotiation of language prestige.
These dynamics can be captured methodologically through the application of audience design
(Bell 2001). Furthermore, popular music is a significant stage for putting non-creole-speaking
audiences into contact with Creoles.
References
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Bell, Allan (2001) “Back in Style: Reworking audience design” in Eckert, P./ Rickford, J.
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Märzhäuser, Christina (2011a) Portugiesisch und Kabuverdianu im Kontakt: Muster des Codeswitching und lexikalische Innovationen in Raptexten aus Lissabon, Dissertation LMU
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