The Beatles and Vocal Expression

The Beatles and Vocal Expression presents a mixed-methodology for analysing paralinguistic voice qualities, which give rise to performative expressive tropes, that are retained on recordings. Such tropes convey a series of paralinguistic personae that challenge identity construction in song.

Bláithín Duggan is a part-time lecturer at Dublin City University. Bláithín’s research focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to the analysis and interpretation of nineteenth- and twentieth-century popular song. This encompasses music theory and analysis, sound studies, performance studies, and paralinguistics. In 2020, Bláithín’s doctoral thesis ’Paralanguage and The Beatles’, completed under the supervision of Dr Simon Trezise at Trinity College Dublin, was awarded the inaugural Society for Musicology in Ireland Harry White doctoral medal.