Discoursing Finnish Rock. Articulations of Identities in the Saimaa-ilmiö Rock Documentary

239 Pages·2010·9.49 MB·English

by  Terhi Skaniakos

J Y V Ä S K Y L Ä S T U D I E S I N H U M A N I T I E S
140
Terhi Skaniakos
Discoursing Finnish Rock
Articulations of Identities in the
Saimaa-ilmiö
Rock Documentary
JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 140
Terhi Skaniakos
Discoursing Finnish Rock
Articulations of Identities in the
Saimaa-ilmiö Rock Documentary
Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston humanistisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella
julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston vanhassa juhlasalissa S210
toukokuun 14. päivänä 2010 kello 12.
Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of
the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Jyväskylä,
in Auditorium S210, on May 14, 2010 at 12 o'clock noon.
UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ
JYVÄSKYLÄ 2010
Discoursing Finnish Rock
Articulations of Identities in the
Saimaa-ilmiö Rock Documentary
JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 140
Terhi Skaniakos
Discoursing Finnish Rock
Articulations of Identities in the
Saimaa-ilmiö Rock Documentary
UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ
JYVÄSKYLÄ 2010
Editor
Erkki Vainikkala
Department of Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä
Pekka Olsbo
Publishing Unit, University Library of Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities
Editorial Board
Editor in Chief Heikki Hanka, Department of Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä
Petri Karonen, Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä
Paula Kalaja, Department of Languages, University of Jyväskylä
Petri Toiviainen, Department of Music, University of Jyväskylä
Tarja Nikula, Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä
Raimo Salokangas, Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä
Cover picture by Marika Tamminen, Museum Centre Vapriikki collections
URN:ISBN:978-951-39-3887-1
ISBN 978-951-39-3887-1 (PDF)
ISBN 978-951-39-3877-2 (nid.)
ISSN 1459-4331
Copyright © 2 0 1 0 , by University of Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 2010
ABSTRACT

Skaniakos, Terhi
Discoursing Finnish Rock. Articulations of Identities in the Saimaa-ilmiö Rock
Documentary
Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2010, 229 p.
(Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities
ISSN 1459-4331; 140)
ISBN 978-951-39-3887-1 (PDF), 978-951-39-3877-2 (nid.)

The purpose of the study is to examine the articulation of identities in the Saimaa-ilmiö
rock documentary (1981). Saimaa-ilmiö is a Finnish full length rock documentary film
directed by Aki and Mika Kaurismäki. It is based on the events of the Tuuliajolla (Adrift)
tour cruise, which took place on Lake Saimaa in 1981 with three Finnish rock bands:
Juice Leskinen & Slam, Eppu Normaali, and Hassisen kone. The main research question
is to examine what identities, or more specifically, identity positions, are articulated in
within the discourses related to rock and Finnish culture. The research setting is based
on Critical Discourse Analysis (Norman Fairclough).
Many articulations of rock reinforced the Anglo-American based rock culture and
its ideology and authenticity, which was largely based on the fact that the bands
performed live music they had authored themselves. Many representations in the film,
such as bohemian life, are part of the rock mythology. Rock culture was also youth
culture. The people in the film are young and represent the suburban generation, even
though most of the musicians come from the “periphery”, various parts of the Finnish
countryside. Lyrics, music and other behaviour implement counter cultural attitude
against authorities and those in power. The discourses related to the Finnishness are also
manifold. The use of landscape, romanticized images of the countryside, was mostly
affirmative with the ways the landscape has been canonized within the construction of
Finnishness. There are nostalgic intertextual references to the vernacular culture and
lowbrow Finnish culture. Changes in the Finnish society and culture are also addressed.
Furthermore, the fact that the music is sung in Finnish is a significant element.
In Saimaa-ilmiö there are many strong articulations which interconnect rock and
Finnishness. The strongest identity position is related to masculinity, which
interconnects articulations of rock, bohemianism, and Finnish low popular and
vernacular Finnish cultures. The women, who are represented as passive bystanders, are
offered less powerful positions. The film offers also other identity positions. The counter
cultural position against authorities and societal norms become most strongly articulated
in discourses of rock culture. However, the hatred for the elite and the powers that be is
also a feature in lowbrow Finnish culture. The articulations of place are mostly related to
the vernacular Finnishness, which is also articulated in the rock culture to some extent.
The film offers a position for the provincial men, who come from the periphery, outside
the densely populated Helsinki area. In this sense it creates conception of Finnish rock as
broadly national phenomenon. This position is also strongly Finnish, even though the
national symbolic elements are articulated within the rock context, which separates them
from the official representations of Finnishness.

Keywords: Saimaa-ilmiö, rock documentary, rock culture, Finnishness, articulation,
identity, critical discourse analysis.
Author´s address Terhi Skaniakos
Contemporary Culture
Department of Art and Culture Studies
P.O.BOX 35, 40014 University of Jyväskylä
email: [email protected]

Supervisors Adjunct Professor Yrjö Heinonen
School of History, Cultural Research and Art Studies
University of Turku
FIN-20014 University of Turku
email: [email protected]

Adjunct Professor Urpo Kovala
Department of Art and Culture Studies
University of Jyväskylä
FIN-40014 University of Jyväskylä
email: [email protected]

Reviewers Adjunct Professor Tarja Rautiainen-Keskustalo
Department of Music Anthropology
University of Tampere
FIN-33014 University of Tampere
email: [email protected]

Adjunct Professor Heikki Uimonen
Department of Music Anthropology
University of Tampere
FIN-33014 University of Tampere
email: [email protected]

Opponent Adjunct Professor Tarja Rautiainen-Keskustalo
Department of Music Anthropology
University of Tampere
FIN-33014 University of Tampere
email: [email protected]
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I have been fortunate in having had the opportunity to work with so many
versatile, inspiring, skillful and supporting people during this process.
First of all I want to thank my supervisor Yrjö Heinonen, who has been
my teacher and mentor throughout my studies since I began to study
Musicology. He has encouraged me and many other students to study popular
music and supported my learning process in many ways. My first "graduate
school" was The Beatles 2000 project, led by Yrjö, in which I also had the
pleasure to work with Jouni Koskimäki and Seppo Niemi, both Beatles
enthusiasts.
I also want to thank my second supervisor Urpo Kovala and Professor of
Contemporary Culture Erkki Vainikkala, who provided me with intelligent and
supporting guidance. It was a privilege to work at the Research Center for
Contemporary Culture and its scientific community, and my gratitude goes also
to the other members of the staff. I also want to thank the other doctoral
students who have attended the seminars and reading circles. Those meetings
were very important as scientific and social events.
My gratitude goes also to the national Doctoral Program of Music, Theatre
and Dance for providing the main funding and thus enabling my doctoral
studies. I want to thank Professor Vesa Kurkela, who also worked as my
supervisor and led the great Popfraction. But a graduate school is nothing
without students! You know who you are: I thank you for your collegiality,
friendship, therapy and good times. This applies to many other fellow scholars
as well.
I am grateful for having had such competent preliminary examiners as
Tarja Rautiainen-Keskustalo and Heikki Uimonen, whose insightful and wise
comments helped me to improve the work. I also want to thank Antti-Ville
Kärjä, whose comments were helpful earlier at a crucial stage of my work and
Olli Heikkinen, my fellow fugitive, for support and great discussions.
Compliments are also addressed to the University of Jyväskylä and the Faculty
of Humanities for funding my doctoral studies in the late 1990s as well as in the
finalizing stage of the dissertation.
A special word of thanks goes to colleagues at the Department of Arts and
Culture Studies, especially to wonderful Taiku ladies and people involved in
the Nordic Arts and Culture Studies master's programme, Annika Waenerberg,
Katja Mäkinen and Teija Luukkanen-Hirvikoski, with whom I had a unique
chance to work in an international setting. The work inspired me in teaching,
pedagogy and research. I am also grateful for the group of tutors at the
Pedagogical Studies in Adult Education, in which I have had the pleasure to
work for many years. With the students and tutors of this education I have
learned about inquiring attitude, and working and thinking together - the
essential skills in life and research. Another important and empowering peer
group has been Naiskuoro harput, with whom I have shared the joy of drinking
coffee, laughing and singing. It is great but extremely challenging to be an artist
with you.
Finally I want to thank my family: my parents for supporting my
education and work, and my older sisters for making me listen to suomirock
before I even knew it existed. Last but not least I want to thank Jorgos and Alex
for understanding, patience, support and love. Music matters to all of us.
Let's rock'n'roll!

Jyväskylä, 30 March 2010

Terhi Skaniakos
CONTENTS

ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 9
1.1 The Saimaa-ilmiö rock documentary .......................................................... 9
1.2 Positionings ................................................................................................ 12
2 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................. 15
2.1 The emerging of Finnish rock .................................................................. 15
2.2 The practice of documenting on film ...................................................... 21
2.3 Documentaries of music ........................................................................... 23
2.4 Finnish rock films and the production of Saimaa-ilmiö ........................ 25
3 THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL BASIS OF THE STUDY ...... 31
3.1 Representation, discourse and genre ...................................................... 32
3.2 Identity positions as articulations ........................................................... 33
3.3 Theoretical-methodological framework: critical discourse analysis .. 36
3.3.1 Film as a multimodal text ................................................................ 38
3.3.2 Analysis of discourse practices ...................................................... 41
3.3.3 Analysis of sociocultural practices ................................................ 43
3.3.4 Order of discourse: ideology and hegemony ............................... 44
3.4 Research design and procedure ............................................................... 46
4 SAIMAA-ILMIÖ AS A ROCK DOCUMENTARY .......................................... 48
4.1 Structure and contents of Saimaa-ilmiö ................................................... 49
4.2 Rock documentarism as a genre of Saimaa-ilmiö ................................... 54
4.3 Sound techniques ....................................................................................... 58
4.3.1 Acousto sound and manipulated sound in Saimaa-ilmiö ............ 60
4.3.2 The use of studio recorded sounds. Diegetic or not? .................. 62
4.3.3 The role of silence ............................................................................. 65
4.4 Saimaa-ilmiö in relation to other rockumentaries .................................. 67
4.5 Summary ..................................................................................................... 74
5 ROCK CULTURE AS A GENRE ....................................................................... 76
5.1 Being on the road, touring in a boat ........................................................ 80
5.2 Authenticity and live performance ......................................................... 87
5.2.1 Stage act in the live performances of Saimaa-ilmiö ....................... 88
5.2.2 Venues, organization, audiences, stage design and costumes .. 93
5.3 Music ........................................................................................................... 98
5.3.1 Anglo-American blues tradition in “Pilvee” ................................ 99
5.3.2 Skiffle rock in “Syöksylaskijoita kaikki tyynni” ........................ 101
5.3.3 Rocking in “Jäähyväiset rock’n’rollille” ...................................... 105