Memories of place. Hip Hop in Norway and the performance of nostalgia
This paper investigates how hip-hop in Norway contributes to the cultural memory of local communities in Oslo. We will be studying how nostalgia and remembering in hip hop establishes and strengthen historical counter-narratives and alternative histories of specific places, counter to the official and established stories, narratives, and understandings of parts of the city inhabited by many immigrants, foreign workers, and socially marginalized groups. Official narratives often focus on negative aspects of these areas, low income, high crime rate, social difficulties, and violence. But rappers tell different stories. In this way, local hip hop is “talking back” to society, claiming their own histories and meanings connected to place and urban space.
Theoretically we will be using perspectives on nostalgia, space and place, and historiography. Empirically the paper will rely on analysis of both sonic elements in recorded music and their intertextual being. In Norway, we have in recent years had an increasingly focus on retrospect, remembering, and nostalgia in Hip Hop, as seen in several arrangements, releases, and performances. The works of music then is analyzed in their intertextual connectedness to other representations, debates, performances, and existence in the social and cultural contexts they circulate.
The empirical data will include analysis of contemporary fieldwork conducted in 2024, observing jubilee arrangements and concerts celebrating album anniversaries, photo exhibitions, new compilation releases, and theatre plays made and performed by rappers. With this multimedial perspective, we understand hip hop and rap music as political active in a broader social and cultural landscape, connecting to memories of space, place, and the local.
Keywords: hip hop, remembering, place, nostalgia
Biography
Paal Fagerheim is a professor in musicology working in the field of popular music studies, ethnomusicology and music anthropology. He has done research on rap and reggae music in northern Norway, indigenous music making among the Sámi, and studied relations between music, geographies and small places in different circumpolar locations. He is engaged with the NORHOP project focusing on contemporary politics in Norwegian hip hop, and the EU-project BELEM which studies language and lyrics translation in European popular music. He is an active musician performing with several reggae, dub and ska-bands in Norway, and also work in music publishing.
Nord University, Norway – paal.fagerheim@nord.no