Rewriting the Soundscape: Towards a New Understanding of Sami Popular Music and Identity in the New Millennium

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to illuminate the shifting focus of Sámi musicians and audiences in expressing identity through an analysis of Sámi history and original fieldwork on current Sámi popular music. In the new millennium musicians increasingly explore musics of many cultures, and identify the Sámi vocal tradition of joik as just one aspect of their broad musical influences. This does not connote an abandonment of traditional Sámi music, however, nor does it signal a lack of interest in asserting a distinctively Sámi identity. Instead, it reflects a desire of musicians and audiences to explore, through music, the globalized, multicultural worlds in which they live and the increasing interest in self-determination and in the expression of a more internalized, personal sense of identity. The study is based on published literature, interviews with experts in music, cultural studies, and radio programming, and attendance of popular music performance.