Christian Halfpenny -Semiotic Analysis Essay

This essay aims to show, how various theories may be applied to popular music in
order to gain a greater understanding, of how meaning is signified to various
audiences, and in this case, applying these theories to David Bowie’s 1972 track:
‘Starman.’ The term ‘Semiotics’, in reference to music, was first used by the
American philosopher: Charles Sanders Peirce, it related to a system of understanding
signs and symbols, of which he gave three distinct types; Icons, signs bearing physical
resemblance to what they represent; Indices or indexical signs, which are connected
through causality or ‘spatio-temporal proximity’ and lastly, the ‘Symbol’ which Tagg
refers to as the conventional or arbitrary sign, connected only by convention to what it
represents. 1

Using Peirce’s work as a basis, Tagg expands on this and describes four types of sign.
The first is ‘anaphone’, - a portmanteau of analogy and phoneme - of which there are
three types, sonic, tactile and kinetic, that refer to musical representations of non-
musical sounds, touch, and movement respectively. However it is more often the case
that any particular ‘anaphone’ conforms to two or more of the above criteria, for
example, all sonic ‘anaphones’ are simultaneously kinetic, as all sounds have to move
through space in order to be heard.2

The next term that Tagg uses to describe signs is ‘Genre Synecdoche’. In the common
usage of the word synecdoche, it describes a figure of speech whereby a part implies
the whole. When applied to music, it refers to a small unit or theme that is common to
a separate genre. When the theme supports the genre of the piece, it may be referred
to as a ‘style indicator.’

1
Philip Tagg (1999) Introductory notes to the Semiotics of Music Liverpool p.4

2
Ibid p.26
The final type of sign is the ‘episodic marker’, which is a section in the work that
signifies a change to the musical narrative, a good example of this would be the drum
‘fill’ that precedes the first verse of ‘Starman’ at around 0:19 seconds.

With regards to the overall structure of a work, Middleton suggests that there are four
continua that must be considered. Firstly ‘Syntagmatic’ analysis - taken from the
linguistics term ‘Syntax’ meaning rules that define the structure of a sentence -
considers musical events in the order in which they appear, and their importance to
the sequence as a whole, for example, the verses and choruses in a song. Conversely,
‘Paradigmatic’ analysis, considers the intrinsic meaning of individual ‘links’ in the
syntagmatic chain, such as the rhythmic and melodic aspects of a particular phrase.
The third means of analysis that Middleton discusses is ‘Processual’, which describes
how the context of musical events may change throughout the course of the song, thus
altering their meaning. This is evident in the ‘bridge’ section of ‘Starman’, as initially
it is used to connect the chorus to the verse, but towards the end of the piece the
electric guitar riff is imitated by Bowie’s vocal line, which is then faded out and
functions as an outro. 3

The last of these four continua discussed is Generative analysis, another theory
influenced by Linguistics, which refers to Noam Chomsky’s work on
‘Transformational or ‘Generative’ grammar. Chomsky describes how a sentence is
based on, ‘deep structure’, the underlying meaning of the words which that supports
the sentence, and the ‘surface structure’, which is the form of the sentence itself. 4
According to this theory, meaning is dependent upon the reader’s sub-conscious
ability to understand a given language, which may be applied to music in a similar
fashion. Middleton further develops this point by listing sub-categories of how music
conveys meaning. He begins with ‘General cognitive processes’, basic ideas that are
easily understood by most audiences, and then explains how other signifiers might
only be de-coded by members of a certain culture, or those with knowledge of the
3
Richard Middleton (1990) Studying Popular Music Milton Keynes: Open University
Press p.214-220

4
Noam Chomsky (1957) Syntactic Structures Paris: Mouton Publishers p.92-105
specific genre. The use of musical ideas typical of a certain genre, such as an
electronic drum roll - which signifies a change of section or ‘Drop’ in EDM music –
is what he referred to as ‘Style-specific syntax.’ There is also a fourth category given
which he describes as intra-opus patterns, literally translated as ‘within work’, which
describes concepts that are only significant as part of a greater body of work.
Although he goes on to state how these distinctions can sometimes be difficult to
define, they are nonetheless vital analytical tools for understanding the effect of music
on listener communities.

The most important criteria for the analysis of vocal music consists of aspects of,
rhythm, melody, and what Roland Barthes describes as ‘The grain of the voice.’ In an
essay of the same title, Barthes discusses how songs may be described as ‘genosongs’
or ‘phenosongs’ which is extrapolation of a theory previously presented by Julia
Kristeva, whose definitions of genotext and phenotext will prove pertinent. She states:

‘the genotext can thus be seen as language’s underlying foundation. We shall use the
5
term phenotext to denote language that serves to communicate.’ These distinctions
apply to Barthes application of the terms when referring to vocal music which
correspond to ‘the diction of the language’, and ‘everything which is in the service of
communication, representation, expression’ respectively. 6

This is another link to linguistic theories, and shows how music signifies meaning in a
similar way to language, yet unlike language it ‘is a system of multiple and varied
articulations’ 7 which suggests that the meaning of any particular musical element is
dependent on its context. Middleton evidences this point with the example of an
octave leap, in certain songs this may be used purely as a phonemic device, or it may
have semantic significance. During this song it contains semantic significance and
may be heard at the beginning of the chorus (0:56-0:57) where it is set to the word
‘starman.’ This implies ascent and may be described as a kinetic anaphone, as this

5
Julia Kristeva (1997) The Kristeva Reader Columbia: University Press p.121
6
Roland Barthes The Grain of the Voice in Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin [eds]
(1990) On Record: Rock, Pop and The Written Word London: Routledge p.295
7
Richard Middleton (1990) Studying Popular Music Milton Keynes: Open University
Press p.218
octave leap pattern is commonly associated with movement, other examples of which
may be found in the setting of ‘somewhere’ in ‘somewhere over the rainbow.’ 8

The aforementioned methods should not be considered solely in isolation, instead they
should be viewed as complementary components of a greater analytical method.
Consequently the following analysis will focus primarily on a brief section of the
track, between 0:51 and 1:00 seconds, and will rely on various methods of semiotic
analysis.

The track ‘Starman’ was released in 1972 on the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy
Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and may be seen as exemplifying the post-
modern idea of Bricolage. In this context Bowie use lots of what Tagg may describe
as ‘inter-subjective comparison material’, sourced primarily from T-Rex. The final
sections of both ‘Starman’ and ‘Hot Love’ by T-Rex share a striking similarity - both
finishing with ‘la la la’ choruses. Further evidence to support this idea comes from the
fact that Bowie recorded this song within a month of T-Rex releasing ‘Hot Love’, and
there are clearly other references to T-Rex within the work such as the line ‘some cat
was laying down some - get it on - rock and roll he said’ during his 1972 live
performance on ‘Top of the pops’. This is a reference to T-Rex’s 1971 hit, ‘Get it on’
and further supports the idea of interpolation.

The structure of this song may also be considered using Middleton’s continua; Firstly,
the individual sections work together to form a coherent whole, which contains
certain style specific syntaxes such as the panned keyboard section between the verse
and chorus. This may be also be described as a kinetic anaphone, as panning often
portrays movement, but also as an episodic marker signifying the start of the chorus.
(0:51s) This sound, according to the producer of the album Ken Scott, was achieved
my mixing a piano and a guitar through a ‘Countryman’ phaser9. This may be seen as
‘Inter-subjective comparative material’ owing to its similarity to the introduction of
‘You Keep me Hangin’ on’ by ‘The Supremes.’
8
Dylan Jones (2012) When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie, the Man Who
Changed the World London: Random House p.70

9
Ibid p.71i
 The work is also ‘processual’ and musical ideas are built upon during the course of
the song, one example of this may be the electric guitar riff which connects the chorus
to the verse, Jones describes this as ‘a perfect example of how to build a strong,
memorable melodic line over a simple IV-I-V-I progression [F-Major]’. When this
melodic line is later imitated by Bowie’s vocal it serves as an outro, thus by changing
the context of the theme, the meaning of a similar musical idea may be altered.
Moreover, as this piece may be viewed as a syntagmatic chain, then each musical
idea, or link, may be understood paradigmatically, such as the drum roll at the
introduction to the verse at 0:19 seconds, which serves as both; an episodic marker,
denoting the start of the verse, and a style indicator of ‘Glam Rock’ music.

In addition, Bowie applies the idea of interpolation to his lyrics and uses
Americanisms such as ‘Hey, that’s far out’ and ‘Don’t Tell your Poppa’ which creates
dissonance with the distinctly English voice that is singing the words. In an article for
‘The New Yorker’ Ben Greenman states:
From the beginning Bowie showed an interest in exploring the fragmentation of
identity and meaning. His career depended heavily on performance, which allowed
him to actively deploy various signifiers inside and alongside his music-signifiers of
gender, sexual orientation, even of humanity itself.10

Furthermore, it may be argued that by intentionally ‘fragmenting’ the audience’s

perceptions of identity –through various means including his ever-changing personas:
‘Ziggy Stardust’ and later ‘The Thin White Duke’- Bowie could then re-combine
these ‘fragments’ to greater effect, allowing him to create his own coded signifiers,
which Middleton describes as intra-opus patterns. An example of this is the
programmatic nature of the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the
Spiders from Mars, in which Bowie describes a dystopian future that is visited by
‘aliens.’ Bowies elaborates on this subtext in an interview with William S. Burroughs
for Rolling Stone:
‘Ziggy is advised in a dream by the Infinites to write the coming of a Starman, so he
writes 'Starman'... The starmen that he is talking about are called the infinites, and
10
Ben Greenham ‘The Beautiful Meaninglessness of David Bowie’ The New Yorker 9
January 2016 http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-beautiful-
meaninglessness-of-david-bowie (Date Accessed 06/04/2017)
they are black-hole jumpers. Ziggy has been talking about this amazing spaceman
who will be coming down to save the earth.’ 11 This supports the idea that Bowie may
be seen to extend the syntagmatic chain beyond the confines of the individual tracks
and signifies meaning based on intra-opus patterns.

Jones states: ‘It can be taken at the immediate level … but the theme of it is that the
idea of things in the sky is really quite human and real and we should be a bit happier
12
about the prospect of meeting people’ This is a good example of one of many
possible readings of this text, and shows how the lyrics may function as both a
phenotext and a genotext. Within this track there is the actual message that Bowie is
trying to communicate, which he conveys through culturally determined applications
of general cognitive processes and style specific syntaxes, but there are also various
signifiers that are intrinsic to Bowie’s voice, which may generate different emotional
responses dependent upon the individual.
Another example of how this song has multiple interpretations would be the chorus,
Jones states that: ‘when Bowies sings “There’s a Starman waiting in the sky, he’d like
to come and meet us but he thinks he’ll blow our minds” he is talking about
himself.’13Although arguably more importantly, he continues to say that it shows
‘how pop music can create secret societies, break up the tedium of your life, liberate
you from your parents.’ 14Which again implies that Bowie’s music forms communities
within which meanings may be interpreted in a different fashion.

Continuing with Barthesian analysis, this track may be viewed as both a phenosong
and a genosong. Bowie was a naturally gifted performer and the ease with which he
articulates each phrase with a ‘coded form of melisma’ confirms the categorisation of
the song as a phenosong ‘which covers all the phenomena…the rules of the genre…

11
Burroughs William S. (2001) Burroughs Live: The collection interviews of William
S. Burroughs 1960-1997 Los Angeles: Semiotext p.231

12
Dylan Jones (2012) When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie, the Man Who
Changed the World London: Random House p.71

13
Ibid p.70
14
Ibid p.71
 15
the style of the interpretation’ On the other hand, it may also be classified as a
genosong. Barthes defines this term as ‘the volume of the singing and speaking voice,
the space where significations germinate “from within language and its very
materiality”; it forms a signifying play …’ 16
This is evident in Bowies’ prosodic delivery of the verse, and the range of timbres
employed, although when Barthes later discusses the ‘grain’ of the voice, he makes it
clear that this term does not simply relate to the timbre of a given singers voice,
instead he uses it to denote ‘the body in the voice as it sings, the hand as it writes and
17
the limb as it performs.’ In this sense, Bowie’s unique delivery of musical ideas,
and tone of voice –amongst other factors- supports ‘Starman’ as a genosong.

As Barthes once analogised genosong and phenosong to a ‘body’ and ‘soul’

dichotomy respectively, Bowie’s work may again be seen to be challenging the
audience’s preconceptions of meaning, by combining both elements within this
work.18 This non-binary approach was arguably an important part of his identity, and
may be seen in his portrayal of Ziggy Stardust, where his gender, sexual orientation,
even his species (Human or Extra-Terrestrial) may be seen as non-binary or
ambiguous.

The final methods of analysis that may be applied are Philip Tagg’s semiotic terms,
which will enable description of paradigmatic moments within this excerpt. There are
three Kinetic anaphones during the first few seconds of this clip (0:51 -1:00), ‘The
Supremes’ inspired bridge, the octave leap set to ‘Starman’- both previously discussed
in earlier paragraphs- and the ascending scale played by the bass, which clearly
signifies movement. One could also describe the vocal octave leap that ‘starman’ is
set to, as a genre synechdoche. With regards to pitch content, it is identical to the
‘somewhere’ from ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ and may therefore be a reference to
musical theatre soundtrack. This is evidenced by the fact that Bowie conceived this
album as a ‘musical’ regarding the eponymous character ‘Ziggy Stardust.’ Bowie also

15
Roland Barthes The Grain of the Voice in Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin [eds]
(1990) On Record: Rock, Pop and The Written Word London: Routledge p.295
16
Ibid
17
Ibid p.299
18
Ibid p. 297
made further reference to this during his rainbow theatre shows in August of 1972,
when he sang ‘There’s a Starman over the rainbow …’

Interestingly there is an acoustic guitar playing throughout the song, whilst this is
usually simply a style indicator, in this case Bowie uses it as a reference to his
previous 1969 hit ‘Space Oddity”. In doing so, he creates a continuum between the
two songs and space, using the acoustic guitar as what Middleton would describe as
19
intra-opus patterns. This may also be seen, in Tagg’s terminology, as ‘Inter-
20
objective Comparison Material’ as whilst it is not identical to the introduction of
‘Space Oddity’, it certainly shares some musical characteristics, which connote
‘Space’, and further support Bowie’s narrative with the piece.
Additionally, there is a string section that is heard during this the chorus which
provides another intra-opus pattern that links to Bowie’s previous track ‘Space
Oddity’ which also features strings during its chorus. This section of the previous
track ‘Space Oddity’ also provides IOCM that reinforces the subconscious link
between ‘Starman’ and space. It might also be argued that the chain of connotation
goes further back to western classical music such as Gustav Holst’s The Planet Suite.

In conclusion, it may be observed that purely phonemic analysis of notes and chords,
that may prove pertinent to understanding certain classical forms, simply does not
give a complete understanding of the subtext and implied meaning generated by both
performer and audience. In the case of Bowie, he approaches song writing in an
almost post-modern way, providing layers of meaning and chains of connotation that
allow for pluralistic interpretations of meaning and identity, thus allowing audiences
to play an active role by interpreting the music signifiers that resonate differently with
each individual. As a result of this meaning is often difficult to denote, therefore a
wide range of theoretical frameworks must be applied in order to understand: ‘Why
and how is who communicating what to whom and with what effect?’ 21

19
Richard Middleton (1990) Studying Popular Music Milton Keynes: Open
University Press p.214
20
Philip Tagg (1999) Introductory notes to the Semiotics of Music Liverpool p.35-37
21
Philip Tagg (1999) Introductory notes to the Semiotics of Music Liverpool p.1
 Bibliography

Burroughs William S. (2001) Burroughs Live: The collection interviews of William S.

Burroughs 1960-1997 Los Angeles: Semiotext

Chomsky Noam (1957) Syntactic Structures Paris: Mouton Publishers

Barthes Roland The Grain of the Voice in Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin [eds]
(1990) On Record: Rock, Pop and The Written Word London: Routledge 293-300

Hall Stuart and Paul du Gay eds (1996) Questions of Cultural Identity London: Sage
Publications

Jones Dylan (2012) When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie, the Man Who Changed
the World London: Random House

Kristeva Julia (1997) The Kristeva Reader Columbia: University Press

Middleton Richard (1990) Studying Popular Music Milton Keynes: Open University
Press

Pegg Nicholas (2016) The Complete David Bowie: New Edition: Expanded and
Updated London: Titan Books

Shuker Roy (1998) Key Concepts in Popular Music London: Routledge

Tagg Philip (1999) Introductory notes to the Semiotics of Music Liverpool

The Subcultures Network eds (2014) Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change
Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
 Websites Used

Greenham Ben ‘The Beautiful Meaninglessness of David Bowie’ The New Yorker 9
January 2016 http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-beautiful-
meaninglessness-of-david-bowie (Date Accessed 06/04/2017)