Sonic Sorrow: Radio Broadcasts and the Creation of the Soundtrack of Memory

Oren Meyers, Eyal Zandberg, Motti Neiger

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

The frequent airing of solemn songs is one of the primary characteristics of Holocaust Remembrance Day and it has become one of the most identified rituals of the day.1 Hence, this chapter explores the concept of sonic memory via the investigation of popular music that constitutes the radio playlists. Holocaust Remembrance Day radio playlists can be understood as a materialized expression of the complex interrelations between memory, ideology and media practices, between national rituals and (sacred) mnemonic artefacts and objects and between cultural production and ‘mood management’. The critical analysis of Holocaust Remembrance Day radio broadcasts — both on public nationwide and commercial local stations — links all of these domains, as it considers the central role of popular radio in the process of collective recollecting, focusing on the question of what makes certain songs aired on the radio so identified with the national mourning ritual and what are the ways by which such songs gain the authority to represent and shape social memories.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPalgrave Macmillan Memory Studies
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages57-96
Number of pages40
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014

Publication series

NamePalgrave Macmillan Memory Studies
ISSN (Print)2634-6257
ISSN (Electronic)2634-6265

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, Oren Meyers, Eyal Zandberg and Motti Neiger.

Keywords

  • Collective Memory
  • Cultural Object
  • National Memory
  • Radio Broadcast
  • Radio Station

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Linguistics and Language

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