{"id":9853,"date":"2017-09-25T14:14:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-25T12:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musikverket.se\/svensktvisarkiv\/musik-pa-kaken\/typer-av-kakvisor\/"},"modified":"2021-05-27T15:03:36","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T13:03:36","slug":"typer-av-kakvisor","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/musikverket-old.test.consids5.se\/svensktvisarkiv\/musik-pa-kaken\/typer-av-kakvisor\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Repertoire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Analysis of the Songs<\/h1>\n

A brief look at the songs in Svenskt visarkiv\u2019s collection shows that they can be divided into an older and a newer repertoire.<\/p>\n

To put it simply, in the older repertoire it is often the prisoner as an individual who speaks. The prisoner is the \u201cI\u201d of the song, speaking in the first person singular via the song\u2019s text and expressing suffering, longing and regret. This individual manner of expression is present to a high degree in the older songs \u2014 the designation \u201colder\u201d refers, in this case, to those songs originating from before the end of the 1950s. This individual form of address is found, however, also in prison songs from the 1970s and this implies that a purely chronological division is unreliable. In the latter-day repertoire, which emerged in the 1960s, there is often (though with many exceptions) a political message and criticism of society. To generalise slightly, one might say that the text and the song speak for the collective \u201cprisoners\u201d. Yes \u2014 many of the songs are written by an \u201cI\u201d, but the message often portrays a situation that applies to prison environments in general. This part of the repertoire fits well into the ethnologist Alf Arvidsson\u2019s song text category \u201cthe misfit\u201d, a person who deliberately takes up an outsider position to use it to criticise society. A palpable example of this is Lennart \u201cKonvaljen\u201d Johanssons \u201cTack f\u00f6r v\u00e5rden\u201d [Thanks for the care]:<\/p>\n

Thanks! Thanks for care and rest,<\/p>\n

Correctional treatment authority.<\/p>\n

Thanks for teaching us to shoot<\/p>\n

And contributing to our brokenness.<\/p>\n

Thanks for empty days.<\/p>\n

While we atone for our crimes.<\/p>\n

Thanks for all the isolation cells.<\/p>\n

Isolation cells where we build our castles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Konvaljen speaks for the collective of prisoners when he ironically thanks the correctional treatment authority for the care given \u2014 and accuses it of breaking prisoners rather than healing them. An interesting observation is, in addition, that the language in the newer repertoire contains more examples of prison lingo. One might expect the opposite: that addressing the general public beyond the prison walls would involve an adjustment of the language, leaving out prison lingo that would be difficult for outsiders to understand, but this is not the case. This can be interpreted, too, as an expression of a stronger feeling of \u201cus\u201d. One speaks via the language for the collective, and the language creates identification and authenticity. An example of this is another song by Konvaljen:<\/p>\n

\u201cTji kvarten f\u00f6r natten\u201d [Nix pad for the night].<\/p>\n

Now I take my eight P to whip up the rapids,<\/p>\n

And if I\u2019m in luck I\u2019ll coax up a cod.<\/p>\n

I sit here on the steps of our Stockholm\u2019s Place Pigalle.<\/p>\n

But I have nix pad for the night.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In \u201cTji kvarten f\u00f6r natten\u201d, a newly-released jailbird tells of how he sits on the steps of Stockholm\u2019s Concert Hall with nowhere to go and nowhere to sleep. He has drugs (eight P = preludine) to console himself with and hopes he can rob a passer-by. In the final verse of the song, the police arrest him, which he sees as something positive \u2014 a chance of shelter for the night. The text has several words typical of prison lingo \u2014 \u201ctorsk\u201d [literally, \u201ccod\u201d \u2014 but also someone who loses on a deal or in a match, or a prostitute\u2019s customer] \u201ckvart\u201d [pad] and \u201ctji\u201d [nix] \u2014 and through these, the singer signals his outsiderness in relation to society and his insiderness in relation to the group \u201cjailbirds\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Dan Lundberg\u2019s book Singing through the Bars. Prison Songs as Identity Markers and as Cultural Heritage <\/em><\/a>he divides the genre into two sub-groups mostly based on the positioning and intention of the song\u2019s sender. He chooses to use descriptive titles for the categories: \u201cthe Voice of the Individual\u201d and \u201cthe Voice of the Collective\u201d. The first group is based on the older kind of repertoire in which the prisoner speaks in the song as an individual. There are many examples of songs in this category even among the newer songs, and it is, therefore, reasonable to refer to this as an \u201colder song or repertoire category\u201d rather than an older repertoire. The same applies to the Voice of the Collective. Typical of this category of songs is that they speak for prisoners as a collective and most of the songs that belong here are written from the middle of the 1960s onwards. But there are \u2014 as in the first category \u2014 plenty of exceptions to this.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\"Puff<\/div>\t\t\t

The Voice of the Individual<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div><\/div>
\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\"Puff<\/div>\t\t\t

The Voice of the Collective<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>

Till presentationens startsida<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Analysis of the Songs A brief look at the songs in Svenskt visarkiv\u2019s collection shows that they can be divided into an older and a newer repertoire. To put it simply, in the older repertoire it is often the prisoner as an individual who speaks. The prisoner is the \u201cI\u201d of the song, speaking in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"parent":8824,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[303],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n