Singing “Sorry”: Apologising

Through Music
https://musicatcambridge.wordpress.com/

2016, Ariana Philips, Faculty of Music

Musical apologies are big hits: Justin Bieber’s song “Sorry” currently has more
than 1.7 million views on YouTube, making the Canadian singer’s music video the
fifth most-watched video on the service. Over a tropical house/Puerto Rican
beat the singer repeats a series of pleas to an absent lover, proclaiming his need
for “one more shot at forgiveness” and asking “is it too late now to say sorry?”
Bieber’s smash hit is not unique in its sentiment: musical apologies are popular
music staples, from Elton John and Nirvana to Chicago and John Lennon—but
what role does music have in expressing remorse? This summer a group of year
12 students from state-supported institutions came together to participate in a
week-long introduction to studying music at Cambridge. The week was part of a
summer school run by the Sutton Trust, an educational charity dedicated to
expanding access to education. Amongst lectures on musicology, performance
masterclasses, and student presentations, the students gathered for a
workshop discussing what it means to apologise through music, asking questions
such as: Is it possible to apologise through music? What makes something an
apology song? How do listeners evaluate an apology?

The workshop grew out of my research into how contemporary music

performance enacts narratives of guilt, forgiveness, and reconciliation. In my
PhD dissertation, I examine this through distinct genres of contemporary music
ranging from indie singer-songwriters through choral music to cantatas. I argue
that music which engages with these fundamental components of human
experience influences how people perceive of themselves in relationship to
others. This workshop focused on one strand of this research, moving outward
from the simple question of why we sing ‘sorry’ to explore the meaning of
musical apologies more generally. In addition to providing an opportunity for the
participants to consider the narratives that shape our experience of musical
apologies, this workshop offered me the chance to gather valuable evidence of
audience beliefs about how it looks and sounds to apologise through music—
evidence that will continue to enrich my research.

The workshop began with a brief survey to evaluate students’ current thoughts
about the nature of musical apologies. They were asked to think of a few
examples of sorry songs and make some initial notes as to what made these good
examples. In addition to Bieber, popular choices included Elton John’s “Sorry
Seems to Be the Hardest Word”, “Apologize” by One Republic, and “When I Was
Your Man” by Bruno Mars. There was widespread agreement that setting
apologies to music allows for a deeper, more fluid expression of emotions than
do spoken words. However, one student noted that musical apologies made the
singer seem desperate rather than sincere. The discussion following the survey
went through some of the major issues involved in thinking about musical
apologies, from the underlying assumptions about sincerity and emotive
communication that structure our interpretations to the instrumental and vocal
sounds we associate with apologising. In addition, the free-flowing debate took
in questions of genre, performance practice, the presence of sung text, and the
tension between individual communication and commercialisation in pop music.

Armed with this information, we tested our expectations on an unfamiliar

piece: “Sorry Sorry” by the Korean pop group Super Junior. Super Junior’s work
is rhythmically infectious dance-pop and the accompanying music video features
energetic dance sequences interspersed with soulful close-ups of the multiple
solo singers. The discussion of this piece sought first to reveal and then to
question assumptions about apology songs in terms of genre, instrumentation,
singing timbre, and the music video’s visual style. Multiple students compared
the K-pop aesthetic unfavourably with other genres—particularly that of the
singer-songwriter accompanied by solo instrument—but they acknowledged that
ingrained cultural preferences influence their perception of what qualifies as
sincere communication.

Participants were able to put these arguments into practice during the final
segment of the workshop as the students learned a choral arrangement of Kerry
Fletcher’s “Sorry Song”. “Sorry Song” was written in 1997 as a way of
encouraging Australians to acknowledge and apologise for the historic
oppression of Australia’s Indigenous peoples, and in February 2008 the
Australian government issued an official apology (see Kevin Rudd’s speech and an
online news article for more information). “Sorry Song” was performed as part
of the initial celebrations surrounding the apology and it is now a regular part of
reconciliation celebrations in Australia.

In the workshop, the students embraced the challenge of learning the three-
part song from scratch and afterwards were able to give feedback on their
experience of performing. Even though the song’s political and cultural context
was unfamiliar to the students prior to the workshop, they expressed surprise
at the degree to which they experienced the performance as a genuine apology
in which they too could participate. Their responses suggest that the fusion of
the song’s narrative of apologising for past abuses with the performance’s
enactment of unity is an effective combination.

In addition to introducing the students to the subject of apologising through

music, the workshop encouraged them to think critically about the musical
narratives we construct. I was impressed by their enthusiasm and by the range
of issues to which they were sensitive in their interpretations of music. The
survey taken at the end of the workshop revealed not only that they found the
subject both interesting and relevant, but also that thinking through the nature
of apologising through music led them to a deeper understanding of musical
hermeneutics that they will take with them into other areas of study. This
workshop demonstrates that audiences make sophisticated judgements about
multiple layers of emotive communication in music. It also suggests that even
though what individuals evaluate as a sincere apology varies, singing sorry
through music seems nearly as ubiquitous as the need to apologise itself.

I’d like to thank the Cambridge Commonwealth, European, and International

Trust for their support of my research.

Ariana Philips is a PhD Student in the Faculty of Music under the supervision of
Professor Nicholas Cook. Prior to coming to Cambridge, Ariana studied at Baylor
University (Texas, USA) receiving a BM (Hons) in Piano Pedagogy and
Performance and a double MM in Piano Performance, Music History and
Literature. She studied piano with Professor Jane Abbott-Kirk and musicology
with Professors Jean Boyd, Robin Wallace, and Laurel Zeiss. Since her
graduation in 2012 she has been a contributing editor for several books,
including Take Note: An Introduction to Music through Active
th
Listening (Oxford University Press, 2014), the 9 edition of A History of
Western Music, and the 5th edition of A Concise History of Western
Music (both for W.W. Norton & Co., 2014).