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JEPC 6 (1) pp.

49–67 Intellect Limited 2015

Journal of European Popular Culture


Volume 6 Number 1
© 2015 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/jepc.6.1.49_1

Henrik Marstal
Rhythmic Music Conservatory

Canonic formations and


non-canonic positionings:
The case of post-millennium
Danish popular music

Abstract Keywords
This article investigates ways in which canonic discourses form part of the everyday canonization
popular music culture among both audiences and music critics in the early twenty- decanonization
first century. By analysing reviews in which artists and albums of the so-called twenty-first-century
New Danish Wave are juxtaposed with Danish canonic artists and albums from popular music
the 1960s to the 1980s, it is argued that canonic discourse forms an important, yet Danishness
unreflected or even unnoticed vehicle for the reception of the music in question. Even rock
though a canonical fragmentation during the turn of the millennium may be identi- music criticism
fied on a global scale, the incident shows how national agendas and positions are
able to go against this trend in a small-scale nation like Denmark.

Introduction
This article offers an insight into the concept of the musical canon in 1. The article was
written as part of
early twenty-first century popular music thought.1 The insight is given a research project
with respect to a certain case study: the media reception of the so-called on Danish popular
new Danish wave during the period 2003–2007. The music in question is music in the early
twenty-first century,

49
Henrik Marstal

conducted by the performed in Danish and thus intended exclusively for a domestic main-
author at the Rhythmic
Music Conservatory in
stream audience.
Copenhagen in 2012 In order to provide the case study with a solid theoretical and historical
and 2013. The project background, the first part of the article is dedicated to a genealogic account on
was funded by the
Ministry of Cultural the concept of the Western musical canon in a popular musical context. The
Affairs in Denmark. latter part focuses on the case study that can be seen as only one of innumera-
2. A similar claim is put ble ways of applying canonical discourses to a restricted continental European
forward by Harold domestic repertoire of popular music not necessarily known or consumed
Bloom in his no less outside its own area.
famous The Western
Canon from 1994.
3. The list includes studies Canonical tendencies in twenty-first century
like Hallberg (1984), popular music
Bergeron and Bohlman
(1992), Weber (1992) and Ever since Joseph Kerman asked the question regarding on which authority
Goehr (1992) as well as musical canons were determined – which he did in an article from 1983 (1983:
more recently studies,
for instance, Bohlman 124) – it has been generally assumed that a canon is never simply a ‘given’,
(2008) and most of the but rather a visible and identifiable construction (Shreffler 2013: 608–09) or the
essays in Pietschmann
and Wald-Fuhrmann
result of what historian Hayden White labels as ‘a verbal structure in the form
(2013), including of a narrative prose discourse’ (1973: 2). Thus, I assume that canonic forma-
Shreffler (2013). tions cannot be legitimized on the authority of tradition, as Carl Dahlhaus
famously stated in his Grundlagen der Musikgeschichte from 1977 (Shreffler
2013: 609).2 Therefore, in the early twenty-first century, Kerman’s question is
still useful for the study of canonical discourses inscribed in everyday practices
of music consumerism.
In these everyday practices, one can so easily forget that even though the
very concept of the musical canon is unquestionably part of the overall cultural
consensus (Shreffler 2013: 607), it never emerges so to speak out of ‘natural’
selection principles. Besides, musical canons never appear in closed circuits
independent of time and space, because they are always ideological constructs
designed to ‘reinforce and perpetuate a hierarchy dominated by white men’
(Shreffler 2013: 608; author’s translation). As a result, canons never emerge in
any ‘survival of the fittest’ manner, since they are completely dependent of the
Zeitgeist as well as hegemonic ideological matters, just as is the case for every
album release that reaches mainstream audiences.
Aural media as well as newspapers, magazines and blogs usually display
a vast collection of music being played, reviewed, mentioned and referred to
as part of the media-driven reception history put forward by agents of music
criticism and cultural journalism. In other words, the media encourages its
users to consume music in its widest possible range and variety, while on
the other hand make canonic formations appear and thus dominate the ways
in which terms like ‘timelessness’ and ‘quality’ are being used in retrospec-
tive articles related to matters of reception history. This contradiction in terms
seem to be part of the canonic process itself, not leaving much room for cases
in which collective memory decides what to remember and what not, what to
share and what not, what to pass on and what not, what to idealize and what
not.
Until recently, musicologists have been predominantly concerned with
the concept of the canon insofar as it had to do with classical music rather
than popular music or traditional music.3 Given the dominance of canonic
discourses in classical and/or liturgical music ever since the Middle Ages,
scholars within the popular music field became first concerned with the canon
understood as a meta-narrative in the postmodern era during the 1980s

50
Canonic formations and non-canonic positionings

and 1990s. According to Klaus Pietschmann and Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann, 4. For an exhaustive list
of articles and books
it was during this period that a thorough critique of the mere existence of dedicated to the study
the musical canon became an issue among scholars due to ‘differenzierte of musical canons
Phänomenologie’ and ‘konsequente Historisierung’ (Pietschmann and Wald- within the classical
music, popular music
Fuhrmann 2013a: 13). These tendencies have since produced several more and to a lesser extent
critiques of and reflections on the concept of the musical canon, including traditional music areas,
Pietschmann and Wald-Fuhrmann’s thick-as-a-brick-handbook Der Kanon see the list ‘II. See
‘Literatur zur Musik’
der Musik (2013b). in Pietschmann and
Important contributions to the study as well as to the critique of canonic Wald-Fuhrmann (2013:
895–902).
discourses have arisen within popular music studies during the first decade
of the twenty-first century. While canonic debates in earlier times have been
largely non-existent, possibly due to the decentralizing tendencies of the field
(Shreffler 2013: 621) – resulting in so-called decanonizations (Shreffler 2013)
or even non-canonizations – canonic discourses have finally become an issue
as a meta-narrative of the field. A few studies dedicated to the canonic studies
of popular music have recently emerged, including the bulk of articles in the
Popular Music issue from 2006 on the musical canon (among these Appen and
Doehring 2006; Kärjä 2006; Regev 2006; Watson and Anand 2006), an article
by Anne Danielsen (2006), Carys Wyn Jones’ seminal and thoroughly worked
out study The Rock Canon (C. Wyn Jones, 2008) as well as two articles in Der
Kanon der Musik (R. Michaelsen, 2013; S. Obert, 2013). These studies have
undoubtedly contributed to and been catalysts for a new self-awareness of
popular music studies where aspects of reception history are of crucial impor-
tance for the area.4

Canonic processes at work


Aleida Assmann presents a useful definition of the canon in an essay about
cultural memory: ‘The canon stands for the active working memory of a soci-
ety that defines and supports the cultural identity of a group. It is highly selec-
tive and built on the principle of exclusion’ (Assmann 2011: 337). Anne C.
Shreffler is in accordance with this definition when she suggests that we think
of the canon in the sense of a collection of highly valued works or practices
that are being shared by a considerable number of listeners in a significant
period of time (Shreffler 2013: 615–16).
In his Study of the Folk Music in the Modern World Philip Bohlman reflects
on the concept of the western canon by stating: ‘The processes of canon-
formation result from a community’s transformation of cultural values into
aesthetic expression’ (1988: 106). If this is true, it should be noted that these
expressions relate themselves to the consumption by listeners as well as critics.
By hinting to Paul Ricoeur, he continues by stating that ‘[T]he general path of
these processes is from social context to aesthetic text; the [… ] repertory thus
becomes genre for the ‘inscription’ of cultural meaning […]’ (Shreffler 2013).
Similarly, Carys Wyn Jones – author of the hitherto single published full
study on canonical aspects in rock music – claims that

[p]ut simply, a canon is the collection of works and artists that are widely
accepted as the greatest in their field. […] However, such a reductive
account of history and culture masks a complex and contradictory set of
values and mechanisms that have been passed down over the years in
the form of the canon.
(Wyn Jones 2008: 5)

51
Henrik Marstal

5. See, for instance, This observation is in accordance with the point of view offered by Motti
NME 23 June 2012,
where the front cover
Regev: ‘Once established, canons exert cultural power by influencing memory
story goes like this: and heritage and by radiating out on to the work of musicians. That is, canons
‘100 Greatest Songs influence the narration of the past, and they inspire the radius of creativity for
of NME’s Lifetime …
so far’. The nineteen- the future’ (Regev 2006: 2).
page long story is I will add that canons are always vehicles for cultural memory. The bulk
neither concerned of songs and albums, which everyone seem to know about or are supposed to
with notions of canons
or cultural memory know about in order to take part in a certain community, form the essential
(see also Appen and part of this cultural memory, i.e. for listeners belonging to the very demo-
Doehring 2006; Watson
and Anand 2006).
graphic and social groupings that the music in question appeal to. These are
the communities in which popular music consumption is constantly created
6. This view, presented
in an article in the
by seemingly endless rows of songs floating out from the speakers of restau-
Popular Music issue rants, cafés and taxis, operated via radio programmes or pre-programmed
from 2006 on aspects playlists or played and streamed by individuals at their own will and interest.
of canonization,
is supported by The relationship between cultural memory and canons is indeed complex and
Motti Regev in the a subject for a completely different chapter than this. Suffice to say that canons
introduction to the always form substantial parts of cultural memory; otherwise they would not
issue (Regev 2006: 1).
be canons at all.
The notion that the concept of the canon operates by the use of collective
memory might be one reason for the seemingly low awareness of the canonic
principle among writers and journalists of Western popular music outside
academia, which happens to be the case. In an article on the subject, Antti-
Ville Kärjä thus claimed that discussions related to canonization processes in
popular music was ‘virtually non-existent’ (2006: 4).
It is noteworthy that even profiled studies like Chris Smith’s 101 Albums
That Changed Popular Music (C. Smith, 2009) are not at all concerned with the
concept of the canon, as if the concept did not exist at all. This is the case even
though the writer explicitly, but tacitly contributes to and reconfirms canoni-
cal values related to a long row of albums, which have influenced American
music within genres such as folk, pop, rock, soul, electronica, jazz, funk and
hip hop. The same can be said about music magazines like Rolling Stone or
NME, where lists of the 500 best albums of the decade or of all times, the
100 best songs or even the 100 best guitarists are not unusually flashed on
the front cover.5 Such lists seldom call for authors to consider a discourse of
the canon, even though Ralf von Appen and André Doehring might be right
in this consideration: ‘Among the diverse forms of canonizing pop and rock
music, compiling lists like “The 100 greatest albums of all time” is one of the
most prominent and influential’ (Appen and Doehring 2006: 21).6

The dynamic processes of the canon


In order to outline a framework for the dynamic processes of a canon, I will
argue that the canonic formations of the musical outcome of a certain genre
(or style, or trend or repertoire, for that matter) are likely to take place when
the writers and performers of the musical outcome in question – usually in the
shape of recorded albums – are characterized by these three elements:

1. The writers and performers in question tend to be viewed with a great


amount of cultural legitimacy due to a great attention span from the public
and/or the critics.
2. Their outcome tends to be regarded as art products rather than consumer
products.

52
Canonic formations and non-canonic positionings

3. The writers and performers in question tend to hold a high level of domes- 7. Wyn Jones points out
that canonic values as
tic regard, either due to the ability of the songs and albums to contribute to a marker of popular
certain national concepts or representations, or due to ability of the writers high culture, canonical
and performers in question to fit such representations. In other words, the values inherited from
classical music have
albums in question are able to keep what Anne C. Shreffler identifies as a been central to the
basic criterion of canonicity, namely, staying power (Shreffler 2013: 615). reception history of
especially rock albums
rather and other genres
Carys Wyn Jones offers a qualified discussion of the status of canonic values within popular culture.
related to especially the genre of rock (Wyn Jones 2008). She states that such Concerning albums by,
say, Marvin Gaye, she
values actually exist, and she points out why and how. In her book, she also states: ‘I will come to
puts forward a few quite self-explanatory remarks about the nature of canoni- argue, however, that
cal formations, which are worth quoting here: while Gaye’s music
itself is not necessarily
“rock”, the values by
Canonical works are revered for their ability to survive the so-called which it is judged in
‘test of time’, a familiar expression that cloaks the very human decisions popular reception are
rock values (albeit ones
that go into the survival of any work. This test supposedly functions by inherited from the high
eliminating ephemeral works, those that are of poor quality or those arts)’ (Wyn Jones 2008: 2).
too specific to their time to be of lasting value. Once a work becomes
recognized as part of a canon, its survival is far more assured, since the
collective value of the canon is reflected back onto its constituent works
in a self-perpetuating cycle.
(Shreffler 2013: 8)

She adds:

In addition, to survive the test of time a work must usually become


‘timeless’. Timeless works must appear to speak to successive genera-
tions, and, to this effect, time-contingent elements of works are glossed
over or explained in more universal terms.
(Shreffler 2013: 9)

Even though the concept of the canon has gone often unnoticed in popu-
lar music culture, it does not mean that it is not a discourse in constant use.
Popular music agents have at all times used it in order to provide the music in
question with a certain legitimacy in its attempt to be acknowledged on par
with, for instance, jazz, folk music and not least classical music – i.e. the very
genre in which the concept of the canon has been widely used for centuries.
Especially in rock music, the concept of the canon has played an increasingly
important role during the formative decades of rock music during the 1960s
and 1970s, the two decades in which many of the rock albums still considered
to this day to inherit and transmit canonic values were produced.7 But even
though canons can bring forth aspects of ‘cultural and social unity’ as well
as ‘a sense of heritage and educational uniformity’, they also run the risk of
replicate ‘prejudices and limitations on artistic freedom’ (Shreffler 2013: 22).
According to Wyn Jones, however, it became clear that during the first
decade of the new century, canonic formations (ostensibly in the British-
American hegemony of popular music) tended to be considered too static
to work with even for music critics, who usually had referred to a bulk of
widely considered canonic albums. The reason for this was that ‘the study of
canons in general is a growing concern as our culture becomes increasingly
multicultural’ (Shreffler 2013: 1), since the canons not only represent albums
and artists ‘but also the cultural values and social inequalities of our past’

53
Henrik Marstal

(Shreffler 2013: 22). She also points out another reason, namely, the increas-
ingly fragmentation of popular music repertoires (Shreffler 2013: 21–22) due
to the emergence of new music business strategies, the increased amount of
published, recorded music and consumption changes related to the ongoing
digital music revolution.
With reference to Gary Tomlinson, Wyn Jones suggests that a more
discursive type of the canon would be desirable by ‘shifting its focus from
the centre to the margins’ (Shreffler 2013: 23), at least seen from the view of
New Musicology. Still, canonic orientations prevail among listeners due to
the tendency of evaluating albums in relation to each other and due to the
authority of the public opinion on certain albums compared to others. Among
critics, even though canon formations have been questioned, they still often
seem to be necessary in order to qualify their value judgements and aesthetic
preferences or just being rightly understood by their readers.

Canonic tendencies in a national context: Twenty-first


century Danish rock and pop contextualized in relation
to canonic discourses
It is hard to imagine any established genre or style where canonic processes
are not at work all the time. This is also the case for popular music, even
though – as Anne C. Shreffler points out above – decanonization processes in
later years have dominated the field not least due to the enormous amount of
music being published and to the seemingly clear absence of ‘Bildung’-related
aspects of music consumption. If this is the case, it means that canonic stud-
ies can be made not only concerning popular music in its broadest, British-
American or ‘global’ sense (which is the case in all of the studies mentioned
right above), but also concerning regional areas like, for instance, national
musics.
The Danish history of pop and rock goes back to the second half of the
1960s where the first self-penned, original contributions to the area were
made. In Denmark, the emergence of bands like Steppeulvene (not to be
confused with the American Canadian band Steppenwolf that emerged during
the same period), Young Flowers, Alrune Rod and the international acknowl-
edged phenomenon Savage Rose – all of them releasing their debut albums in
1967 and 1968 – thus were but the first of a long series of bands and artists to
be included into a canonical discourse of national popular music, while others
were excluded or forgotten after a short while.
Even though this topic would undoubtedly be a fruitful one to pursue, I
will not investigate the history of Danish pop and rock in a canonic perspec-
tive here. Instead, I will move the focus to the early twenty-first century by
taking a close look at the emergence of a new wave of mainstream pop and
rock music performed in the Danish language. The purpose of this investiga-
tion is to point out how notions of canonic values lurk underneath the surface
regarding the cultural significance of the music in question as presented in
reviews and articles. At the same time, though, notions of canonization have
remained unnoticed and thus unregarded by music journalists, rock critics
and cultural editors.
This contradiction in terms is identified in the reception of a number
of Danish pop and rock albums released in the period from 2003 to 2007.
Subsequently, this part of the article attempts to investigate the role of canon-
ical discourse in Danish popular music reception during this period in order

54
Canonic formations and non-canonic positionings

to investigate this ‘unnoticed’ meta-narrative of canonization. It is the case 8. This seems to be the
case for popular music
because the rock and pop criticisms in mainstream media have reproduced consumption and
what can be labelled as a canonical habit of conduct where processes of recep- reception in other
tion history as well as reverberations of a collective will seem to rule. In this countries too, one
example being Motti
case, canonical formations are guiding principles to be witnessed in popular Regev and Edwin
music cultures as an evidence of the processes of reception which the music in Seroussi’s thought-
question has brought on its listeners’ cultural identities.8 provoking book on
Israeli popular music
entitled Popular Music
and National Culture in
The New Danish Wave Israel (2004). Here, the
authors identify and
During the aforementioned period, the use of cultural memory to invoke reflect upon a number
canonical processes began to emerge among music critics and journalists – of meta-narratives,
including the
and therefore also among listeners, record companies staffs and musicians. emergence of ‘an Israeli
The production of popular music underwent a drastic chance during the canon’ (Regev and
period as a new generation of bands and soloists performing exclusively in the Seroussi 2004: 242–43).

Danish language came into prominence, strongly supported and encouraged 9. According to music
by the media. journalist Anja Pil
Overby from DR, the
Thus, the emergence of a number of new artists inspired music critics to National Broadcasting
relate the music in question to a number of acts, all of which had come into Corporation,
who hosted the
prominence during the period between 1970 and 1985. Most of the material popular television
of these acts had been performed in the Danish language, i.e. the perform- music magazine
ing language which in mainstream pop and rock consumption had been Musikprogrammet
from 2003, this was
preferred by the media and the consumers during this period, contributing to undoubtedly the case.
the widely acknowledged conception of music as a bearer of domestic values She stated this during a
and identities. panel debate on Nordic
popular music and the
At the same time, the music in question contained musical features which media at a popular
in a somewhat tautological way became synonymous with a certain Danish music conference in
Helsinki in April 2012.
sound: typically making use of round and rich arranged musical settings,
typically inspired by American mainstream rock and pop acts, and typically 10. Not all of these artists
were new to the music
with a distinct sense of vocal harmonies and sometimes advanced harmonic scene, however: Peter
progressions. Even though no critics or journalists made attempts to identify Sommer had formerly
any national characteristics of the sounds involved, it seemed that a national been a member of the
lo-fi duo Superjeg, who
discourse lurked behind their judgements, acknowledging certain ways of released two albums in
writing, arranging and producing, while others were dismissed. 2002 and 2003. Magtens
Understood as a substantial part of cultural memory, references to the Korridorer had put
out two EPs in 1995
bulk of canonic performers from the aforementioned period began to make and 1996 and a debut
itself noticed in the wake of the many debates following the emergence of album in 1998. Nephew
had made their debut
a new Danish wave. Since canonical formations often seem to operate on album in 2000 with
unconscious levels of collective memory, as I stated before, a new discourse of lyrics that rather had
cultural memory was thus able to enter the public spheres of the media and unusual combined
Danish and English
the music business spheres as well. phrases.
The discourse was evoked in order to explain, legitimize and promote a
brand new trend in Danish popular music, which has been labelled as the
single most important event in Danish musical life since the turn of the
­millennium.9 The most prominent artists of the wave were Magtens Korridorer,
Juncker, Marie Key Band, Nephew, Tue West, Rasmus Nøhr, Johnny Deluxe
and Peter Sommer.10 The trend was not restricted to any specific genre, since
the performers were both singer/songwriters as well as rock, pop and synth-
pop acts. Even though the trend was never labelled with any name, I will for
the remainder of the text refer to it as the New Danish Wave.
The wave emerged at a surprisingly fast pace within a period of more or
less one year from the autumn of 2003 to the autumn of 2004 with a not less

55
Henrik Marstal

11. In Danish, the noun surprisingly big public following. For a long period of time, it had been virtu-
‘kanon’ is used to
signify both a cannon
ally impossible for young, new acts performing in Danish to hit the charts, hip
and (more seldom) a hop being an exception. During this period, though, a number of new artists
canon, both words saw themselves being exposed in the media and having their songs played at
being spelled the
exactly the same way, the national and commercial radio stations. The most successful of these acts
but with the stress on were even selling albums to gold and platinum status and playing concerts for
each of the syllables. huge audiences. Not only were they performing in Danish, they also made
Somewhat ironically,
the noun was used here use of musical elements that were oriented towards a domestic rather than
in the other meaning international style of sound, arrangement and production.
of the word, signifying
the weapon that so to
The reasons for this sudden change are intertwined in a quite complex
speak is shooting out way. It is possible to single out at least four such reasons, which are all related
the careers of young, to changes in the media picture as well as changes of conduct in the musical
aspiring artists as if
they were musical habitus of the time:
cannonballs aiming at
a broad audience. 1. Around the turn of the millennium DR, the Danish Broadcasting
12. According to a phone Corporation, imposed quotas on itself, meaning the music chan-
interview with music nel for young audiences, P3, was obliged to play at least 30 per cent of
journalist Jan Sneum,
DR, 15 October 2012, music produced in Denmark (but not necessarily performed in Danish).
conducted by the The music channel for adult audiences, P4, was obliged to play at least
author. Sneum was
responsible for
50 per cent. As a result, both channels found themselves in need for more
the development suitable new songs than before. One attempt of providing such songs
of the concept for was the establishment of a national songwriting initiative, the so-called
KarriereKanonen.
‘KarriereKanonen’ (‘the Career-Cannon’).11 The initiative had implications
for the increase of home-produced music in Denmark, just like certain
combinations of broadcasting policies, censorship and copyright laws had
had for the case of England years before, as Martin Cloonan has showed
(see O’Flynn 2007: 28).
  KarriereKanonen was established as a competition on P3 for unsigned
bands and soloists singing in Danish, who were encouraged to send their
demos to the radio company. From the demos, the company chose artists, who
then were invited to re-record two songs each in a recording studio with a
musical coach at their side. When the recordings were done, the songs were
aired.12 The first season in 2002 did not really take off, even though twelve
artists were chosen and 24 songs aired. The following year the number of
participants was cut to six. In this season, the pop/rock-­artist Tue West
enjoyed a major breakthrough with both of his songs, ‘Pigen og lottoku-
glerne (hun er fri)’ and ‘En sang om kærlighed’ which seemed to suit DR’s
attempt to find and nurture talented pop artists delivering catchy and radio-
friendly songs with an unmistakably domestic vibe, hence the language.
  Due to the obviously commercial strengthened potential of his two
songs, West signed with Universal Records with his eponymous debut
album released in 2003, with final sales figures close to double platinum.
Also the pop band Johnny Deluxe did benefit from the competition. The
band had a big radio hit with the song ‘Elskovspony’, which spawned the
band’s career as future gold-selling artist with its eponymous debut album
released in 2004.
  During the season of 2004, the singer/songwriter Rasmus Nøhr also
received attention with the songs ‘Ibens klit’ and ‘Maria fra Amerika’, both
of them to be included on his eponymous debut album in 2004, which
paved the way for a major breakthrough with the hit ‘Sommer i Europa’,
taken from his second album, Lykkelig smutning (2006). In 2005, rock band
Magtens Korridorer and the singer/songwriter-styled Marie Key Band

56
Canonic formations and non-canonic positionings

both enjoyed attention from the competition, ensuring both of them major 13. The following year,
KarriereKanonen
label record deals (Magtens Korridorer’s debut album Friværdi (2005) was did not provide
released on Universal Records as well, while Marie Key Band’s debut breakthroughs for any
album udtales [‘kæj] (2006) was released on Sony Records).13 artists at all, suggesting
a downfall in the
  In 2004 and 2005, a few other songs by new artists performing in interest for new music
Danish became domestic hits due to the P3-related concept called ‘Ugens performed in Danish
Uundgåelige’/‘the inevitable song of the week’. The concept was – and among the listener
segments of P3. In
until this day continues to be – part of a heavy rotation strategy, where 2007, the concept was
one song was picked as the choice of the week, receiving massive airplay reconstructed totally.
Since then, it has
during the week and not seldom even more airplay in the following weeks. been possible also for
Undoubtedly in relation to the strategy of KarriereKanonen of choosing artists performing in
new acts performing exclusively in Danish, a number of hits emerged, Engiish to participate.
Thus, KarriereKanonen
most notably Juncker (‘Mogens og Karen’, 2004), Peter Sommer (‘Valby gave up the concept
Bakke’, 2004) and Nephew (‘Movie klip’, 2005). of helping artists
  The three other reasons for the sudden change from the English to the performing in Danish
with reaching a
Danish language and for the return to a more domestic sound known broader audience.
from the 1970s and 1980s are as follows:

2. As a result of the increasing interest from the public in national reper-


toires (a trend which could be traced in many Western European countries
since around 2000), major labels directed their national departments to
sign and promote domestic artists signing in their vernacular language. In
Denmark, several bands and artists performing in Danish and being part
of the wave obtained major label signings, with the then-independent
label Copenhagen Records as a runner-up, signing Nephew who would
turn out to be the best-selling artist of the New Danish Wave.

3. The decade around the turn of the millennium (c. 1995–2005) was a much
contested period of heated debates concerning national identity, national
values and the somewhat arbitrary concept of Danishness. A kind of iden-
tity crisis seemed to be at stake among a considerable amount of Danes,
resulting in an increased interest in tangible and intangible culture herit-
age products, which so to speak were able to confirm the existence of
the nation and the national identity of its people. The crisis related to
the emergence of ongoing globalization processes and/or the increas-
ingly heated immigration debates during the second half of the 1990s. A
great focus on national treasures as well as debates about ‘what it meant
to be a Dane’ was at stake. Newspapers, museums, publishers and even
the national broadcast company and other solid institutions were eager to
satisfy the need for national self-affirmation by creating exhibitions, tele-
vision series and other features related to the concept of Danishness. In
this climate, the attempt to perform in Danish suddenly seemed appropri-
ate, following almost one and a half decade of pop and rock music being
devoted primarily to the English language.

4. This points towards the fourth reason worth mentioning. Danish pop and
rock had since the mid-1960s showed a bilingual tendency to be performed
in either the English or the Danish language, depending on which ambitions
and cultural preferences the acts in question had. It was not uncommon,
though, that act made use of both languages, sometimes even on the very
same album. Since the early 1970s, the use of the Danish language began to
dominate, a tendency which lasted through the 1980s as well, with the excep-
tion of many acts within genres related to punk, indie rock and heavy metal.

57
Henrik Marstal

But around 1990 the picture drastically changed at a surprisingly short


period of time: New mainstream acts performed exclusively in English,
several huge acts changed their singing language from Danish to English,
and a number of bands or soloists who had been huge in the 1970s and/
or the 1980s abandoned their careers. The media and the audiences now
preferred national produced music performed in English, most likely as a
combination of three factors, namely, a growing confidence in the abil-
ity to understand English among young generations: a growing sense of
global awareness due to changing globalization processes at the time and
the emergence of a new Nordic international trend producing pop and
rock performed in English, which a number of Danish musicians, produc-
ers and business people were eager to be a part of.
  After the turn of the Millennium, though, a change of mind set was
needed, and a need to share common (including common ‘Danish’)
values came into existence by the intensified production of new songs
performed in Danish. In a more or less explicit way, these songs sought
to create an imagined intimate relation between artist and listener with
the mother tongue as a medium. As Lars Lilliestam has argued within
a Swedish contest, songs performed in the mother tongue often include
views on everyday life in the very nation in which the particular language
is connected to (Lilliestam 2013: 271). Similarly, Danish sociologist Peter
Gundelach claims that the very fact that Danes speak Danish (and, one
might add in this context, listen to songs performed in Danish) is a way
of confirming the very existence of a national consensus or ‘Danishness’
(Gundelach 2002: 77). So, while several artists who debuted in the 1990s
had continued to perform in English, the scene was now set for artists
performing in Danish to emerge.

Canon-related reactions to the New Danish Wave


The reception in the media of the New Danish Wave related to a great extent
to notions of cultural memory. The reviews and interviews in newspapers and
music magazines revealed a tendency to relate the styles and manners of the
artists not only to tradition, but also to a canonic understanding of tradition
driven by a few leading artists with substantial albums. It was a practice which
until then had not been a common practice possibly due to the fact that every
new style in the story of Danish rock music more or less had developed as a
chain of reaction against former trends.
In the light of a new millennium and the return to Danish as the preferred
singing language for new artists, some of them were received by the media as
being heirs to national icons from the late 1960s, the 1970s and, in one case,
the early 1980s as well. Music critics and journalists were eager to ‘sell’ these
new artists to the audience, not by sensation, but rather by pointing out which
kinds of musical, stylistic and aesthetical relations the new artists shared with
these icons who had been performing exclusively or primarily in Danish.
For instance, Rasmus Nøhr was hailed as the new ‘national bard’ (‘nation-
alskjald’), taking the throne after Gasolin’s front singer and solo artist Kim
Larsen, the best-selling artist in the country ever (Lund Andersen 2004;
Jensen 2004; Treo 2006; Lund 2006). For his second album, the leading
music magazine Gaffa even rhetorically asked on the front cover: ‘Rasmus
Nøhr: Danmarks næste Kim Larsen?’/‘Rasmus Nøhr: The next Kim Larsen
of Denmark?’. In a similar way, Peter Sommer was compared to the late Eik

58
Canonic formations and non-canonic positionings

Skaløe from the defining psychedelic late 1960s band Steppeulvene, and singer- 14. These as well as
other reviews are
songwriter C.V. Jørgensen (widely considered an icon ever since his first investigated further in
album was released in 1974) (Høeg 2006; Skyum-Nielsen 2006). Rex Pedersen (2006).
Tue West was compared to C. V. Jørgensen as well and also to the rock 15. This song was originally
singer Peter Belli (who entered the rock scene in the mid-1960s and quickly a free translation of
became the biggest Danish rock star of the decade) (Skotte 2003; Christensen ‘Carpenter Song’, a
traditional song made
2003; Lambertsen 2004). Juncker was compared to TV-2, a pop/electro-band, famous by Joan Baez on
who had had a major breakthrough in the mid-1980s (Jensen 2004; Queitsch her album In Concert
2004). Magtens Korridorer was also compared to Gasolin’ (Høeg 2006; Jensen (1962).

2005).14 Finally, Nephew were compared to the band Kliche whose debut
album Supertanker (1980) holds a canonic position in Danish rock history as
a masterpiece that combined elements of New Wave and post-punk with
comprised lyrics.
The connection with the past, though, was at some point touched upon by
the artists themselves. Or they were made active by the artists’ participation
in tribute albums like the remake of Kim Larsen’s influential album Værsgo/
Here You Are (1973), called Værsgo 2/Here You Are 2 (2005). This was not least
the case for Nephew, who recorded a version of one of the darkest songs on
the album, ‘Byens hotel’ and managed to create a musical setting in accordance
with their own sound and musical approach.15 The song became a minor hit for
the band due to airplay on the national radio popular music channel P3.
In many reviews and interviews, critics and journalists put a lot of effort in
creating a national framework for evoking cultural memory in relation to these
artists. By analysing a number of reviews of the aforementioned artists in a
dissertation about notions of musical ‘Danishness’, in the new Danish wave,
Rasmus Rex Pedersen has show how the new artists tended to be viewed in
the light of local rock and pop icons from former decades, thus giving these
new artists some national connotations that might not be too obvious, but that
nonetheless determine the reception of their music (Rex Pedersen 2006: 49).
The period around 2003-07 was also characterized by tendencies in popu-
lar music culture to celebrate issues of canonization. Here are three exam-
ples:

1. In 2005, the renowned documentarist Anders Østergaard released a docu-


mentary about the rock band Gasolin’ in which the band was hailed as the
founding fathers of Danish rock. The movie was a commercial success in
cinemas all over the country and went on to be the most seen documen-
tary in the country of all times. Just a few months before, a CD compilation
called Black Box had been released, consisting of eight original albums by
Gasolin’ as well as a CD of singles, seldom material and outtakes, surpris-
ingly fast reaching the magic limit of 111.000 copies, i.e. one million copies
of the band’s albums being sold. The canonization of Gasolin’, which
Østergaard’s movie granted, was complete.
2. A large number of bands and artists, who were among the leading acts
performing in Danish during the 1970s or 1980s, also released box sets
with complete issues of their albums. Record companies in charge of the
back catalogues of bands and artists like Røde Mor, Trille, Tøsedrengene,
Sneakers, Rocazino and Sebastian were responsible for making these
compilations during the period.
3. In 2005, the minister of cultural affairs, the conservative MP Brian
Mikkelsen, announced that he had asked a team of artists, art business

59
Henrik Marstal

16. This author was one people, university scholars and journalists to create a so-called Kulturkanon/
of the appointed
members of the music
Culture Canon.16 During a period of eight months, they choose a number
jury of the Culture of outstanding art pieces forming a crucial part of Danish culture, includ-
Canon. ing literature, film and theatre (twelve pieces of work for each art form).17
17. For a detailed account, The music jury decided to make two canon lists, though: one for classical
see http://kum.dk/ music and one for popular music. The latter contained seven pieces of
Temaer/Temaarkiv/
Kulturkanon. Accessed music belonging to the popular music areas of rock and pop in the form of
21 November 2013. albums by artists such as Kliche, Gasolin’ and C. V. Jørgensen, released in
18. These albums were as the period from 1968 to 1987.18 As a response, the leading music magazine
follows: The Savage Gaffa released a book a few months later with its own version of a rock
Rose: The Savage Rose and pop canon (Tuxen 2007). This canon, which will be discussed later,
(1968), Kim Larsen:
Værsgo (1973), Gasolin’: consisted of twelve rock and pop albums, released in the period from 1967
Live sådan (1976), to 2004.19 Three of the same albums and six of the same artists were found
Kliche: Supertanker
(1980), C.V. Jørgensen:
on the two lists – in itself a vague, but telling indication of the notion that
Tidens tern (1981), a ‘pre-scribed canon formation’ (Kärjä 2006: 16–17) was to be identified.
Sebastian: Stjerne til
støv (1981) and TV-2:
Nærmest lykkelig (1988) The Culture Canon became the subject of a heated debate in the media,
(Lund 2006:192–215). being accused for being an ideological instrument meant to evoke a sense of
19. These albums were as national identity, which tended to include ethnic Danes and exclude Danes of
follows: Steppeulvene: other ethnic origins. Much of the debate dealt with the question of politiciza-
Hip (1967), Savage Rose: tion of cultural values, because the Culture Canon was regarded as a politi-
Dødens triumf (1972),
Kim Larsen: Værsgo cal project meant for restoring or even strengthening the national identity of
(1973), Gasolin’: Efter ethnic Danes as a response to the ongoing migration issues and globalization
endnu en dag (1976), C.
V. Jørgensen: Storbyens
processes. As a result, some critics claimed that the works in question were
små oaser (1977), Kliche: taken as hostage. The very concept of the canon thus became more detested
Supertanker (1980), than debated, even though it also attracted serious attention, for instance, in
Lars H.U.G.: Kysser
himlen farvel (1987), a Swedish study on the concept of canonical thinking in the arts as well as in
TV-2: Nærmest lykkelig history lessons in fundamental school (Jönsson et al. 2008).
(1988), Anne Linnet: Jeg The general reluctance towards the project among many was fuelled by
er jo lige her (1988), Sort
Sol: Glamourpuss (1993), the general view that the canon was a non-negotiable, governmental approval
Kashmir: The Good Life of a series of works that was apparently in accordance with general notions
(1999) and Nephew:
USADSB (2004) (Tuxen
of what kind of art to promote for a maintaining values related to national-
2007). ism (this view might be exaggerated, but it has nonetheless been known from
other popular music histories of the world [see Kärjä 2006: 16–17]). In addi-
tion, the very emergence of the canon displayed the fact that people in many
local regions of the nation seemed to be suspicious towards ‘homogenous
notions of national identity’ (Hawkins 2007: 181), which by far exceeded the
cultural diversity in their own regions. This is why Motti Regev might have
been absolute right in this observation posted in the canon issue of Popular
Music from 2006, published the very same month of the release of the Culture
Canon: ‘There is no formal mechanism of canonization. This is one reason
why attempts to formalize the process through official awards and prizes
often raise objection’ (Regev 2006: 2).
In relation to a popular music context, the Culture Canon seemed to be in
accordance with the claims which Carys Wyn Jones mentions as pivotal points
in the creation of any canon:

In addition, to survive the test of time a work must usually become


‘timeless’. Timeless works must appear to speak to successive genera-
tions, and, to this effect, time-contingent elements of works are glossed
over or explained in more universal terms.
(Wyn Jones 2008: 9)

60
Canonic formations and non-canonic positionings

The ‘timelessness’ had to do with the notion that the jury only chose works 20. http://kum.dk/
Temaer/Temaarkiv/
for the Culture Canon that had been around for the span of one generation Kulturkanon.
or longer.
21. It should be added that
The Culture Canon had originally been presented on a website,20 and six these encyclopaedias
months later it was published as an expanded book version (Lund 2006). It and books all hold
was printed in no less than 160,000 copies intended for sale at a very reason- a high informative
standard, and therefore
able price in bookstores and supermarkets as well as free distribution in high this consideration
schools and other educational institutions where it could reach teenagers and should not be seen as
young adults. a critique, but rather
to point out that the
Inspired by the publication, the music magazine Gaffa put out a book level of consciousness
with twelve chosen albums of Danish rock, chosen from a slightly different concerning canonical
processes is close
point of reference (Tuxen 2007), in accordance with the notion that it actu- to non-existent in
ally made sense to make canons. But, in general, the emergence of the canon these books and
created a hitherto unseen awareness of – and reluctance to – the concept of encyclopaedias, even
though canonical
the canon as such. The three examples all point to the fact that a cultural approaches are
climate of canonization was at stake during the period in which the new dominant.
Danish wave came into existence. Thus, it might to at least a certain extent
explain why the reception of the wave in its own time has been related to
issues of canonization.

Canon-resistant circumstances: A survey among critics


This said, a few observations point towards the fact that Danish music critics
and journalists during this period were actually quite resistant to the notion
that canonization processes seemed to be at stake during the period. Antti-
Ville Kärjä’s already mentioned remark that notions of canonic values seem
to be ‘virtually non-existent’ (Kärjä 2006: 4), seem to ring true indeed in a
Danish context. Rock and pop encyclopaedias like Dansk rockleksikon (Bille,
2002) and its predecessor Politikens dansk rock 1956–1997 (Bille, 1997) made
use of a timeline of Danish rock history by including top 50 lists of albums
during the periods of, respectably, 1967–2002 and 1956–97, which did hold
a certain status as important and influential albums – in short, albums with
a canonical profile. In none of the cases, the lists were explicitly related to
canonical concepts, and the word itself was not used at all. Moreover, the
criterions for the choices on the lists were not quite clear to the reader in any
of the two encyclopaedias, even though matters related to notions of artis-
tic quality, ‘authenticity’ and influence as well as matters related to reception
history obviously played an important part for the selection of the lists.
Moreover, books during the period on international rock history
in general, like Per Reinholdt Nielsen’s Rebel & Remix. Rockens historie
(Reinholdt Nielsen 2003/2011) and Dorte Hygum Sørensen’s Rock – Fra
Rhythm’n’blues til Mash Up (Hygum Sørensen 2007), did not reflect at all
upon the concept of the canon, even though both writers did choose to
describe the history of rock via portraits of famous artists with overtly canon-
ical status, from Elvis and The Beatles to Sex Pistols and Nirvana. Especially
Hygum Sørensen was very specific: She had chosen 50 artists from the
1950s and forth, whom she described on several pages each, combined with
around 120 lesser canonical artists described on fifteen to twenty lines of
text each. This overtly canon-related method was not described as being a
result of a canonical approach, though.21 Rather, it seemed to be the result
of a ‘common sense’ related to axiomatic assumptions on the great British/
American history of rock ‘n’ roll.

61
Henrik Marstal

22. The survey was In an article from 2000, Anselm Gerhard argues that every scholars – and,
conducted via e-mail
in June 2012, and the
I would add, every music journalist – should keep in mind that canonic prac-
respondents’ answers tices are always based on value-judgements that exclude so much more than
were anonymous. it actually includes, just like it has been the case for so much history writ-
The survey consisted
of six questions, and ing during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While not arguing for the
the estimated time negation of canons, Gerhard calls for a much more critical position towards the
consume was around very concept that avoids convenient habits of thought while at the same time
twenty. A total of 25
respondents were acknowledging that political and ideological prejudices are always lurking in
invited, and nine of the back (Gerhard 2000: 30). By claiming this, he is in accordance with Klaus
them answered. The
whole correspondence
Pietschmann and Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann when they state that canonic
was conducted in thought is inevitably tied up with notions of ‘die Ideologie, Elitenbindung,
Danish. I would like to Disziplinierungseffekte und Exklusionstendenz von Kanones’ (Pietschmann
thank Tine Brodersen
for assisting me in and Wald-Fuhrmann 2013a: 13).
preparing the survey Surprisingly enough, ‘common sense’ also seemed to be the legitimiz-
and working out ing raison d’être for Gaffas Kulturkanon (Tuxen 2007), which was made by the
the collection of the
answers. music magazine as a response to the Culture Canon, as I mentioned before.
Since the lists of the Canon were made public in the month of January, the
magazine decided to make their own list a few weeks before its release. Like
every list for each of the arts, this canon also consisted of twelve works in the
form of albums. The canonical list of the magazine was presented in early
January 2006. Even though the list and subsequently the book took its point of
departure in a canonical debate, without which it would never have come into
existence, it did only in a rudimentary sense define, discuss, legitimize, chal-
lenge or in any other way question or qualify the concept of the canon in rela-
tion to the use of it in popular culture. The only reference to the word canon
could be seen in the foreword to the book. Here, it was simply stated that the
book was written as a response to the Culture Canon (Tuxen 2007: 3), but not
why or how, although an article on the website of the magazine had informed
the readers of the magazine about the background for the list (Tuxen and
Ramsdal 2006). This example seems indeed to underline the truth in Kärjä’s
statement in a Danish context.
In order to explore the matter more, I conducted a survey on the concept
of the canon among a number of critics and journalists at the national news-
papers, the national radio broadcast company DR and the two leading music
magazines, Gaffa and Soundvenue.22 The respondents were invited to share
their personal opinions on the subject by answering a number of quite open
questions.
The answers gave an insight to contrary opinions on whether canonical
approaches have been of any importance in the reception of music produced
in the period during which the new Danish wave emerged. The responds
were characterized by a general reluctance to the concept of the canon as
such, which were seen as limiting, restraining or unnecessary. One respond-
ent claimed that a canonical approach today would be out of sync with the
tendency to non-canonical listening practices due to the digital music revolu-
tion, which have made even the most obscure albums of every kind as acces-
sible as the hits of the time. For the same reason, most of the respondents
did not find it useful with a general canon they could refer to (or oppose
against).
To some respondents, a canon was an objectivating instance per defini-
tion, a matter which collided completely with the ‘subjective’ nature of music
listening – and music criticism as well. One respondent added that a musi-
cal canon might be useful as a point of reference for music critics as well as

62
Canonic formations and non-canonic positionings

teachers of music history, but that it changed all the time due to matters of
reception history. This aspect of the canon was not brought into mind at all
in the canon debate, the respondent claimed. In other words, a canon would
always be a child of its own time, but too often a canon was referred to as a
static object.
One of the questions addressed the possible presence of a more or less
implicit concept of a canon in popular music in the first decade of the twenty-
first century. The respondents were asked whether such a canon was more
present in this decade compared to the 1980s and 1990s (with no consid-
eration to whether they had a professional relation to popular music or not
during these two decades).
All except one acknowledged that this actually was the case. One
respondent replied that the claim for a canon on a more ‘objective’ basis was
a response to an ongoing national identity crisis, but that a canon was not
the right answer due to the aspects of unnecessarily self-obsession that it
creates. Another participant answered that popular music in general looked
back rather than ahead in the first decade of the century with the emergence
of young artists who ‘sounded like children of [1970s singer/songwriter]
Sebastian and [early 1970s folk-rock band] Skousen & Ingemann’, and the
emergence of other young artists rooted in the sound of (early 1980s New
Wave/post punk band) Kliche. In contrary, this respondent claimed, popular
music during the 1990s was more international oriented with lesser focus on
icons performing in Danish.
A third respondent claimed that the new singers/songwriters were eager
to refer to older acts performing in Danish as a reaction to the nineties, where
historical references were not quite often heard. In addition, the respondent
claimed, the first decade of the twenty-first century was characterized by the
emergence of CD box-sets and re-issues of older acts and albums, a circum-
stance that could easily be seen with respect to canonical formations as well –
even though, as yet another respondent added, it could also be seen as an
attempt to sell CDs while it was still possible to do so seen in the light of the
increasing decline of CD sales as the digital music revolution unfolded.
A fourth respondent claimed that the attempts to pursue notions of a
canon of Danish music were much more explicit during the first decade
of the century than ever before, and that this canon aimed at creating a
‘common, tight identity formation’, even though there were different agen-
das at stake for doing it. This respondent especially held not least the
governments’ creation of the aforementioned Culture Canon responsible for
this tendency.
Another question concerned the emergence of forces in the daily musi-
cal life in the decade that focused on canonical values. All participants agreed
that to a certain extent various institutions have had a special interest in
canonizations of Danish music. Record companies with back catalogues of
older Danish music were mentioned by several respondents, but also estab-
lished older music critics and writers of retrospective articles and biographies
on older acts were mentioned.
Not surprisingly, several respondents also mentioned the Culture Canon
and the political climate of the decade, in which a tendency to underline a
certain national identity was prevalent. One respondent even added the
emergence of a national rock museum, which is scheduled to open at the end
of 2015 in Roskilde, the town around 30 kilometres from Copenhagen which
is hosting the annual Roskilde Festival.

63
Henrik Marstal

23. A useful reflection on Conclusion: The reception of the New Danish Wave
the relation between
text and context can be according to canonical discourse
read in Berger (2009: 98).
The tendency to compare artists belonging to the new Danish wave with older
artists was nothing less than an evidence of the existence of a more or less
identical prescribed canon formation among music critics. The formation was
being used as an ideological vehicle to pave the way for a new trend – a trend
that at the same time legitimized a return to domestic values in contemporary
popular music and put the history of domestic popular music into perspective.
In this sense, the use of canonical discourse seemed to be a way of measuring
the new music scene not against itself (as had been the case in the 1970s and
1980s) but against a canonical past.
The aforementioned incidents during the first decade of the millennium
suggest that an overall concern of cultural memory was at stake here. Music
criticism might thus have been merely servants of the Zeitgeist, but it is more
likely that canonical discourses came into the forefront due to the necessity to
relate to the New Danish Wave as more than just a musical-national senti-
ment. It is also likely that the discourse came into existence because no atten-
tion was paid to the very concept of canonization, cf. the lack of canonical
reflection in the books and encyclopaedias in question. Moreover, the lack of
reflection might even explain the general hostile and even ironic response to
the emergence of the Culture Canon in 2006, since meta-narratives like the
canonical discourse – for any reason that might be – was not part of the agenda
of popular music criticism, not being regarded as relevant. In this sense, the
music criticism in question indeed confirms the notion that ‘the specific proc-
ess of canonizing works is inextricably tied to how writing and making histo-
ries shap the political identity, confidence, and authority of particular groups’,
as Lydia Goehr has noticed (2002: 314).
Looking back at the period around 2003–2007, it is evident that a canonic
discourse became an important, yet unreflected or even unnoticed, marker
in the cultural climate as well as a vehicle for the reception of a New Wave
of musicians working within idioms of Danishness. In this sense it became a
habit of thought that has been warned about by, among others the German
scholar Anselm Gerhard (2000: 30). The contradiction between the seemingly
unaware use of this meta-narrative and the rejection of it as a useful tool in
music criticism is indeed remarkable, since music journalism has always been
engaged with the virtue of placing ‘texts’ (albums, concerts, narratives) into
‘contexts’ (traditions, histories, cultures, meta-narratives).23
At the same time though, as already stated, the emergence of the canonic
discourse show how national agendas and positionings in the case of a small
nation like Denmark are able to relocate and negotiate global trends like the
tendency to canonical fragmentation during the period, which Carys Wyn
Jones claimed was at stake in the British-American music culture.

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Contributor details
The author is a music researcher, a musician and a producer, living and work-
ing in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has published numerous books and articles
on electronic music, the pop hit formula, music listening practices and the
concept of Danishness as well as a biography on the Estonian composer Arvo
Pärt. The author holds a chair as an assistant professor at Rhythmic Music
Conservatory in Copenhagen, Denmark, doing music research on topics
related to the study of popular music in the twentieth and twenty-first centu-
ries. Moreover, he is a member of the Danish Arts Council.
E-mail: hm@rmc.dk

Henrik Marstal has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that
was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

67
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