The Mass‐Mediated Chronotope, Radical Counterpublics, and Dialect in 1970s Norway: The Case of Vømmøl Spellmanslag

Abstract

This article explores the reflexive role the Norwegian musical group, Vømmøl Spellmanslag, played as a mass‐mediated cultural expression of an emergent counterpublic in 1970s Norway. It also examines how “Vømmøl Valley,” a fictitious community described in Vømmøl's music, came to constitute a cultural chronotope of dissidence within a context of sociopolitical polarization following Norway's 1972 referendum on membership in the European Economic Community (EEC). In their performance, Vømmøl deployed contrasting phonolexical registers to animate socially recognizable regional and class subjectivities. This article questions how the replication of regional and class indexical speech in Vømmøl's verse made available various role alignments to its listening audience. [Norwegian; register; popular music; chronotope; role alignment]