In her 1990 article entitled "Paul Simon's Graceland, South Africa, and the Mediation of Musical Meaning," Louise Meintjes discusses and examines the political dynamics involved in the creation of Simon's album. She begins by examining the idea of collaboration, and trying to define it in her own terms while examining what it means to different groups of people. Collaboration, according to Meintjes, happened in "Graceland" at many levels, from composition of songs to the languages used in the album and the politics involved in the associated world tour. She separates these types of "musical collaboration" from her other category, which she calls "social collaboration." Social collaboration primarily involves the listener and the way that he/she experiences the music; Meintjes looks at the music from both a white and black South African perspective.
Meintjes does a great job of laying out some of the intrinsic issues in Paul Simon's album, but in my opinion doesn't further the research beyond articles we have already read. Personally, I would be interested in hearing first-hand accounts of people who were each of her categories to see how they felt about the album - will these accounts back up her assertions?
Discussion question: How can we look at "Graceland" as an ethnography in itself?
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