Les performances d’improvisation de Tanya Tagaq : une analyse descriptive de la culture ethno-pop

Abstract

Inuk singer Tanya Tagaq, who practices a form of throat singing called “katajjaq” in a pop-electro-experimental musical context, is likely to be representative of a whole generation of Aboriginal artists. Just like Tagaq, artists such as Lucie Idlout, Elisapie Isaac or Celina Kalluk go beyond their cultural range to feed themselves with various influences in order to integrate their creations to the transnational artistic production. Which specific aspects of Tagaq’s practice reveal, on the one hand, a more traditional practice and, on the other, a contemporary practice? How does this cultural dialogue manifest itself on stage? To better understand her aesthetic behaviour, we will consider how Tagaq builds her improvisations, based on traditional katajjaq and on Occidental musical and cultural codes. Once observed, these elements express the identity building of the young Aboriginal generation, whose multidisciplinary and transnational creation enriches and reflects this voluntary movement, not as a quest but as a conquest for a new cultural balance. This constant dialogue between her inuk roots and her integration on the transnational contemporary scene (two poles of attraction defining Tagaq’s cosmopolitan profile), is well served by ethno-pop.

Keywords

• Tanya Tagaq
• ethno-pop
• aesthetic cosmopolitanism
• katajjaq
• improvisatory performances
• performance analysis