Since the international breakthrough of The Sugarcubes and Björk in the late 1980s, the Anglophone discourse surrounding Icelandic popular music has proven to be the latest instance of a long history of representation in which the North Atlantic island is imagined as an icy periphery on the edge of European civilization. This mode of representation is especially prominent in the discourse surrounding post-rock band Sigur Rós. This article offers a critical reading of the band's reception in the Anglo-American music press during the period of their breakthrough in the UK and USA. Interpretative strategies among listeners and critics are scrutinised using the concept of borealism (Schram 2011) in order to examine attitudes towards the Nordic regions evident in the portrayals of Sigur Rós. Reception issues then form the basis for a musical analysis of a seminal track in the band's history, aiming to demonstrate how specific details in Sigur Rós's style relate to its reception and the discourse surrounding it. The article finds that much of the metaphorical language present in the band's reception can be linked to techniques of musical spatiality, the unusual sound of the bowed electric guitar and non-normative uses of voice and language.

中文翻译：

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Sigur Rós：接待、北方主义和音乐风格

自 1980 年代后期 The Sugarcubes 和 Björk 在国际上取得突破以来，围绕冰岛流行音乐的英语话语已被证明是历史悠久的最新实例，其中北大西洋岛屿被想象为位于冰岛边缘的冰冷边缘。欧洲文明。这种表现方式在围绕后摇滚乐队 Sigur Rós 的话语中尤为突出。本文提供了对乐队在英国和美国取得突破期间在英美音乐媒体上的接受度的批判性解读。听众和评论家之间的解释策略使用北极主义（Schram 2011）的概念进行审查，以检查对 Sigur Rós 的描绘中明显的北欧地区的态度。然后，接收问题构成了对乐队历史上一首开创性曲目的音乐分析的基础，旨在展示 Sigur Rós 风格中的具体细节如何与其接收和围绕它的话语相关。文章发现，乐队接待中出现的许多隐喻性语言都与音乐空间技术、弓形电吉他的不寻常声音以及声音和语言的非规范使用有关。