Abstract

This thesis explores the spectral presence of the past in contemporary music through the lens of hauntology, focusing on Joanna Newsom's The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004) and Frank Ocean's Blonde (2016). While contemporary music is often shaped by nostalgia, hauntology offers a nuanced framework—one that captures the past's stubborn refusal to fully disappear, disrupting linear time and unsettling our sense of the present. Drawing on Jacques Derrida and Mark Fisher, I explore how these albums engage with hauntological aesthetics not only through sonic elements but also through their lyrics. While Fisher primarily developed hauntology in music as a sonic concept, I argue that lyrical elements can equally contribute to its effect. What this thesis specifically suggests is that inter-artistic longing—tensions between different artistic mediums within the lyrics—creates a hauntological quality. In Newsom's work, literary intertextuality generates a tension between literature and music, while Ocean's fragmented, cinematic narratives blur the boundaries between music and film. By analyzing these inter-artistic tensions, this thesis demonstrates how Newsom's and Ocean's lyricism evokes a spectral past that remains both familiar and elusive. Situating these albums within broader cultural and political contexts, I demonstrate how hauntology in lyric-driven music reflects unresolved personal and collective histories, as well as shifting cultural landscapes in the United States from the early 2000s to the mid-2010s.