Scenes against solitude: dialog in pop duets

This article is an exploratory study of the pop duet, a category we define as a pop song with two vocalists that sing in alternation, both with leading roles that are recognizable and with independent subjectivities. The pop duet experienced a boom in popularity in the 1980s, although it has ties to much older traditions. We consider the duet an interesting object of analysis because of its commercial success, its emotional intensity and its relative alterity within a pop landscape dominated by soloists. Duets establish a situation in which two singers interact and that we attend to as listeners-spectators; this is why we consider them scenes. Given its theatrical quality, we approach the duet interdisciplinarily. We define it from within popular music studies and analyze it incorporating perspectives from playwriting analysis and theatre studies. We present two main conclusions: in most pop duets there is no dramatic conflict between the characters, and pop duets’ playful quality surpasses the possibilities of dramatic development.