Can election despair be turned to the idea of bad times = great art?

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I listened to talk radio exclusively up to and thru the election. Today, while washing the dishes, I listened to the Clash. And I thought to myself...'Joe Strummer would not be pleased".
Music is usually the first place we look for dissent. We look towards lyrics and rythym to make sense of our existence. The Clash rebelled against a government that basically shut down every idea of work for the common man in Britain. The dole became a job.
Springsteen sings eloquently for the common man, and I think he reaches many people. But I wonder...if this administration remains as radical as it has proven to be, will we then see a birth of excellent new artists? And, who of the ones that exist do you love? Who is going to soothe our souls and love us and let us rock for 4 more years?

― aimurchie, Tuesday, 9 November 2004 03:39 (twenty years ago)

jon stewart.

― :| (....), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 03:43 (twenty years ago)

or is this a misplaced ilm thraed?

― :| (....), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 03:44 (twenty years ago)

Maybe i am too giddy about finally listening to music after months of listening to ALL POLITICS ALL THE TIME. My candidate lost, and rather than be competely suicidal I decided to listen to some music. And I decided it was good. On the next day I ate an apple and then moved some furniture and rested.

― aimurchie, Tuesday, 9 November 2004 03:52 (twenty years ago)

i'm writing a paper about this kind of thing. more like about how music got us into this mess. i can't explain in very few words.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 04:43 (twenty years ago)

unfortunately, hardcore is two decades behind us

― kingfish (Kingfish), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 04:44 (twenty years ago)

I was moved to write a short story about a spoiled young man who gets his mind blown and his priorities radically altered by an unexpected magic-realist deus ex machina.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 04:45 (twenty years ago)

EXPLAIN PAPER BITCHTITS

― Spinning Down Alone You Spin Alive (ex machina), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 04:47 (twenty years ago)

more like a magic-realist JON WILLIAMS. get it?

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 04:47 (twenty years ago)

my paper is an exigesis of an adorno essay where i say capitalism destroyed music and made everyone stupid and complacent.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 04:48 (twenty years ago)

that's it

― adam... (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 04:50 (twenty years ago)

what's it?

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 04:52 (twenty years ago)

the usage of "music" seems a little totalized. i think Adorno would appreciate the contradiction of music that was counter-capitalist.

― Orbit (Orbit), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 04:53 (twenty years ago)

yeah it's totalized because i didn't want to try hard to explain. what contradiction of music that was counter-capitalist?

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 04:55 (twenty years ago)

i mean, reword this, i'm confused.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 04:55 (twenty years ago)

It is hard to be drunk and sincere - well, the first part isn't that hard - but, like, who is a great artist who/whom reflects the current US political split?
I think of Pete Townshend "Slit Skirts". I think that sums it up.

― aimurchie, Tuesday, 9 November 2004 05:02 (twenty years ago)

I meant, that since Adorno was into the idea of people as "cultural dupes", he would be happy to see, a la Gramsci, counter-hegemonic and counter capitalist music. I say this because I don't think he *wanted* to see people as cultural dupes, he was describing the cultural climate he saw around him as he saw the mass media being used to bolster the rise of facism. By counter-capitalist music I mean enclaves of punk which are DIY, anti-capitalist, local scenes and on-profit driven collectives that make music (see Womyn's Music for example). Feminists and punks would make Adorno happy insofar as they were not participating in the machinery of capitalism and instead using music as a force for progressive social change outside of capitalist goal set.

― Orbit (Orbit), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 05:17 (twenty years ago)

"Feminists and punks would make Adorno happy insofar as they were not participating in the machinery of capitalism and instead using music as a force for progressive social change outside of capitalist goal set. "

I don't understand and am now required to drink because you are not Ayn Rand, who really was kind of a nut case as well. Punctuation is a friend.

― aimurchie, Tuesday, 9 November 2004 05:27 (twenty years ago)

For what it is worth...I spent some time reading while drinking- I thank you all for this conversation. I'm not sure i got what i wanted, but i got what I asked for

― aimurchie, Tuesday, 9 November 2004 06:05 (twenty years ago)

xxpost, he would be happy about that kind of thing until the capitalists took the more listenable, saleable parts of it and sold it to the masses as 'light music' (i.e. punk---->mall punk). then he'd be mad and paranoid again. also i only have 10 pages.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 11:36 (twenty years ago)

reactionary art too.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 11:38 (twenty years ago)

xpost to myself, i am sort of mentioning this but of course he didn't know about punk and 'womyn.'

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 11:58 (twenty years ago)

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