Can anyone think of contemporary artists who use postmodern thought to good effect in their music today? Skinny Puppy did it well once and you could make the argument that Stereolab is messing around with French philosophy. I'm having trouble thinking of many other artists who do it well, or who actually have any of the philosophical background to understand the concepts beneath the surface. It's been my experience that a lot of people skip straight to the recent thought (I tried it and realized I should probably go back and get the background before plungeing in), and miss a whole lot of philosophical/psychological/anthropological history in the process. I've also noticed that at least at the University of Iowa, the philosophy department seems to avoid postmodern continental thought focusing on contemporary Anglo-American philosophy, whereas most criticism programs skip the philosophy and head straight into the newer stuff. Probably a huge factor...
Tristan ========================================== PHONOPSIA<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Lounge/5102 "FrogboyMCI" on AOL Instant Messenger New Album, "Québécois", online now. -----Original Message----- From: Lester Kenyatta Spence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Cyclone Wehner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: 313 Detroit <313@hyperreal.org> Date: Monday, July 10, 2000 5:52 PM Subject: Re: [313] DJ Spooky/Dave Clarke >On Mon, 10 Jul 2000, Cyclone Wehner wrote: > >> I've seen him and he was OK - he did this live double-bass thing as well, >> not a great DJ, but the concept was interesting. Spooky doesn't see himself >> as mainstream at all, in fact he gets a lot of flack for his intellectual >> approach from the NY establishment. He sees it like, why can't an >> African-American man be an intellectual, a conceptualist, I don't want to do >> what the mainstream deems to be 'Black music' like gangsta rap or whatever. >> He is big on contemporary French philosophy (more influential than you'd >> think) and sees himself as intervening in those discourses. > >I think this is how he sees himself. But in discussions with him in >another email forum (dedicated to the idea of "afrofuturism") I've come to >the conclusion that he's running the DJ equivalent of a "Proudhon scam." > >Proudhon was a French philosopher cum activist who, when with philosophers >would tout his activist credentials, and when with activists would tout >his philosophy credentials. But Karl Marx peeped that he was actually >NEITHER--his thoughts weren't that deep, and he simply wasn't doing any >activist work, just faking it. > >I suspect that when he's with DJ's what he's really trying to claim is his >reading of Marcuse, or Foucault, or even Cruse....but when he's with >intellectuals, he's trying to claim his status as a DJ. But when I've >tried to talk to him about the intellectual end...his ideas are shallow at >best. He ends up losing in the long run because in the end his body of >work won't be worth noting in either category....but in the short run he >gets PAID. > >peace >lks > > ----------------------------------------------- > Lester Kenyatta Spence [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Assistant Professor, Political Science > Washington University at St. Louis > > "We illuminate the contradictions and call it > the light" > ----------------------------------------------- > > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- >To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com
