I would say there could be no discussion of music and philosophy without mentioning the Futurists; probably the only school of philosophical thought that espoused a musical form. The Futurist Symphonies of cars honking, scraping steel and construction noise had an obvious impact on the "Industrial" music that came 60 years later (and Industrial begat Detroit Techno: thereby staying On Topic)
But speaking of contemporary continental philosophers, I'd say Markus Pop probably does a more interesting and successful critique of Deluze's Nomadology in a musical form than (for instance) DJ Spooky ever did. I don't think Pop concerns himself with philosophical baggage in terms of making his music, though: I think his approach is more of a process-oriented one (which in an of itself is a Deluzean manner of creating things like "folds") but not one that's directly referencing any philosophy. Whatever. I want to press a button and hear a beat. e ps: every department has its own focus. The Architecture program I was a part of years ago worked within a feminist philosophical umbrella (though not everybody in the program subscribed to that viewpoint). It sounds odd until you think that a society that could come up with sayings like "a woman's place is in the home" must use sexuality as some kind of determining factor in architectural forms and identities. Phonopsia wrote: > 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 > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
