Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Michael Jackson - Marxism-Thaxis Digest, Vol 69, Issue 6
> > Of course this stuff is silly. Aside from the obvious, it might be > > interesting to delve into the ideological content of Jackson's songs > > and his views. Also, the social basis of his pathology. > > > > But to tell the truth, I'm more interested in the Jazz Icons DVDs, > > consisting of video footage of concerts by the greats such as Sonny > > Rollins, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, John Coltrane, etc. I want to spend my > > time with real music, not pop culture bullshit. > > But it's immensely popular with the working class, while the stuff you > list is not. So how does a Marxist deal with that? > > Doug > ^ When an idea grips masses it becomes a material force. Charles ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Behind the Facade
Motown was the label that gave us the Jackson 5. But when Michael and his brothers released their first album in 1969, the label had already reached its creative peak and most of the best work — the stunning originality of the Miracles, the Marvelettes, Mary Wells, Martha and the Vandellas, the Supremes, the Temptations, and others — had been done. Hip-hop would soon appear, and then the violence and misogyny of gangsta rap. ^^^ CB: This is a poor historical summary. He leaves out the whole 70's which was extraordinarily rich musically. What about Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder ? Aretha Franklin. The Spinners, O-Jay's , Earth, Wind and Fire, Ohio Players and the Isley's ? 70's Soul music is the high point of music so far in history (smile). Jackson became paramount in the 80's. Hip-hop isn't until the 90's ! And gangsta doesn't take over rap until then. This demonstrates that Herbert really doesn't know his popular music much. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Michael Jackson
Well, Adorno started thinking out this over 65 years ago. And this is when popular taste was probably far more discerning than it is today, pace Adorno's notions about jazz. ^^^ CB: Didn't Adorno conclude that the working class is no longer the revolutionary "subject" class ? ^^^ The steady debasement of pop music since the late '70s is not much of a mystery, and with generational turnover and the revolution in media technology, it's easy to condition children practically from birth to consume the shit that gets churned out with ever having to hear any real music, popular or otherwise. The results are easily discernable. Oddly, one feels older even than what one really is in confronting the young and ignorant. What was once mega-popular becomes completely unknown to the clueless teenager of today. The memory hole has swallowed up all knowledge of the past, even the most common knowledge. I think of a gaggle of teenage black girls I encountered in the subway a year or two ago. They inquired what I was listening to on my headphones, and subsequent conversation revealed they never heard of P-Funk, George Clinton, or Bootsy. What's this world coming to? ^ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Adorno
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_W._Adorno Theory Adorno was chiefly influenced by Max Weber's critique of disenchantment, Georg Lukacs's Hegelian interpretation of Marxism, as well as Walter Benjamin's philosophy of history, although Weber's influence has until recently been underestimated. Adorno, along with the other major Frankfurt School theorists Max Horkheimer and Herbert Marcuse, argued that advanced capitalism had managed to contain or liquidate the forces that would bring about its collapse and that the revolutionary moment, when it would have been possible to transform it into socialism, had passed. As he put it at the beginning of his Negative Dialectics (1966), philosophy is still necessary because the time to realise it was missed. Adorno argued that capitalism had become more entrenched through its attack on the objective basis of revolutionary consciousness and through liquidation of the individualism that had been the basis of critical consciousness. Whilst Adorno's work focuses on art, literature and music as key areas of sensual, indirect critique of the established culture and modes of thought, there is also a strand of distinctly political utopianism evident in his reflections especially on history. The argument, which is complex and dialectic, dominates his Aesthetic Theory, Philosophy of New Music and many other works. Adorno saw the culture industry as an arena in which critical tendencies or potentialities were eliminated. He argued that the culture industry, which produced and circulated cultural commodities through the mass media, manipulated the population. Popular culture was identified as a reason why people become passive; the easy pleasures available through consumption of popular culture made people docile and content, no matter how terrible their economic circumstances. * (See "Don't Worry; Be Happy") The differences among cultural goods make them appear different, but they are in fact just variations on the same theme. He wrote that "the same thing is offered to everybody by the standardised production of consumption goods" but this is concealed under "the manipulation of taste and the official culture's pretense of individualism". [10] Adorno conceptualised this phenomenon as pseudo-individualization and the always-the-same. He saw this mass-produced culture as a danger to the more difficult high arts. Culture industries cultivate false needs; that is, needs created and satisfied by capitalism. True needs, in contrast, are freedom, creativity, and genuine happiness. But the subtle dialectician was also able to say that the problem with capitalism was that it blurred the line between false and true needs altogether. The work of Adorno and Horkheimer heavily influenced intellectual discourse on popular culture and scholarly popular culture studies. At the time Adorno began writing, there was a tremendous unease among many intellectuals as to the results of mass culture and mass production on the character of individuals within a nation. By exploring the mechanisms for the creation of mass culture, Adorno presented a framework which gave specific terms to what had been a more general concern. At the time this was considered important because of the role which the state took in cultural production; Adorno's analysis allowed for a critique of mass culture from the left which balanced the critique of popular culture from the right. From both perspectives — left and right — the nature of cultural production was felt to be at the root of social and moral problems resulting from the consumption of culture. However, while the critique from the right emphasized moral degeneracy ascribed to sexual and racial influences within popular culture, Adorno located the problem not with the content, but with the objective realities of the production of mass culture and its effects, e.g. as a form of reverse psychology. Many aspects of Adorno's work are relevant today and have been developed in many strands of contemporary critical theory, media theory, and sociology. Thinkers influenced by Adorno believe that today's society has evolved in a direction foreseen by him, especially in regard to the past (Auschwitz), morals or the Culture Industry. The latter has become a particularly productive, yet highly contested term in cultural studies. Many of Adorno's reflections on aesthetics and music have only just begun to be debated, as a collection of essays on the subject, many of which had not previously been translated into English, has only recently been collected and published as Essays on Music. His work on the culture industry has been criticized by such writers as Christian Bethune, who point out both that Adorno's critique is not based on a thorough knowledge of popular cultural forms, but also that it has an "end of history" tone to it. Taking Adorno's critique of popular music to its logical conclusion, one would have to conclude that Blues or rocknroll, jazz, rap or punk, w
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Partial list of famous musical artists who died as young or younger than Michael Jackson
Another thing about the list below is so many of the people named were perhaps the "top" person in their area. Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Marvin Gaye, Elvis Presley and Hank Williams, John Lennon, John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix Mozart were all top "superstars" of their moments. > Another one is Duane Allman. He was in his twenties. Allman > Brothers were a Georgia guitar band from the sixties and > seventies. > > > All > > in list were under 50! > > Partial list of famous musical artists who died as > young or > > younger than Michael Jackson > > > > > > Michael Jackson 50 > > > > Bessie Smith 37 > > Billie Holiday 44 > > Charlie Parker 34 > > John Coltrane 40 > > Jimi Hendrix 28 > > Mozart 35 > > Tupac Shakur 25 > > Biggie Smalls 24 > > Elvis Presley 42 > > Fats Waller39 > > Judy Garland 47 > > Marvin Gaye > >44 > > David Ruffin 50 > > Paul Williams 34 > > John Lennon40 > > Edith Piaf > 47 > > Janis Joplin 27 > > Jim Morrison 28 > > Paul Chambers 33 > > Charlie Christian 26 > > Hank Williams 29 > > Florence Ballard 32 > > Mary Wells 49 > > Tammi Terrell 24 > > Scott Joplin 48 > > Dinah Washington 39 > > Nat King Cole 45 > > Buddy Holly 22 > > Ritchie Valens 17 > > > > > > > > > On 7/13/09, Ralph Dumain wrote: > Reading your posts, I dread whatever senility awaits me. > > At 08:31 AM 7/13/2009, c b wrote: > >Clearly ,even, Michael Jackson reached out to White people in a > >graphic and bodily manner , even. He sort of turned himself into a > >White person. He married Elvis Presley's daughter, the princess of > >white anglo saxon working masses. What a political marriage of old. He > >had children with very wasp working class women. He's the original > >uniter , not divider. > > > >Black and white , unite and fight, workers of all races unite. > > > >And he was an extraordinary artist. > > > >On 7/10/09, Ralph Dumain wrote: > > > And all of them far worthier of attention than Michael Jackson, > > > except for Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls--good riddance! > > > > > > And what this has to do with this list, I can't imagine. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Partial list of famous musical artists who died as young or younger than Michael Jackson
Ralph Dumain Reading your posts, I dread whatever senility awaits me. ^ Reading your post, evidently ,your senility has already arrived ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Adorno
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_W._Adorno [edit] Adorno and Music Theory See also: Critical Theory, New musicology. Adorno's theoretical method is closely related to his understanding of music and Arnold Schoenberg and other contemporary composers' atonal (less so "twelve-tone") techniques (Adorno had studied composition for several years with Alban Berg), which challenged the hierarchical nature of traditional tonality in composition. For even if "the whole is untrue", for Adorno we retain the ability to form partial critical conceptions and submit them to a test as we progress towards a "higher" awareness. This role of a critical consciousness was a common concern in the Second Viennese School prior to the Second World War, and demanded that composers relate to the traditions more as a canon of taboos rather than as a canon of masterpieces that should be imitated. For the composer (poet, artist, philosopher) of this era, every work of art or thought was thus likely to be shocking or difficult to understand. Only through its "corrosive unacceptability" to the commercially-defined sensibilities of the middle class could new art hope to challenge dominant cultural assumptions. Adorno's followers argue that he seems to have managed the very idea that one can abandon tonality while still being able to rank artistic and ethical phenomena on a tentative scale, not because he was a sentimentalist about this ability but because he saw the drive towards totality (whether the Stalinist or Fascist totality of his time) as derivative of the ability to make ethical and artistic judgement, which, following Kant, Adorno thought part of being human. Thus his method (better: anti-method) was to use language and its "big" concepts tentatively and musically, partly to see if they "sound right" and fit the data. Adorno was concerned that a genuine sociology retain a commitment to truth including the willingness to self-apply. Today, his life can be read as a protest against what he would call the "reification" of political polls and spin as well as a culture that in being aggressively "anti" high culture, seems every year to make more and more cultural artifacts of less and less quality that are consumed with some disgust by their "fans", viewed as objects themselves[citation needed]. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno First published Mon May 5, 2003; substantive revision Fri Aug 3, 2007 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/adorno/#2 2. Dialectic of Enlightenment Long before "postmodernism" became fashionable, Adorno and Horkheimer wrote one of the most searching critiques of modernity to have emerged among progressive European intellectuals. Dialectic of Enlightenment is a product of their wartime exile. It first appeared as a mimeograph titled Philosophical Fragments in 1944. This title became the subtitle when the book was published in 1947. Their book opens with a grim assessment of the modern West: "Enlightenment, understood in the widest sense as the advance of thought, has always aimed at liberating human beings from fear and installing them as masters. Yet the wholly enlightened earth radiates under the sign of disaster triumphant" (DE 1, translation modified). How can this be, the authors ask. How can the progress of modern science and medicine and industry promise to liberate people from ignorance, disease, and brutal, mind-numbing work, yet help create a world where people willingly swallow fascist ideology, knowingly practice deliberate genocide, and energetically develop lethal weapons of mass destruction? Reason, they answer, has become irrational. ^ CB: Gee, interesting theory, but since they call themselves "Marxists" you'd think they might mention the concepts "capitalism", "class oppression" in looking for an explanation of "modernity's" discontents. Ya think ? Why not drop the "Marxist" tag to avoid this confusion. Put another way, what exactly is "Marxist" in Adorno's thinking ? ^ ^ Although they cite Francis Bacon as a leading spokesman for an instrumentalized reason that becomes irrational, Horkheimer and Adorno do not think that modern science and scientism are the sole culprits. The tendency of rational progress to become irrational regress arises much earlier. Indeed, they cite both the Hebrew scriptures and Greek philosophers as contributing to regressive tendencies. If Horkheimer and Adorno are right, then a critique of modernity must also be a critique of premodernity, and a turn toward the postmodern cannot simply be a return to the premodern. Otherwise the failures of modernity will continue in a new guise under postmodern conditions. Society as a whole needs to be transformed. ^ CB: Does it now ? Especially, since "the whole is false". Horkheimer and Adorno believe that society and culture form a historical totality, such that the pursuit of freedom in society is inseparable from the pursuit of enlightenment in culture (DE xvi). There is a flip side to this: a lack or loss of freedom in society—in the political, economic, and legal structures within which we live—signals a concomitant failure in cultural enlightenment—in philosophy, the arts, religion, and the like. The Nazi death camps are not an aberration, nor are mindless studio movies innocent entertainment. Both indicate that something fundamental has gone wrong in the modern West. ^ CB: How about white supremacy, the African slave trade , the genocidal usurpation of the Western Hemisphere and worldwide imperialism before these ? They should have read _The World and Africa_ by Dubois. Something had been done gone wrong in the modern West way before the Nazi death camps and studio movies. ^ According to Horkheimer and Adorno, the source of today's disaster is a pattern of blind domination, domination in a triple sense: the domination of nature by human beings, the domination of nature within human beings, and, in both of these forms of domination, the domination of some human beings by others. CB: Now there's a contradiction. Human beings are dominating nature and nature is dominating human beings at the same time. ^^^ What motivates such triple domination is an irrational fear of the unknown: "Humans believe themselves free of fear when there is no longer anything unknown. This has determined the path of demythologization … . Enlightenment is mythical fear radicalized" (DE 11). In an unfree society whose culture pursues so-called progress no matter what the cost, that which is "other," whether human or nonhuman, gets shoved aside, exploited, or destroyed. The means of destruction may be more sophisticated in the modern West, and the exploitation may be less direct than outright slavery, but blind, fear-driven domination continues, with ever greater global consequences. The all-consuming engine driving this process is an ever-expanding capitalist economy, fed by scientific research and the latest technologies. ^ CB: Ok here's capitalism, but really it's scientific research. ^ Contrary to some interpretations, Horkheimer and Adorno do not reject the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Nor do they provide a negative "metanarrative" of universal historical decline. Rather, through a highly unusual combination of philosophical argument, sociological reflection
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Michael Jackson - Marxism-Thaxis Digest, Vol 69, Issue 6
In a message dated 7/14/2009 11:45:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, cb31...@gmail.com writes: > > But to tell the truth, I'm more interested in the Jazz Icons DVDs, > > consisting of video footage of concerts by the greats such as Sonny > > Rollins, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, John Coltrane, etc. I want to spend my > > time with real music, not pop culture bullshit. > > But it's immensely popular with the working class, while the stuff you > list is not. So how does a Marxist deal with that? > > Doug > Comment Pop means popular or popular music. Who is this music popular to and with if not the working class? I love jazz and still get this fuzzy feeling playing Lee Morgan's "sidewinder" and "Gigolo." Although jazz purist rate the mature Donald Byrd "fusion jazz" as unworthy, "Places and Spaces" has been played in my home and vehicle for 34 years non-stop. Ever young person I have played this "album" for falls in love with "Wind Parade," "Dominoes," "Spaces and Places" and "Just My Imagination." Freddie Hubbards "Red Clay" was discussed on M-T when he passed. Jazz has its highbrow (abstract) aspects, and profound individuality. I do not consider "Red Clay" highbrow. Jazz is different . . . a different texture and individuality. A John Coltrane would not strive to play "My Favorite Things or Giant Steps" the same way before every audience and I believe this has something to do with "the jazz form" and the role of the individual as a living organism articulating time and the collective will of the group. The group is subject to the flow of life and changing moods of the audience. On the other hand a Michael Jackson performance and sound, as popular music and dance demands almost perfect repetition before different audiences. I watched one of his Billy Jean performances a decade or so after the famous performance at the Motown 25 celebration. He walks on stage with an old suitcase. Places it on top of a stool and opens it, as if to say "OK, let me dig this old performance out of storage." Then he gave the audience what they wanted. A show and brilliant performance. The working class loves dance music and moving its body. The working class puts it money where its feet are. Michael Jackson understood this very well. All this stuff about MJ brings people - black and white, together is a tad bit much. I believe what is meant is how in the flesh he expressed a certain homogenizing of the culture. First in America with the destruction of segregation and the "race records as an industry," and then in world culture. There is a long tradition of black artists moving overseas where American music is more appreciated. I believe the best documentary I have seen on John Coltrane comes from Japan. One of James Brown best performances at the London Palladium comes out of Japan on the Sony label. Interestingly, I recall an old James Brown interview where he apologizes profusely for any disruption his performances may have caused within foreign cultures. I do believe this was said in connection with touring Africa. Michael Jackson body of work occurs in another period of time, when America's imperial impact on the world cultures is such that no apology was needed or perceived to be necessary by Jackson. In other words capital brings us together. For better or worse; in victory and defeat, in life and death. Here is the degeneracy of our ruling class and the utter bankruptcy of the Southern political elite. Much of American popular music is southern in its genesis. The aristocratic bourbon culture of the agrarian capitalist slave holding class; their utter hate and disdain for slave/working class of the South, and then the overthrow of Reconstruction, meant thy lost forever any moral right to inherit and champion any cultural forms of American social life. It is not like Elvis in the flesh or in death could/can thrive in Mississippi. >From the standpoint of capital and profit if Mississippi had developed honoring the Mississippi blues man and this unique sounds, upwards of a million people a year would trek to Mississippi to pay homage. David Ruffin of the Temptations was born in Mississippi into a gospel singing family. Won't be no monuments to a "singing nig***"" in Mississippi anytime soon, although it is admitted David is one of the greatest male vocalist in American history. Two of the other Temptations comes out of Alabama and James Brown South Carolina. Interestingly there is a Bogangles statue. The statue has Bogangles appearing as he is doing everything in his power to escape the old South. Interesting statue. I do feel discussion about Mr. Jackson's personal life - who he married and his children, is inappropriate to a Marxist list, unless such discussion is framework within the context of the changing form and structure of the bourgeois family as a historical
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Adorno
On Jul 14, 2009, at 1:37 PM, c b wrote: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_W._Adorno > > Adorno's theoretical method is closely related to his understanding of > music and Arnold Schoenberg and other contemporary composers' atonal > (less so "twelve-tone") techniques (Adorno had studied composition for > several years with Alban Berg), which challenged the hierarchical > nature of traditional tonality in composition. Nonsense. That "hierarchical nature of traditional tonality in composition," if it ever existed, ended with the first notes of *Tristan*. > ...the Second Viennese School...demanded that composers relate to > the traditions more as a canon of taboos rather than as a canon of > masterpieces that should be imitated... Which, no doubt, is why Wozzek is entirely structured in traditional forms, why Webern orchestrated (and virtually recomposed) the *Ricercar à six," why Schoenberg wrote both "tonal" and "twelve-tone" works at the same time. Sure. Shane Mage > This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it > always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, > kindling in measures and going out in measures." > > Herakleitos of Ephesos ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Michael Jackson - Marxism-Thaxis Digest, Vol 69, Issue 6
On 7/14/09, waistli...@aol.com > > All this stuff about MJ brings people - black and white, together is a tad > bit much. I believe what is meant is how in the flesh he expressed a > certain homogenizing of the culture. First in America with the destruction of > segregation and the "race records as an industry," and then in world culture. > There is a long tradition of black artists moving overseas where American > music is more appreciated. I believe the best documentary I have seen on > John Coltrane comes from Japan. One of James Brown best performances at the > London Palladium comes out of Japan on the Sony label. ^ CB: A bit much ? (smile) from he of the "very much posts". Anyway, the few facts I presented on Jackson's race uniting symbolic actions demonstrates fairly well that Jackson was a race uniter, which is politically important and important to Marxists with respect to class unity. Jackson was the ultimate "crossover" artist. Marrying Presley was an obvious and wonderful gesture for racial unity. He used his celebrity to reach across racial barriers. His "We are the World " project was in the same vein. Jackson had a unique and creative way of expressing his Dubosian double-consciouisness. He also cultivated a very anti-macho, gentle persona. > > Interestingly, I recall an old James Brown interview where he apologizes > profusely for any disruption his performances may have caused within foreign > cultures. I do believe this was said in connection with touring Africa. > Michael Jackson body of work occurs in another period of time, when > America's imperial impact on the world cultures is such that no apology was > needed > or perceived to be necessary by Jackson. > > In other words capital brings us together. > > For better or worse; in victory and defeat, in life and death. > > Here is the degeneracy of our ruling class and the utter bankruptcy of the > Southern political elite. Much of American popular music is southern in its > genesis. The aristocratic bourbon culture of the agrarian capitalist slave > holding class; their utter hate and disdain for slave/working class of the > South, and then the overthrow of Reconstruction, meant thy lost forever > any moral right to inherit and champion any cultural forms of American social > life. It is not like Elvis in the flesh or in death could/can thrive in > Mississippi. > > From the standpoint of capital and profit if Mississippi had developed > honoring the Mississippi blues man and this unique sounds, upwards of a > million > people a year would trek to Mississippi to pay homage. David Ruffin of the > Temptations was born in Mississippi into a gospel singing family. Won't be > no monuments to a "singing nig***"" in Mississippi anytime soon, although > it is admitted David is one of the greatest male vocalist in American > history. Two of the other Temptations comes out of Alabama and James Brown > South > Carolina. > > Interestingly there is a Bogangles statue. The statue has Bogangles > appearing as he is doing everything in his power to escape the old South. > Interesting statue. > > I do feel discussion about Mr. Jackson's personal life - who he married and > his children, is inappropriate to a Marxist list, unless such discussion > is framework within the context of the changing form and structure of the > bourgeois family as a historically evolved social and economic unit. Further, > the color factor should - as much as possible, be treated as it arose a > historical question and persists. > > > WL. > > > > > > > **Can love help you live longer? Find out now. > (http://personals.aol.com/articles/2009/02/18/longer-lives-through-relationships/?ncid=emlweu > slove0001) > > ___ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Partial list of famous musical artists who died as young or younger than Michael Jackson
Crossover (music) >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical tastes, or genres.[1] If the second chart is a pop chart, such as a "Hot 100" list, the work is not a crossover since the pop charts only track popularity and do not constitute a separate genre. In some contexts the term "crossover" can have negative connotations, implying the watering-down of a music's distinctive qualities to accommodate to mass tastes. For example, in the early years of rock and roll, many songs originally recorded by African-American musicians were re-recorded by white artists (such as Pat Boone) in a more toned-down style (often with changed lyrics) that lacked the hard edge of the original versions. These covers were popular with a much broader audience. In practice crossover frequently results from the appearance of the music in question in a film soundtrack. For instance, Sacred Harp music experienced a spurt of crossover popularity as a result of its appearance in the 2003 film Cold Mountain, and bluegrass music experienced a revival due to the reception of 2000's O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Even atonal music, which tends to be less popular among classical enthusiasts, has a kind of crossover niche, since it is widely used in film and television scores "to depict an approaching menace," as noted by Charles Rosen[citation needed] The largest figure to date for a crossover hit in the US has come from Grammy Award-winning country singer LeAnn Rimes, whose song "How Do I Live" sold over 3 million copies and spent a world record breaking 69 weeks on the Hot 100 chart, more than any other song in history, despite peaking only at number 2. It was also a massive hit in Europe. Contents [hide] 1 Classical crossover 2 Crossover rock 3 Crossover country 4 Christian crossover artists 5 Crossover as a mix of genres 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 Further reading 9 See also [edit] Classical crossover Particular works of classical music sometimes become popular among individuals who mostly listen to popular music. Some classical works that achieved crossover status in the twentieth century include the Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel, the Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Górecki, and the second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21, K. 467 (from its appearance in the 1967 film Elvira Madigan). Within the classical recording industry the term "crossover" is applied particularly to classical artists' recordings of popular repertoire such as Broadway show tunes, or collaborations between classical and popular performers such as Sting and Edin Karamazov's album Songs from the Labyrinth. Early examples of this are Deep Purple's Concerto for Group and Orchestra (1969) and Gemini Suite Live (1970) as well as Rick Wakeman's Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974) and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1975). Metallica's S&M (1999) is a recent example of classical music crossover. Vocally, the most popular crossover artist was American tenor and film star Mario Lanza, although there was no such recognized genre as "crossover" at the time of Lanza's greatest popularity in the 1950s. Signed to RCA Victor as an artist on its premium Red Seal label, Lanza's magnificent voice reached beyond classical music-buying audiences. His recording of Be My Love, from his second film, The Toast of New Orleans, hit Number One on the Billboard pop singles chart in February 1951 and sold more than 2-million copies, a feat no classical artist before or since has achieved. Lanza recorded two other million-selling singles that made Billboard's top ten, The Loveliest Night of the Year and Because You're Mine. Five of Lanza's albums hit Number One on Billboard's pop album chart between 1951 and 1955. The Great Caruso was the first and to date is the only recording comprised exclusively of operatic arias to reach Number One on the pop album charts. The Student Prince, released in 1954, was Number One for 42 weeks. No classical label artist, including The Three Tenors has achieved the success on the popular charts that Mario Lanza did in the 1950s. [edit] Crossover rock Dream Theater had a very strange and unexpected crossover with their song "Pull Me Under" in the early 1990s. Their style of progressive metal was never intended for mainstream audiences, and yet the song received extensive MTV rotation and radio play. [edit] Crossover country During the late 1960s, Glen Campbell began aiming his music at the mainstream pop charts, adding strings, horns and other pop music flurishes to such songs as "Witchita Lineman", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", and "Galveston", which allowed his music to chart both in country and pop. While such artists as Lynn Anderson and Charlie Rich followed Campbell's example into the early 1970s, it was Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers who, dur
[Marxism-Thaxis] Adorno
Here's some "Marxism" in it (smile) 3. Critical Social Theory Dialectic of Enlightenment presupposes a critical social theory indebted to Karl Marx. Adorno reads Marx as a Hegelian materialist whose critique of capitalism unavoidably includes a critique of the ideologies that capitalism sustains and requires. The most important of these is what Marx called "the fetishism of commodities." Marx aimed his critique of commodity fetishism against bourgeois social scientists who simply describe the capitalist economy but, in so doing, simultaneously misdescribe it and prescribe a false social vision. According to Marx, bourgeois economists necessarily ignore the exploitation intrinsic to capitalist production. They fail to understand that capitalist production, for all its surface "freedom" and "fairness," must extract surplus value from the labor of the working class. Like ordinary producers and consumers under capitalist conditions, bourgeois economists treat the commodity as a fetish. They treat it as if it were a neutral object, with a life of its own, that directly relates to other commodities, in independence from the human interactions that actually sustain all commodities. Marx, by contrast, argues that whatever makes a product a commodity goes back to human needs, desires, and practices. The commodity would not have "use value" if it did not satisfy human wants. It would not have "exchange value" if no one wished to exchange it for something else. And its exchange value could not be calculated if the commodity did not share with other commodities a "value" created by the expenditure of human labor power and measured by the average labor time socially necessary to produce commodities of various sorts. Adorno's social theory attempts to make Marx's central insights applicable to "late capitalism." Although in agreement with Marx's analysis of the commodity, Adorno thinks his critique of commodity fetishism does not go far enough. Significant changes have occurred in the structure of capitalism since Marx's day. This requires revisions on a number of topics: the dialectic between forces of production and relations of production; the relationship between state and economy; the sociology of classes and class consciousness; the nature and function of ideology; and the role of expert cultures, such as modern art and social theory, in criticizing capitalism and calling for the transformation of society as a whole. The primary clues to these revisions come from a theory of reification proposed by the Hungarian socialist Georg Lukács in the 1920s and from interdisciplinary projects and debates conducted by members of the Institute of Social Research in the 1930s and 1940s. Building on Max Weber's theory of rationalization, Lukács argues that the capitalist economy is no longer one sector of society alongside others. Rather, commodity exchange has become the central organizing principle for all sectors of society. CB: This is already in Marx before Luckacs. The qualitative shift is indicated in labor power becoming a commodity, wage-labor. It defines capitalist economy, distinguishing it from pre-capitalist economies where commodity exchange is on the "periphery" of society. (See _Capital_ Vol. I) ^ ^^ This allows commodity fetishism to permeate all social institutions (e.g., law, administration, journalism) as well as all academic disciplines, including philosophy. "Reification" refers to "the structural process whereby the commodity form permeates life in capitalist society." Lukács was especially concerned with how reification makes human beings "seem like mere things obeying the inexorable laws of the marketplace" (Zuidervaart 1991, 76). Initially Adorno shared this concern, even though he never had Lukács's confidence that the revolutionary working class could overcome reification. Later Adorno called the reification of consciousness an "epiphenomenon." What a critical social theory really needs to address is why hunger, poverty, and other forms of human suffering persist despite the technological and scientific potential to mitigate them or to eliminate them altogether. The root cause, Adorno says, lies in how capitalist relations of production have come to dominate society as a whole, leading to extreme, albeit often invisible, concentrations of wealth and power (ND 189-92). Society has come to be organized around the production of exchange values for the sake of producing exchange values, which, of course, always already requires a silent appropriation of surplus value. Adorno refers to this nexus of production and power as the "principle of exchange" (Tauschprinzip). A society where this nexus prevails is an "exchange society" (Tauschgesellschaft). Adorno's diagnosis of the exchange society has three levels: politico-economic, social-psychological, and cultural. Politically and economically he responds to a theory of state capitalism proposed by Friedrich Pollock during the war y
[Marxism-Thaxis] Is "Ireland's Economic Crash"
A brief review of a new book Kieran Allen's recently published book is called Ireland's Economic Crash. It is a book cobbled together from a variety of sources. The book has a sprinkling of tables and graphs to lend it an authority it does not have. Indeed the question of the reliability and accuracy of bourgeois statistics is not even raised in the book notwithstanding the fact that there is much use made of them. For instance he claims that "today manufacturing represents just 13 per cent of the Irish workforce.". (Ireland's Economic Crash; page 37) Kieran's statistics are drawn from a bourgeois source. What these bourgeois statistics cannot tell us is that although the manufacturing sector constitutes 13 per cent of the work force it has a very high technical and organic composition of capital. This means that its labour power is very highly exploited which means its contribution to the Republican economy cannot be simply based on the size of its labour force. INTEL located in the Irish Republic is probably a classic example of such a highly productive corporation, The services sector uncritically referred to by Kieran in the book a frequent number of times is a rather ambiguous bourgeois category. This is because many of the services are commodity producing sectors while other are not. This means that many of these services are engaged directly in the valorization process and thereby are direct sources of value. This means that their status is no different to that of the manufacturing sector. There are other more obvious problems with Kieran's use of statistics which I shan't go into now. But, en passant, I understand that John Fitzgerald is Garret Fitzgerald's nephew and not his son as Kieran suggests. (ibid. page 126) The principal underlying assumption in Kieran Allen's book is that there has been a corporate takeover of Ireland. This thesis is elaborated in a previous book of Kieran's called The Corporate takeover of Ireland (Irish Academic Press; 2007). Kieran's understanding of the nature of the corporation dominated state stems from a false instrumentalist and voluntarism theory of the state. According to this theory of the state because the various lobbies and committees are dominated by personnel from the corporate sector because it has more economic power than other interest groups such as farming and trade union interest groups. In that way the minority interests of the corporate capitalists are promoted more by the state. This means that to be effective against the minority interests of the corporate capitalists it is necessary for a radical left wing government to be supported by a mass extra-parliamentary movement. This movement, Kieran would claim, would counter the economic power of the corporate dominated lobbyists, committees and whatever else. However it is not correct to suggest, as Kieran does, that there has been a corporate takeover of the Irish state because parts of that state are dominated, even if increasingly, by significant members of corporations and their satraps. Even though not correct concerning other matters, Nicos Poulantzas was correct when he argued that the state can be capitalist without the capitalist class having to act as the ruling political class. The real situation is that the state is capitalist by virtue of the fact that the state can only act within certain limits determined by the capitalist mode of production. The state can only function if it has power to raise taxes and command material resources. So long as the material reproduction of society is the capitalist mode of production, this power ultimately depends on the success of capitalist accumulation. If the state persistently acts against the interests of capital then sooner or later the conditions of capital accumulation will be undermined and the economy thrown into crisis. The state, then, would find it increasingly difficult to secure the material resources it needs to function. Insofar as society is structured by the capitalist mode of production, the state is always determined, in the last instance, by the need to sustain capitalist accumulation. Yet within such structural limits there is always a large degree of relative autonomy for state policy and political action Now if capital in the form of corporate capital is the leading and dominant form of capital it will come as no surprise that the state is determined, in the last instance, by the need to sustain corporate capital. Yet within these corporate structural limits there is always a large degree of relative autonomy for state policy and political action. This provides a space whereby the state may or may not bear corporate dominated committees within itself. The upshot is that whether a state contains or does not contain corporate or non-corporate dominated bodies is not necessarily conclusive evidence as to whether there has been a corporate takeover o
