Cry Now or Cry Later

[Cheiron]

Decibel article... what the fuck. Its at least interesting. But .. yeah.

http://www.decibelmagazine.com/upfront/oct2006/crynowcrylater.aspx

 

[My Man Mahmoud]

Marxist reading of cultural phenomena = FAIL

Seriously, look at all of the assumptions that have to be born out by reality (but aren't) which are at work here:

1. There has to be a conscious 'ruling class' with a single shared 'identity' (there isn't).

2. Artists cannot have any real creative agency (they do).

3. The entertainment industry has to operate according to a consciously organized plan and stick to certain logical principles (it doesn't).

4. The general public cannot have any agency in what it chooses to listen to and consume (it does).

In essence, this is just the usual leftist screed - anything that doesn't conform to our ideological perspective must be some sort of plot against us. Cultural phenomena are far too complex and their localities too fragmented for simplistic class analysis to yield any real insight.

Like I said already...FAIL

 

[Some Bastard]

"Extreme music as a function of the market economy"

Didn't feel any desire to read any further than that.

I mean COME ON already!!

 

[DBB]

Marxist reading of cultural phenomena = FAIL

*stops coughing and wipes tears out of eyes*

Ohhhhhh....you are in for quite the ride, My Man. Quite the ride at some point, indeed….

You haven't been paying attention, have you? In the pages of decibel and Terrorizer there have been sporadic references to black metal being the highest and purest form of capitalism over the past few months--in a positive way.

The text under examination and the article is more of a garbled and incredibly clumsy Gramscian reading of events, but that is splitting hairs that don't need to be put to the knife. It really is a half-assed, pop postmodern cultural studies approach ( it could be Smith or Proudhon--it doesn't matter once it is run through the meatgrinder), you should familiarize yourself with the difference--it will stand you in good stead in the future.

Jesus….this is just plain dumb…

The ascetic peasant was no longer a capitalist ideal; what was needed was a consumer class that spent its meager income on whatever useless (but desirable) junk the new industrialist bourgeois could crank out of their factories.

The ignorance of the history and development of capitalism and the peasantry (or disappearance in this case) is so deep and vast here that the only sane reaction is to laugh to keep from crying--so Bennett failed in his stated objective.

We like to think of extreme metal as the antithesis to mainstream—and thus, bourgeois—ideals, but in fact heavy music has never more fully embodied the hyper-capitalist attitudes of the ruling class.

If you look past all the terms and concepts being needlessly thrown around here, there is a kernel of truth in this statement. I’m going to put it over an open flame and make it pop some day in the future.

Hey...we all kind of almost agreed on something there. Scary...Maybe we should have a round of sing-a-along. Open your books to "Brothers Of Metal."

 

[My Man Mahmoud]

You haven't been paying attention, have you? In the pages of decibel and Terrorizer there have been sporadic references to black metal being the highest and purest form of capitalism over the past few months--in a positive way.

Your point? The argument being parroted here isn't decibel's own - it originates with Ian Svenonius.

Besides - we're talking about a music rag, not an academic journal. Do you really expect rigid ideological consistency from decibel?

The text under examination and the article is more of a garbled and incredibly clumsy Gramscian reading of events, but that is splitting hairs that don't need to be put to the knife.

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist theorist. You're right not to split hairs - there is no hair to split.

It really is a half-assed, pop postmodern cultural studies approach ( it could be Smith or Proudhon--it doesn't matter once it is run through the meatgrinder), you should familiarize yourself with the difference

And what is most PoMo 'scholarship' if not Marxian class analysis stripped of the ideological and theoretical framework (that dreaded 'metanarrative') that made it make sense in the first place?

The ignorance of the history and development of capitalism and the peasantry (or disappearance in this case) is so deep and vast here that the only sane reaction is to laugh to keep from crying--so Bennett failed in his stated objective.

Not to mention an ignorance of even current reality. Has there ever been a single "capitalism" with a single objective, much less a singular "capitalist class"?

If you look past all the terms and concepts being needlessly thrown around here, there is a kernel of truth in this statement. I’m going to put it over an open flame and make it pop some day in the future.

Yes and no - the most popular heavy bands of every era have always been those least threatening to the ideals of a broader mass society. What's different now is that there really aren't any active bands of any creative significance that really challenge popular ideas in any way that is perceived as threatening.

 

[DBB]

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist theorist. You're right not to split hairs - there is no hair to split.

And what is most PoMo 'scholarship' if not Marxian class analysis stripped of the ideological and theoretical framework (that dreaded 'metanarrative') that made it make sense in the first place?

You are in way over your head, and I'm not going to sit here and type words into a computer to prove that your conception of this designation is about as sophisticated as Jon Schafer calling CNN "the Communist News Network" when it doesn't matter because you are blind.

"PoMo." Christ! That must go down well at the local Kampf Kaffee Klatsch.

So to not make this thread an utter waste, and as long as we are talking about peasants and black metal, here is a link for Encrimson'd. Some people into black metal do backflips over them, but I am little less excited by what they have released than the potential hinted at ("Amber Shades" is a staggering slice of songcraft). The concept and lyrics are amazing and refreshing though