the political force of musical beauty by barry shank

8/12/2019 The Political Force of Musical Beauty by Barry Shank

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The Political Forceof Musical Beauty

B A R R Y S H A N K


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Reguring American Music A series edited by Ronald Radano and Josh KunCharles McGovern, contributing editor


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B A R RY S H A N K

| | 2014


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2014 Duke Universi y Press

All righ s reserved

Prin ed in he Uni ed S a es of

America on acid-free paper

Designed by Amy Ru h Buchanan

ypese in Chaparral Pro and Avenir

by seng Informa ion Sys ems, Inc.

Library of Congress Ca aloging-in-Publica ion Da a

Shank, Barry

Te poli ical force of musical beau y / Barry Shank.

p. cm (Reguring american music)

978-0-8223-5646-2 (clo h : alk. paper)

978-0-8223-5658-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Music Social aspec s. 2. Music Poli ical

aspec s. 3. Group iden i y in he performing ar s.

I. i le. II. Series: Reguring American music.

3916. 53 2014781.11 dc23

2013042799


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Contents

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S | vii

I N T R O D U C T I O N . A Prelude | 1

C H A P T E R O N E . Lis ening o he Poli ical | 10

C H A P T E R T W O . Te An hem and he Condensa ion of Con ex | 38

C H A P T E R T H R E E . urning Inward, Inside Ou : wo JapaneseMusicians Confron he Limi s of radi ion | 72

C H A P T E R F O U R . Heroin; or, Te Droning of he Commodi y | 108

C H A P T E R F I V E . Te Conundrum of Au hen ici y andhe Limi s of Rock | 147

C H A P T E R S I X . 1969; or, Te Performance of Poli ical Melancholy | 201

C O D A . Lis ening hrough he Aural Imaginary | 244

N O T E S | 263

B I B L I O G R A P H Y | 301

D I S C O G R A P H Y | 317

I N D E X | 319


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Acknowledgments

Te rs lie in every book can be found on he cover and he i le page. Al hough he concep of social au horship is widespread and everyone

knows ha no au hor works alone, only a single name appears on hepublishing con rac . Te name of he book graces only one . When

he work is ci ed, algori hms accumula e he o al for only one career. Isincerely apologize for his rs lie. Te second lie in every book is mosof en found in he acknowledgmen s, where he credi ed au hor ries omake up for he rs lie by hanking all hose who made he work pos-sible. Where he rs lie is one of commission, he second is mos of en

one of omission. I is nearly impossible o hank all who con ribu ed ohe crea ion and publica ion of his book. If your name is no here, you

know you helped. And you may bera e me for my lying ways he nexime you see me. Ill buy you a drink.

I am gra eful for he ins i u ional suppor of he division of Ar s andHumani ies a Te Ohio S a e Universi y, who provided me wi h a wo-quar er leave ha resul ed in draf s of hree chap ers of his book aswell as helping suppor rips o he Uni ed Kingdom in 2011 and o Ger-many in 2010 and 2012. Considerably more gra i ude is owed o he De-par men of Compara ive S udies, especially he wo chairs, David Hornand Eugene Holland, who recognized he value of ye ano her book onpopular music. Many colleagues a helped bo h in ellec ually andemo ionally, including especially Hugh Urban, Philip Arms rong, Ruby

apia, Arved Ashby, Graeme Boone, Brian Ro man, Dorry Noyes, JoePanzner, Ricky Crano, Lindsay Bernhagen, RaShelle Peck, and BrianMurphy. Argumen s and ma erials ha ended up in his book were pre-sen ed o sharp cri ical audi ors in depar men al colloquia for Compara-

ive S udies and he Musicology Lec ure Series, a various mee ings ofhe American S udies Associa ion, he U.S. branch of he In erna ional

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viii | A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

Associa ion for he S udy of Popular Music, he Pop Conference,he Annenberg Research Series a he Universi y of Sou hern California,

and he Pos -45 group. Many colleagues in hose organiza ions helpedme o sharpen my argumen s, bu I wan o give special hanks o Jason

oynbee, Charles McGovern, Eric Weisbard, Josh Kun, Bernard Gen-dron, Ronald Radano, Coton Seiler, Caroline Polk OMeara, Karl Hag-s rom Miller, Kevin Gaines, David Suisman, S eve Waksman, DianePecknold, Alejandro Madrid, Keir Keigh ley, Kevin Fellezs, Penny VonEschen, Alice Echols, David Hesmondhalgh, Shana Redmond, and RoshyKhesh i. My dear friend Jason oynbee helped o organize a rip o heUni ed Kingdom in 2011, during which par s of his book were presen ed

o frigh eningly as u e audiences a he Universi y of Leeds and he Uni-versi y of Eas London, and o an excellen conference he following year

i led Music, Me hods and he Social a he Universi y of Leices er.Wi h he help of he Fulbrigh Commission and he unequaled organi-za ional skills of Udo Hebel, I enjoyed he oppor uni y o presen someof his ma erial o groups a he Universi y of Regensburg; he LudwigMaximilian Universi y, Munich; he Universi y of Ros ock; he Mar inLu her Universi y of Halle-Witenberg; and he Universi y of Leipzig.Early versions of argumen s from chap ers 1 and 3 appeared as Te Po-li ical Agency of Musical Beau y, American Quarterly 63, no. 3 (Sep em-

ber 2011); Produc ive Orien alisms: Imagining Noise and Silence Acrosshe Pacic, 19571967, in Alejandro Madrid and Ignacio Corona, eds.,

Postnational Musical Identities: Cultural Production, Distribution and Con-sumption in a Globalized Scenario (Lanham, MD: Lexing on Books, 2007);and Abs rac ion and Embodimen : Yoko Ono and he Weaving of GlobalMusical Ne works,Journal of Popular Music Studies (Win er 2006). Por-

ions are reprin ed wi h he permission of he publishers.I would like o hank he edi orial s aff a Duke Universi y Press,

par icularly Ken Wissoker and Elizabe h Aul . Ken found wo incred-ibly helpful readers who provided immense aid, Bernie Gendron andRon Radano. Al hough I did no always ake heir advice, his book ismuch beter for heir having offered i . Sara Leone helped guide hisbook hrough produc ion, and Rebecca Fowler con ribu ed an immenseamoun of copyedi ing advice. Ou of no hing bu heir own good will,many friends also read and commen ed on draf s of several chap ers.Big hanks o Jason oynbee, Coton Seiler, Philip Arms rong, BenjaminPieku , Eric Weisbard, and Ricky Crano. Ricky also con ribu ed yeoman

work a wo differen s ages of his projec . He racked down many of hesources ha helped s ruc ure he earlies draf s of many chap ers. More


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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S | ix

recen ly, he helped me nd pho ographs and ob ain permissions for heuse of hese pho ographs. He even drove o Cincinna i o ake pho o-graphs of inariwen for he books coda. Glen Friedman and CharlesPe erson allowed he use of heir amazing pho ographs. I am mos gra e-

ful for he ime and sinceri y wi h which members of Alarm Will Soundpa ien ly answered my ques ions and for he grace wi h which hey al-lowed me o wa ch heir rehearsals: Alan Pierson, Gavin Chuck, S e-fan Freund, Jacqueline Leclair, Pay on MacDonald, Cour ney Orlando,Jason Price, and John Richards. Special hanks o Michael Harley, whoin roduced me o his friends and convinced hem ha his projec hadsome value.

Mos impor an , Shari Speer and Claire Shank pu up wi h a houseendlessly echoing wi h he sounds of Vera Hall, Pe e Seeger, Sam Cooke, Yoko Ono, akemi su, he Velve s, Pati Smi h, Bad Brains, Bea Hap-pening, Bikini Kill, Alarm Will Sound, and inariwen. Shari and Clairespa ience and love make every hing else possible.


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Introduction A Prelude

Te Political Force of Musical Beauty describes he rela ionship be ween ase of powerful musical experiences and he incoherence of poli ical be-longing. Te books basic argumen is ha he ac of musical lis eningenables us o confron complex and mobile s ruc ures of impermanenrela ionships he sonic in erweaving of ones and bea s, upper har-monics, and con ras ing imbres ha model he experience of belong-ing o a communi y no of uni y bu of difference. Te pleasures ha de-rive from his experience are bo h aes he ic and poli ical. Te ask of hisbook is o explore ha experience in search of he abs rac connec ions

be ween hose wo realms. I s key erms are:music, musical listening , po-litical community, and beauty. Trough an analysis of hese erms and aseries of close readings of a group of musical ex s, I ry o demons ra e

he in rica e and incalculable rela ion of mu ual de ermina ion be weenhe experience of musical beau y and he feeling of poli ical belonging.

We all know his feeling: he joy of mu ual recogni ion ha leapswi hin us during momen s of dance-oor communion, when he or

he musicianshit it . We also know his feeling: he profound disappoin -men ha comes over us when la er conversa ion wi h our dance-oorcompa rio s reveals vas gulfs of mu ual incomprehension. I am in er-es ed in bo h of hose feelings. Why is i ha we feel as hough hosewi h whom we share brief momen s of musical bliss mus be like us insome impor an ways? Why do we feel so frus ra ed when hey urn ou

o be unlike us in maters of equal signicance? Wha is i abou hiscombina ion of communion and disappoin men , of joy and frus ra ion

ha cap ures he sense of bo h shared musical pleasure and poli icals ruggle?

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2 | I N T R O D U C T I O N

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Many scholars, musicians, and activists have writen and sung abouhe en anglemen of music and poli ics. In mos cases heir aten ion has

been focused on he poli ical use of music. In mos cases, even in high-quali y s udies such as Craig Werners A Change Is Gonna Come, Marc An hony NealsWhat the Music Said , and Rober Can wellsWhen We WereGood , he cen ral opic is he ways in which poli ical ac ors used music

o forward heir goals. Tese books and o hers like hem have docu-men ed he impor ance of music in social movemen s. Nearly anony-mous Civil Righ s marchers sang oge her o keep heir spiri s up and

o remind each o her of heir shared purpose. Te drive for social jus-ice and he con inui y of black communi y was a cen ral opic in songs

writen by and sung by S evie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone, andcoun less o hers. Te righ o sexual au onomy has been carried a opmelodies sung by Pati Labelle, Gloria Gaynor, Frank Ocean, and so manymore. Bu in almos every discussion of he convergence be ween musicand poli ics, he music has simply served as a vehicle, conveying alreadyshared poli ical sen imen s back and for h among singers and lis eners.

Te Political Force of Musical Beauty ries o do some hing else. In hisbook, I show how music, mos ly popular music bu also some religious

and some pos classical music, enac s i s own force, crea ing sharedsenses of he world. Te experience of musical beau y conrms wi hini s lis eners he sense ha his momen of lis ening has wi hin i hepromise of hings being righ , of pieces ting oge her, of wholes emerg-ing ou of so much more han assembled riffs and rhy hms. Ta affecis powerful. I can overwhelm he mos cau ious and sober ra ionalis .Jus hink of Teodor Adorno rying o explain he power of Bee hoven,reaching for precision ye achieving only delica e me aphor. When wehear he exquisi e combina ion of righ sonic rela ions, of audi ory sen-sa ions of ension and release, of concen ra ed effec s of sounding pres-sure and muscular response, we sense a commonali y ha feels righ ,

ha announces ha hiswe ha we are a his momen is he righwe,hewe ha we are mean o be. Dave Hickey describes i his way: Te

experience of . . . beau y is inex ricable from i s op imal social conse-quence: our membership in a happy coali ion of ci izens who agree onwha is beau iful, valuable, and jus .

Of course, his is no li erally rue. Even when sharing experiences

of beau y, we do no agree on all ha is beau iful or valuable or jus . Isimply feels as if we do. Tis con radic ion, he coexis ence of a feeling


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A P R E L U D E | 3

of uni y and shared beau y wi h he knowledge ha hose wi h whomwe are sharing ha feeling can and do disagree wi h us deeply on funda-men ally impor an maters, has defea ed many atemp s o unders and

he force of musical beau y. How can bo h of hose condi ions be rue?

If we belong o a group forged from musical beau y, no a group broughoge her by an already exis ing shared poli ical sensibili y, hen mos

of en we con ain mul i udes charac erized by difference, no uni y. Ifhis is a group formed in he la e wen ie h or early wen y-rs cen ury

in he Uni ed S a es, hiswe could include free-marke absolu is s wi hproponen s of economic redis ribu ion. I could blend Young Ear herswi h Darwinis s, advoca es of marriage equali y wi h an ihomosexualac ivis s.

In wha sense, hen, can his be a poli ical communi y? Simple: poli i-cal communi y is no charac erized by sameness. A poli ical communi ydoes no consis of hose who agree on he maters a hand, bu ins eadis made up of hose who recognize each o her as speaking wi h legi i-ma e poli ical voices. I is precisely ha group which is charac erized by

he exis ence of meaningful difference among i s members. A poli icalcommuni y is one ha disagrees. I is one where agonis ic s ruggles forpower cons i u e i s daily ac ivi ies. Bu no all difference. A poli icalcommuni y embraces only some differences, only hose differences ha

are fel o be legi ima e. Tis is he unders anding ha Jacques Rancirebrings o he in ersec ion of aes he ics and poli ics. Te aes he ic and

he poli ical converge on wha he calls he dis ribu ion of he sensible. A ruly aes he ic musical ac is one ha reveals he poli ical signicance

of sounds previously heard as no hing bu noise. In his way, an aes he icmusical ac changes he shape of he poli ical. I can render previouslyinar icula e voices in such a manner ha heir beau y canno be deniedand, in so doing, ex end he range of he poli ical o include hese voicesin i s incoheren communion.

Tis is why I insis on beau y as he locus of musics power. Te ex-perience of beau y is he recogni ion of he way hings could be, he way

hings should be. Te abili y o produce beau y, herefore, is an indexof he abili y o imagine a beter fu ure. I is impor an no o confusemusical beau y wi h pretiness or quickly achieved consonance. Many of

he examples of musical beau y ha I analyze delay resolu ion, refuseradi ional harmonic progressions, and avoid melodies ha end wherehey began. Tey largely eschew clean imbres, replacing hem wi h rasp-

ing voices, scraped s rings, and elec ronically enhanced dis or ion. I isalso necessary no o link musical beau y oo quickly wi h an assumed


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eleology of musical advance. Al hough some of he music I discuss wasini ially heard as avan -garde, o her examples were aimed a commer-cial success and some were delibera e hrowbacks o previous forms ofmusicking. Some imes he music I analyze is ou of une and ou of ime.

None heless, each of hese examples crea es a par icular se of ermswhereby he sounds wi hin hem emerge as beau iful. Tey all produce asonic image of righ rela ions, an audible cons ella ion of mobile formsshif ing in ime, performing and occasionally ransforming ones senseof he world.

Le me rephrase ha las sen ence. o be hones , every one of hemusical examples I analyze ransformed my sense of he world. FromA Change Is Gonna Come o Te S ar-Spangled Banner, from Revolu-

ion 9 o Philosophy of he World, from November S eps o Heroin,from Rebel Girl o Pay o Cum o Pati Smi hs versions of Gloriaand Hey Joe, every one of hese and he o her examples I discusshailed me ins an ly, and in so doing, changed me and changed he world

ha I had been living in, making i somehow new. In his book I insisha hose changes were brough abou musically, hrough he onally

moving forms ha made up he subs ance of heir sounds. I spend aconsiderable amoun of ime, herefore, explaining how hose soundsworked. Te ar icula ion of par icular sonic forms is a necessary condi-

ion of possibili y for he beau iful power of hese songs. Tese formswere combined a he momen of he musics produc ion, cap uring anemergen sense of he world. Tey are his orically specic bo h in ermsof he musical conven ions hey engage (including he social ground of

hose conven ions) and in erms of he poli ical effec s hey genera ed.Te forms effec s, however, are no frozen a he ime of produc ion.Tey resona e anew wi h each hearing. Agains music absolu is s, I argue

ha he real momen of musical beau y comes in he ime of lis ening.Ta is when he effec s spread, when sounding sources mee musicallis ening.

Musical lis ening ransforms our audi ory aten ion jus when we de-cide ha he sounds we are hearing are music. Musical lis ening carries

he expec a ion ha a se of sounds can be apprehended as formal rela-ions in erac ing wi h each o her. As awareness shif s, aten ion focuses.

I am no alking abou raried s ruc ural lis ening here. Ins ead I amalking abou an everyday occurrence. Everyone lis ens o music in his

way. Even hose who have no musical raining a all hear some sounds

as music and o hers as noise. Te capaci y o make ha judgmen is in-


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A P R E L U D E | 5

cumben upon he phenomenon of musical lis ening. Musical lis eningbrings oge her he dis ribu ed sensible of he world of he lis ener andmusical beau ys po en ial o ransform ha world.

Te Political Force of Musical Beauty examines several cases of he

musical redis ribu ion of he sensible. I begins wi h an analysis of helayering of misplaced in en ions upon he golden voice of Vera Hall. In1999 he elec ronica ar is Moby released his version of Hall singing rouble So Hard, re i led Na ural Blues. While some heard his re-con ex ualiza ion of her voice as litle more han hef , I argue for hear-ing Mobys work as a means of working hrough he his ory of mul iple

hef s of her voice. Te second chap er discusses an hems, he musicmos commonly hough of as poli ical. I races he developmen of an-

hems from heir religious origins hrough he rise of he na ion-s a e oCivil Righ s songs and even ually he pop an hem. radi ional an hemsreinforce already exis ing poli ical communi ies. Pop an hems are moremomen ary in heir effec s. Bu hey have he po en ial o evoke a newsense of he world. In so doing, pop an hems help o produce he mass-cul ure phenomenon ha Lauren Berlan has named in ima e publics. An in ima e public is an achievemen . Par icipan s in an in ima e public,one crea ed by a pop an hem, for example, feel as if hey already sharea worldview and emo ional knowledge ha hey have derived from a

broadly common his orical experience. Tis momen of commonali yis bo h deeply fel and recognized as enuous and fragile. A song such asSam Cookes A Change Is Gonna Come precisely cap ures ha blend ofvulnerable in ima e commonali y.

Following he analysis of he an hem comes a discussion of wo Japa-nese musicians atemp s o escape he cons ric ing effec s of his ori-cal experience. In he rs half of he wen ie h cen ury, radi ional andWes ern forms of music were bo h mobilized in service of he imperials a e. Wes ern classical music became s rongly associa ed wi h heJapanese s a es modernizing effor s, while radi ional cour music re-

ained i s associa ions wi h he cul ural eli e. Japanese composers ooka varie y of s ances in response o hese condi ions, bu found i verydifficul o escape he widely shared sense ha he s a e was he properorganizing frame for hough and musical expression. In he 1960s, woyoung musicians paradoxically chose o dive deeper in o radi ionalJapanese musical sounds and s ra egies as par of an effor o escape

ha organiza ion of he sensible. akemi su oru and Yoko Ono ook

up he sounds of ancien Japanese ins rumen s and radi ional singing


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s yles in an effor o forge new connec ions wi h Wes ern music and owres hose sounds from heir subservience o he Japanese sphere ofinuence.

Te nex wo chap ers address similar cases. In bo h, a cri ical re-

evalua ion of inheri ed forms enabled a reforma ion of he beau iful anda ransforma ion of he musically sensible. Teore ically, hese chap ersrely on he concep of musical beau y o link Pierre Bourdieus concep ofa eld of cul ural produc ion o he world of power, a linkage ha Bour-dieu leaves only a he level of homology. In he mid-1960s, a manufac-

ured pop group ha had formed in order o promo e a has ily writenand recorded single was recrui ed for an ar projec funded by Andy War-hol. Wi h ha endorsemen , he Velve Underground was able o reorga-nize he concep of he hi . As a rock n roll band, he Velve s were drivenby a desire o atrac a large audience. Bu hey were also freed o re hink

he combina ion of sounds and approaches ha could combine in o ahi . Making he mos of ha freedom, he Velve s crea ed a dis illa ionof he longing wi hin he pop commodi y. Despi e i s leng h, opic, anddroning sound, Heroin, heir rs single, was ruly in ended for hepop char s; because of i s leng h, opic, and droning sound, Heroinachieved a level of concep ual puri y ha exposed he emp y hungera he hear of he popular. In i s beau iful sound, his emp iness was

shown o be cons i u ive of he mos norma ive of desires, linking hosedesires o he secre longings of he marginal.

In he middle of he seven ies, rock developed a self-consciousnessha buil on he concep ual puri y of he Velve s. Ar is ic ama eurism,

coded as au hen ici y, applied a cri ical aten ion o rocks conven ionsas ar is ic ama eurism linked hose conven ions o he ex ramusical.Rock was an impure s yle ha borrowed, indeed s ole, from , soul, jazz, coun ry, folk, and even music- hall pop. Rocks conven ions wereno roo ed in a coheren musical radi ion, bu ins ead were revised andreformed wi h irregular passion. Pati Smi hs highly reexive recongu-ra ion of he poe rock s ar audaciously revealed he racialized and gen-dered requiremen s of he role rs inhabi ed by Bob Dylan. Troughher s udied performa ivi y, Smi h revealed he limi s of rocks compre-hension of he world. A re hinking of musical au hori y resul ed. BadBrains emphasized he vir uosi y required from marginalized groups.Teir focus on speed and precision invigora ed he DC scene, challenging(bu no defea ing) rocks racialized limi s even hough i reinforced he

individualis masculine compe i iveness ha quickly domina ed Ameri-can hardcore. Tis compe i iveness urned inward as he form of au hen-


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A P R E L U D E | 7

ici y i genera ed demanded an ever-grea er puri y from each person.Following on he dominance of his approach, a re hinking of musicalau hori y resul ed. Bea Happening refused vir uosi y wi h an equallyfocused in ensi y. Te au hori y of his band grew from i s aten ion o

emo ional hones y. By rigorously performing imperfec ion, Bea Hap-pening shif ed aten ion away from he means of performance o i s end.Where hardcores au hen ici y re ained a vigorous individualism and aninsis en personal equals poli ical equals personal equa ion, indie in-s illed incomple eness, con radic ion, and an insa iable hunger for con-s an ly deferred meaning. Rio grrrls musical genius was o reforge heconnec ion be ween hose wo approaches. Rebel Girl was an ambiva-len an hem ha claimed legi ima e au hori y in a world of power owhich i did no wish o belong.

Bo h of hese chap ers proceed hrough close readings of recordings.One of he main poin s of his approach is o draw aten ion o he speci-ci y of rocks generic conven ions. I use a lis ening me hod atuned o

he an isys ema ic means whereby grea rock recordings crea e heir aes-he ic in erven ion in o he poli ical. In each of he recordings ha I

analyze, a par icular performa ive imprecision becomes an audible hook,a quali y of sound ha demands he lis eners aten ion. Lacking con-scious in en ion, hese musical ges ures are none heless he key o rocks

beau y. Tey mark he gaps in he capaci y of he inheri ed unders and-ing of he world o genera e meaning and value. Again, many of hesesongs do no in o radi ional unders andings of he beau iful. Teirbeau y and, herefore, heir power come from heir abili y o producesonic images of a sense of he world jus beyond wha already is. Be- yond is he key word here because rocks impulse was never fully u o-pian; ins ead i crea ively imagined a more in ensely responsive worldof grea er sa isfac ion bu no one where sa isfac ion i self was houghanew. Rocks beau y derived from a easing aler ness o an inwardly di-rec ed formal innova ion even as i denied formalism, insis ing ins eadon a direc rela ionship o he ex ramusical, which in urn was no hingmore han a generic conven ion. Rocks formal inversion of i self con-

inues o drive i s cycle of cri ical ransforma ion (as we shall see in heconcluding chap er).

A sense of los possibili ies, of a kind of melancholy ha comes fromrecognizing he limi s of musical beau ys poli ical force, is he subjec of

he penul ima e chap er. Alarm Will Sound is a pos classical new music

ensemble ha ini ially formed a he Eas man School of Music. Teirconcer collage,1969, imagines a musical collabora ion be ween Karl-


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heinz S ockhausen and John Lennon, seting his musical associa ionbe ween wo of he mos highly regarded musicians of he ime in heyear af er 1968s global challenge o he poli ical s a us quo.1969 regis-

ers he sense of loss fel by cul ural eli es as effor s o form a mean-

ingfully broad-based poli ical alliance hrough musical beau y fail. Bu1969 also reminds us of he cen rali y of musical lis ening, of he ruepoli ical force ha musical beau y genera es. While he melancholy oflos possibili ies sa ura es he piece, he beau y of i s own performancein our ime is highligh ed by Alarm Will Sounds acous ic version of heBea les Revolu ion 9. By changing he sounding sources from ape col-lage o s rings, winds, pianos, handclaps, and shou s, Alarm Will Soundencourages i s audience o lis en musically. In he process, he longingfor an emergen and decen ered collec ive spreads hroughou he per-formance space.

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The concluding coda recollec s a number of hemes ha wound heirway hrough he preceding chap ers, re urning in par icular o he rschap ers developmen of he books cen ral heore ical framework. Tecoda also foregrounds a par icular problem of lis ening. Phrased in one

way as he Alan Lomax problem and in ano her way as he aural imagi-nary, his problem emerges from he inescapable limi s ha lis eningplaces on he poli ical force of musical beau y. Even if one ruly reachesou for new sonic combina ions, he lis ener canno escape he s ruc ur-ing effec s ha previous lis enings have had on ones abili y o hear henew. In fac , innocen lis ening, a lis ening ha hears only he newness,is impossible. We always lis en hrough previous lis ening. We alwaysencoun er he music of o hers hrough our imaginary rela ion o hao herness. Tese limi s are no debili a ing, however. Tey simply mark

he ground on which musical lis ening akes place. Te encoun er be-ween he indie rock band on he Radio and inariwen, a band ofuareg musicians, gures he prac ice of musical lis ening across com-

monly recognized borders and differences, no as a u opia of common-ali y bu as a leaning ges ure, a prac ice ha con inues, over ime, orecognize he beau y of new sounds, he force of ha beau y, and heex ension of he poli ical communi y of difference.

Musical lis ening requires lis eners, socially loca ed lis eners wi h

heir own specic aural imaginaries, o shif he resonance of he onali-ies hey hear. Te purpose of his book is o call aten ion o ha pro-


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A P R E L U D E | 9

cess, no o documen i s spreading mul iplici y and cer ainly no oaccoun for each individual lis ening ac .Te Political Force of Musical Beauty draws he bulk of i s evidence from readily available sources, fromsounds recorded on ape and ransferred o wax or encoded in o digi s

and bonded on o plas ic and me al. Te book describes ac s of lis en-ing ha canno be replica ed comple ely bu from which echoes emerge,mapping aural pa hways ha you can race wi h your own ears and yourown leaning capaci ies. Real momen s of musical beau y cap ure he in-ni e specici y of ha lis ening. When you and I hi he dance oor

oge her, lis ening o he elegan dynamism of a perfec bea , we willfeel a communi y ha will never be exac ly he same for ei her of us. Teforce of ha difference is wha propels us.


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Notes

INTRODUCTION. A PRELUDE

In mos cases, Asian names are lis ed wi h he family name rs . A few ar -is s (such as Yoko Ono) rose o in erna ional aten ion using he Wes ernorder of heir names. In hose cases, Wes ern order will be used.

1. S. Craig Werner, A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race, and the Soul of America, revised ed. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006); Marc An hony Neal, What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black PublicCulture (New York: Rou ledge, 1999); Rober Can well,When We Were Good:Te Folk Revival (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Universi y Press, 1996).

2. Teodor Adorno, La e S yle in Bee hoven and Aliena ed Mas erpiece:Te Missa Solemnis , in Teodor Adorno, Essays on Music, ed. Richard Lep-pert and trans. Susan H. Gillespie (Berkeley: University of California Press,2002).

3. Dave Hickey,Te Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty, revised and expandeded. (Chicago: Universi y of Chicago Press, 2009), 71. Te ellipses ake heplace of he qualier American in he original. I do no nd a na ional limi

o his sen imen . 4. Jacques Rancire, Te Politics of Aesthetics, rans. Gabriel Rockhill (New

York: Con inuum Books, 2004); see esp. 1219. 5. onally moving forms is he phrase ha Eduard Hanslick used o de-scribe musics effec s in he absence of any referen ial con en . EduardHanslick, On the Musically Beautiful: A Contribution towards the Revision ofthe Aesthetics of Music, rans. Geoffrey Payzan (New York: Hacket, 1986).

6. For a cri ique of he concep of s ruc ural lis ening, see Teodore Gracyk,Listening to Popular Music; Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Led Zeppelin (Ann Arbor: Universi y of Michigan Press, 2007).

7. Lauren Berlan ,Te Female Complaint: Te Unnished Business of Sentimen-tality in American Culture (Durham, NC: Duke Universi y Press, 2008), viii;see esp. viix and 513.

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264 | N O T E S F O R C H A P T E R O N E

8. Pierre Bourdieu, Te Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature (New York: Columbia Universi y Press, 1993).

CHAPTER ONE. LISTENING TO THE POLITICAL

1. Bren DiCrescenzo, review ofPlay, by Moby,Pitchfork, December 31, 1999,accessed January 21, 2009, htp://pi chfork.com/reviews/albums/5344-play; Frank Owen, Blues for Jesus: Review of Play, Village Voice,June 8, 1999; Scot Marc Becker, Sharps and Fla s: Moby Draws a BoldLine S raigh from he Mississippi Del a o he Sou h Bronx, Connec ing

he Do s of Black Music in a Search for he Roo s of His Elec ronic Craf ,Salon, June 8, 1999, accessed June 8, 2009, htp://www.salon.com/en /music/review/1999/06/08/moby/index.h ml; luxnigra, Moby, Black Appropria ion and Whi e Elec ronics,Te Last Angel of History (blog),May 6, 2007, accessed June 8, 2009, htp://las angelo is ory.wordpress.com/2007/05/06/moby- black-appropria ion-and-whi e-elec ronics/. Abig hank you o my research assis an , Ricky Crano, who loca ed many of

hese early reviews. 2. Karl Hagstrom Miller, Segregating Sound: Inventing Folk and Pop Music in the

Age of Jim Crow (Durham, NC: Duke Universi y Press, 2010). 3. Ronald Radano,Lying up a Nation: Race and Black Music (Chicago: Univer-

si y of Chicago Press, 2003); Marybe h Hamil on, In Search of the Blues (New York: Basic Books, 2008); W. E. B. Du Bois,Te Souls of Black Folk

(New York: Oxford Universi y Press, 2007); Por ia Maul sby, Africanismsin African- American Music, in Africanisms in American Culture, ed. JosephHolloway (Blooming on: Indiana Universi y Press, 1990); Samuel Floyd,Te Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the UnitedStates (New York: Oxford Universi y Press, 1995); Mark An hony Neal,What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Popular Culture (New York: Rou ledge, 1999).

4. Maureen Mahon, Te Right to Rock: Te Black Rock Coalition and the CulturalPolitics of Race (Durham, NC: Duke Universi y Press, 2004); Greg a e,Fly-boy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America (New York: Simonand Schuster, 1992); Kandia Crazy Horse, ed., Rip It Up: Te Black Experiencein Rock n Roll (New York: Palgrave, 2004).

5. George Lipsitz, Dangerous Crossroads: Popular Music, Postmodernism and thePoetics of Place (London: Verso, 1994); Rafael Prez orres, Mes izaje in

he Mix: Chicano Iden i y, Cul ural Poli ics, and Pos modern Music, in Music and the Racial Imagination, ed. Ronald Radano and Philip V. Bohlman(Chicago: Universi y of Chicago Press, 2000); Frances Aparicio, E hnify-ing Rhy hms, Feminizing Cul ures, in Music and the Racial Imagination,ed. Ronald Radano and Philip V. Bohlman (Chicago: Universi y of ChicagoPress, 2000); Josh Kun, Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America (Berkeley:University of California Press, 2005); Deborah Wong, Speak It Louder: Asian

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