The Deeper Thinking Podcast

🎙️ Not Like Us – Power, Spectacle, and Subversion in Performance


Listen Later

What happens when a halftime show becomes more than just a performance? When an artist refuses to be confined by the expectations of entertainment and instead transforms the moment into an intellectual intervention?

Kendrick Lamar didn’t just perform—he dismantled, reconstructed, and redefined what it means to occupy the world’s biggest stage. From the deliberate subversion of spectacle to the strategic deployment of silence, every movement, every note, and every disruption carried layers of meaning beyond the music itself.

Is entertainment just another apparatus of control?

Can performance be a form of resistance?
What happens when a stage built for nostalgia becomes a battleground for critical thought?

This episode explores how Lamar’s performance can be understood through the lens of Foucault’s power structures, Deleuze’s concept of disruption, and Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence. We break down how his choices—his refusal to conform, his engagement with historical memory, his manipulation of expectation—mirror deeper philosophical inquiries into control, agency, and subversion.

📖 Books for Further Reading

📖 Discipline and Punish – Michel Foucault

🔹 A foundational exploration of how power operates through spectacle and discipline, shaping behavior in ways we don’t even realize.
🔗 Amazon affiliate link

📖 Difference and Repetition – Gilles Deleuze

🔹 A radical rethinking of repetition as a force of disruption rather than monotony, crucial to understanding the strategic subversions at play in artistic performance.
🔗 Amazon affiliate link

📖 The Birth of Tragedy – Friedrich Nietzsche

🔹 Explores the tension between order and chaos in art, mirroring how Lamar balances structured performance with raw improvisational force.
🔗 Amazon affiliate link

📖 The Society of the Spectacle – Guy Debord

🔹 A seminal text analyzing how modern society turns everything into spectacle, echoing the Super Bowl’s transformation of performance into commodified entertainment.
🔗 Amazon affiliate link

📖 Specters of Marx – Jacques Derrida

🔹 A study of absence and presence in cultural memory, resonating with Lamar’s use of silence, symbolism, and historical allusions in his performance.
🔗 Amazon affiliate link

☕ Support The Deeper Thinking Podcast – Buy Me a Coffee!

Love our deep-dive discussions on philosophy, culture, and power? Your support helps us:

✅ Produce more in-depth episodes with expert insights
✅ Cover research & hosting costs to keep content free for all

Every coffee fuels our mission to think deeper, ask better questions, and share knowledge with our community.

➡️ Buy Me a Coffee Here

🔎 Further Research on Perplexity.ai

The Role of Spectacle in Power Structures

Deleuze’s Theories of Subversion in Art

The Philosophy of Absence and Presence

🎧 Listen Now On:

🔹 YouTube
🔹 Spotify
🔹 Apple Podcasts

🔥 Exclusive Offer: Get Surfshark VPN

Our team relies on Surfshark VPN for secure, unrestricted access to global content across laptops, phones, and TV. It enables us to bypass regional restrictions while protecting our online privacy.

➡️ Get Surfshark VPN here and start browsing securely!

 

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Deeper Thinking PodcastBy The Deeper Thinking Podcast

  • 4.2
  • 4.2
  • 4.2
  • 4.2
  • 4.2

4.2

71 ratings


More shows like The Deeper Thinking Podcast

View all
The One You Feed by Eric Zimmer

The One You Feed

2,511 Listeners

The Psychology Podcast by iHeartPodcasts

The Psychology Podcast

1,830 Listeners

10% Happier with Dan Harris by 10% Happier

10% Happier with Dan Harris

12,581 Listeners

THIRD EYE DROPS by Michael Phillip

THIRD EYE DROPS

1,242 Listeners

Living Myth by Michael Meade

Living Myth

967 Listeners

This Jungian Life Podcast by Joseph Lee, Deborah Stewart, Lisa Marchiano

This Jungian Life Podcast

1,555 Listeners

New Thinking Allowed Audio Podcast by New Thinking Allowed Audio Podcast

New Thinking Allowed Audio Podcast

255 Listeners

The Emerald by Joshua Schrei

The Emerald

956 Listeners

Near Death Experiences And Supernatural Events by The NDE LAB

Near Death Experiences And Supernatural Events

307 Listeners

The Paranormal UFO Consciousness Podcast by Grant Cameron

The Paranormal UFO Consciousness Podcast

95 Listeners

Next Level Soul Podcast with Alex Ferrari by Alex Ferrari

Next Level Soul Podcast with Alex Ferrari

845 Listeners

Gaia Consciousness by Gaia.com

Gaia Consciousness

277 Listeners

Know Thyself by André Duqum

Know Thyself

580 Listeners

The Telepathy Tapes by Ky Dickens

The Telepathy Tapes

7,581 Listeners

The Nature Of with Willow Defebaugh by Atmos

The Nature Of with Willow Defebaugh

93 Listeners