Sound Philosophy

This episode explores four understandings of the relationship between the soul and the body (from Descartes, Marx, Merleau-Ponty, and Fanon) and applies that thinking to readings of songs and videos by India.Arie, Jill Scott, Maxwell, D'Angelo, and Erykah Badu. 

Starting with a review of Marx's ideas concerning temporality in capitalism, this episode then explores how the notion of genre involves a temporal understanding--particularly the genre of 90s neo-soul, a term coined by producer Kedar Massenburg. Finally, I apply thinking about temporality to the musical and visual elements of neo-soul in songs and videos by Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, D'Angelo, and others. 

This episode opens with a thought experiment: just what might have Ronald Reagan have understood (all-too-well) in Chapter 2 of The Communist Manifesto. In particular, I examine Reagan's and neoliberalism's take on class struggle--and what class deserves to prevail. Then I turn to Reagan's policies (particularly his economics, foreign policy, and alignment with the Christian Right) and how those policies were viewed by punks. Finally, I look at Rock Against Reagan, bratcore, and some explicitly anti-Reagan punk songs to examine how Reagan served as the "Evil Father" to the hardcore punk generation. 

This episode examines the political side of hardcore punk. Starting with a discussion of the distinction between the first generation of punks and the new generation of hardcore punks and their differing relationship to style and politics, the episode then considers the implicit politics of moshing, the influence of Marxism on bands like the Dils, anarchism on bands like Crass, and the politics of the straightedge movement. 

This episode applies Marx's thinking in Chapter 1 of the Communist Manifesto regarding the corporate nature of the evils of Modern Industry to the situation of the Rastafarians in Jamaica. The episode then considers reggae's move from a local to international culture/genre and how that impacted the proliferation of Rastafarian ideas. 

After discussing the ambiguities of the Marxist position on violence, I discuss subjective versus objective violence and the linkages between the two. I then proceed to an examination of the fraught political and economic landscape of Jamaica, concentrating on the 1960s and the era of independence. Finally, I explore the notion of violence in the sound system culture, ska, and rocksteady--the genres leading to reggae. 

Using Karl Marx's notion of surplus value, I ask: what is the felt surplus in Golden-Age Gospel music (Thomas Dorsey, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Mahalia Jackson)? I suggest various ways in which it may emerge. 

Starting with some of Karl Marx's thoughts on religion, we turn to the rise of Pentacostalism, the emphasis on entire sanctification and speaking in tongues as well as the ecstatic nature of "getting happy," and then examine the recordings in the mid-20s by blind singer and pianist Arizona Dranes. 

This episode uses Marx's notion of the "commodity fetish" to explore how music developed as a commodity in its own right during the late 1920s into the Depression era. 

This episode looks at changes in the record industry in the 1930s and, using the Marxian concept of base-superstructure, examines how the music of the era reflected the underlying economic infrastructure of the late 20s and 30s.