Synopses & Reviews
In The Political Force of Musical Beauty, Barry Shank shows how musical acts and performances generate their own aesthetic and political force, creating, however fleetingly, a shared sense of the world among otherwise diverse listeners. Rather than focusing on the ways in which music enables the circulation of political messages, he argues that communities grounded in the act and experience of listening can give rise to new political ideas and expression. Analyzing a wide range of andquot;beautiful musicandquot; within popular and avant-garde genresandmdash;including the Japanese traditions in the music of Takemitsu Toru and Yoko Ono, the drone of the Velvet Underground, and the insistence of hardcore punk and Riot grrrl post-punkandmdash;Shank finds that when it fulfills the promise of combining sonic and lyrical differences into a cohesive whole, musical beauty has the power to reorganize the basis of social relations and produce communities that recognize meaningful difference.
Review
andquot;In this ambitious, original, and compelling book, Barry Shank addresses the relation of music to politics. In the process, he makes a significant contribution to aesthetic theory. It is beautifully written, nuanced yet accessible. Its central theme, on the political agency of music, is refreshing and Shankand#39;s close readings and formal analyses of musical examples are both richly rewarding and entertaining.andquot;
Review
andquot;Treating noise as the recalibration of our sensibility settings and a vision for building community on difference, Barry Shank makes a politics of thorny sound. Even better, when this formerLong Ryders member, turned chair of Comparative Studies, takes on Mobyandrsquo;s half-borrowed and#39;Natural Blues,and#39; Yoko Onoandrsquo;s obstacle course art, the Velvet Undergroundandrsquo;s and#39;Heroinand#39; drone, then Patti Smith, Bad Brains, Bikini Kill, and TV on the Radio with Tinariwen, we get something amazingly long in arriving: an exploration of college radio music by a passionate college professor.andquot;
Review
andquot;Summer is the season for foreground music, when our desire for melodic accompaniment is on spectacular display. It cradles the widely held conviction, astutely explored by Barry Shank in The Political Force of Musical Beauty,and#160;that the word song does rotten justice to certain units of musical experience. As, for instance, when some tune, in the process of unfolding itself, appears at once to exist for us alone and to matter beyond measure. It can happen in a club or a car or a chair. Such an experienceandrsquo;s apparent privacy can make its and#39;political forceand#39;andmdash;Shankandrsquo;s apposite termandmdash;difficult to capture. Shank draws these effects, and insights into the kinds of collectivity they suggest, from an impressive range of musical forms.andquot;and#160;and#160;
Review
andldquo;While few people reading this magazine would object to the idea that new musical experiences can be radically transformative on an individual level, the conviction that music can influence broader political change is more problematic. Quickly clarifying that his book isnandrsquo;t about how music can be a vehicle for sharing pre-existing political sentiments, Barry Shank instead provides examples of music that has created new shared senses of the world and revealed the political significance of sounds previously heard as noise.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[T]his book is very well researched and abounds with fresh ideas. . . . Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.andrdquo;and#160;
Review
andldquo;Shank has produced a very engaging, learned, and wide-ranging book on popular music in itself and especially as it slides in one direction or another to the likes of avant-garde music or art or performance.andrdquo;
About the Author
Barry Shank is Professor of Comparative Studies at Ohio State University. He is the author of Dissonant Identities: The Rock 'n' Roll Scene in Austin, Texas, and A Token of My Affection: Greeting Cards and American Business Culture, and a coeditor of American Studies: An Anthology and The Popular Music Studies Reader.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction. A Prelude 1
1. Listening to the Political 10
2. The Anthem and the Condensation of Context 38
3. Turning Inward, Inside Out: Two Japanese Musicians Confront the Limits of Tradition 72
4. andquot;Heroinandquot;; or, The Droning of the Commodity 108
5. The Conundrum of Authenticity and the Limits of Rock 147
6. 1969; or, The Performance of Political Melancholy 201
Coda. Listening through the Aural Imaginary 244
Notes 263
Bibliography 301
Discography 317
Index 319