It's Not What You Know...



I keep stating this but to me theme music is almost like the prime numbers of music. I suppose because almost everyone who becomes a musician first experienced high quality sound at the cinema and so even if only subconsciously, they all aspire to compose and perform something at least as powerful and at least as focused although concice is a consistant failing. To communicate in seven minutes a sentiment a score manages in seven seconds.

@XKeyscore +1359
 


It isn't a HARD drug until someone has written a song about it.

@XKeyscore +1362
 
@Shambles - I'm still having to self-censor because Boyd Rice, Whitehouse and even Peter Soros are frankly the tip of the transgressive mountain. I have omitted Death In June because they are awful but like Boyd Rice, they play around fascist symbology, ethics and beliefs. That said, have you actually seen interviews with them? Weak people who think that the strong should control the weak, the intelligent rule the strong. With them being the 'intelligent' and THEY infer the 'strong' to be stupid. Something of an oxymoron.

But as a society we see the sexual exploitation of children to be more transgressive than people who TRULY believe that billions of people should be systematically exterminated? Because all of those fascist regimes REQUIRE an outgroup to blame. Rape as torture seemingly being a commonality within Fascism. Extermination IS a commonality. So being more shocked by individual cases rather than a systematic tool does somewhat illustrate Stalin noting that 'one person killed in a car accident is a tragedy. Exterimation of seventeen million people is just a statistic'.

So while not exactly a Rice/Soros supporter, I've found most people suggest that the works have 'nothing more than shock value' missing the point that shocking is precicely what the works are supposed to be! Eliciting strong emotions is a defining metric of great art. I find Marilyn Manson far more objectionable than say Rick Astley because the former self-censored and essentially worked within guidelines. Designer transgression if you will.

So CAN I post works by Antonin Artaud? Because his entire 'theatre of cruelty' theory was developed in the 1920s is the first to openly say that art SHOULD shock.

I am assuming you understand what 'Why You Never Became a Dancer' was so transgressive. BUT it is a reasoned critique of the whole Britart movement where 'young' artists were making milllions. So Tracy Emin is a one-trick pony yet is inexplicibly regarded as a great artist. To monitize her teen traumas is a pathway unavailable to the millions of other victims. She even made it clear that at least some of it was invention so again, designer transgression.

You need not agree with my positions on this but I am not someone who invests everything into a given position because my position may change if confornted with further information. Don't mistake this for some manner of half-arsed manifesto but as far as I can tell, Arutard's book collected writings 'Le Théâtre et son double' (The Theatre and it's Double) has been a blueprint for many if not most transgresive artists.

BTW didn't make use of the original Whitehouse video because it's even more transgressive for several reasons. It simply appeared on Youtube one day and for months nobody really knew what it was. But when you find out, you realize that combined with the sound, it's a rebuttal by a victim.

My 8o reaction was more that anybody posted anything from that album. Personally I have mixed feelings about it - and similar works - but am certainly not against it in principle.

I will go to bat for Tracy Emin though. I think that her most prominent works are obviously of a time, but don’t feel that negates the impact. Nor do I think interweaving fact and fiction is an issue. That’s literally how all art functions. Some of her more recent work is simply objectively physically beautiful to the eye so maybe functions better for those who value that style of art better.

EDIT: and a song…

 


The inevitable Throbbing Gristle track. Far less well known than the A-side (Zyklon B Zombie) although one has to ask just how many people found ZBZ because it was mentioned in the BBC Comedy series 'Ideal'. Graham Duff is a man of many parts.

@XKeyscore +1366
 
Top