Sound Philosophy

A continuation of my conversation with Eric Taxier on Seneca's On the Shortness of Life . 

This is the first of two episodes in which I'm joined by Eric Taxier to discuss the Stoic philosopher Seneca's letter On the Shortness of Life . In this episode, Eric and I discuss some themes of the letter and introduce the larger context of Stoic philosophy and Seneca's place within that tradition. 

I'm joined by Ade Fielder to discuss video game music. We look at different approaches to understanding video game music, ranging from "narrative transportation theory" to film theory to theories of interaction. We also consider games in which music plays a more featured role, including Zelda, Guitar Hero, and Grand Theft Auto. 

I'm joined by Laura Nunez to discuss BTS's Maps of the Soul releases and how the group adapted ideas espoused by Carl Jung to suit their ongoing pursuit of questions of identity, belonging, and self-love. The first segment explores BTS's concerns with self-love; the second examines Jung's ideas as adopted by BTS, particularly in the song "Intro: Persona," and the third segment looks at "Interlude:...

For this episode, I'm joined by Christopher Vogt to discuss the experimental hip hop group Death Grips and how they might relate to the philosophical/political views described as Accelerationism. The first segment discusses the early career of Death Grips and focuses on the notion of the post-human, using "Full Moon (Death Classic)" as the main example. The second segment dives into accelerationis...

This episode looks at the early career of the Beatles and their emphasis on both fun and artistry. I employ a perhaps unorthodox reading of Kant to buttress the idea that fun is a gently subversive intrusion of an unknowable Outside into the acceptable "inside" of society. Then I look at the use of Girl Group music in the early output of the Beatles to suggest that this participates in their sense...

I am joined by my stepdaughter Iris Smith to discuss Taylor Swift's re-recording project, its origins, the problems it seeks to solve, as well as its aesthetic and ethical implications. 

This episode examines Taylor Swift's battle with Spotify and asks why that battle and why then? What did that fight have to do with Swift's career at that moment and what she was attempting with her transition from country to pop music?

Starting by reviewing some basic concerns about capitalism and the need to emphasize desired values rather than focus on direct personal harm, this episode then examines the anti-capitalist work of hip hop artists including the Coup, dead prez, Immortal Technique, Lowkey, and Bambu. 

This episode explores certain 90s hip hop groups and artists who embrace and glorify capitalism. The first segment discusses Strain Theory, the idea that the American Dream encourages its realization even through criminal enterprise. The second segment discusses the Mafioso Rap of Kool G Rap, Raekwon, Jay-Z, and Big Pun; while the last segment looks at Puff Daddy and particularly at "It's All Abou...

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...

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...

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...

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 genr...

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. 

This episode proposes an expansion of Adam Krims's notion of a Hip Hop Sublime (as discussed in episode 46) beyond its application to gangsta rap and involving something other than terror. This is what I term the "numbing or immersive sublime" and it describes that feeling of oneness with infinity (rather than fear of infinity) and is linked positively to Freud's concept of sublimation. The second...

This episode explores Gangsta Rap and the set of production techniques that musicologist Adam Krims described as the "Hip Hop Sublime." The first segment discusses the rise to prominence of gangsta rap and its social, political, and aesthetic place in the 1990s. The second segment examines the notion of the sublime as illustrated in the writings of Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-François Ly...

This episode looks at Willie Nelson's concept album of 1975, Red Headed Stranger . The first segment explores the interest in murder as a topic within country music--particularly examining the tradition of the murder ballad. The second segment examines the 1870 court case of McFarland vs. Richardson, concerning McFarland's murder of his ex-wife's new fiancee. This segment addresses the "unwritten...

This episode examines the Outlaw Country genre of the 1970s with respect to freedom: both in the sense of the artistic freedom that figures like Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings sought within the Nashville system and in the sense of freedom as a topic within the songs themselves. The second segment comes to grips with Kant's ideas about freedom and all the potential ambiguiti...

This is the third in a series where I'm joined by Eric Taxier to discuss Kant's First Critique, the Critique of Pure Reason . In this episode we discuss the Introduction to the Critique. The first segment discusses Kant's conception of the collaboration between the object and our faculties for comprehending that object as well as the distinction between the a priori and the a posteriori . The seco...