Reading:
- Steve Waksman (1999) “Kick Out the Jams! The MC5 and the Politics of Noise,” from Instruments of Desire
Listening:
- MC5, “Rocket Reducer No. 62”
Duke U seminar on relationship between popular music and masculinities in the United States
Duke U seminar on relationship between popular music and masculinities in the United States
10 comments:
How did MC5’s radical political affiliations affect the band’s following? Were the band’s fans primarily those who agreed with the radical tenets set forth by the political affiliations, or were the fans spread across the political spectrum as the music was enjoyed for what it was in and of itself?
The Bohemian mindset that the early MC5 is very synonymous to how hipsters were on the fringe of society, so it comes as no surprise how the two could be connected. Even their performances, specifically "Motor City is Burning," challenge fixed socioeconomic class systems and current trends in society. Though similar to Angela's question, was it the music that attracted fans or the ability for them to connect with this anti-estabilishment/Bohemian lifestyle?
Does the power of MC5’s music relate to the power of metal? Does it have the same effect? It seems to me that to the untrained ear both types of music are hard to understand. But each has the capability of pumping people up to new heights. It’s interesting that metal involves so much distortion whereas MC5 are not mixed or distorted too much.
Like Spencer, I hear a similarity between MC5 and metal or punk music. I was surprised to see MC5 in the hipster section. While Waksman has convinced me of the Five's desire to be black, or at least their fascination with black manhood, can we really classify them as hipster? Is punk just the next "phase" of hipsterdom?
What qualities of hipster music from the previous class's articles does "Rocket Reducer No. 62" exhibit? Even though the questions asked so far bring up connections between metal, punk, and MC5, how else can the music of MC5 be classified? After all, the article mentions that MC5 started out in a way similar to the beginning of Billy Lee and the Rivieras, which had played at "weddings, bar mitzvahs, and free hops" (Waksman 210).
Yes, I concur that MC5 is an awkward fit in the context of Hipsters week. I should mention that this categorization is mostly something I imposed in the process of organizing the syllabus (in other words, they ended up here mostly because I thought the Waksman article made the best segue into the upcoming section on Cockrock.)
But, in thinking about Evan's and Emily's posts above, I wonder if there is a positive argument to be made for why MC5 *do* fit within the hipster lineage.
In Waksman's article, he claims that MC5's music compelled listeners to "throw off the (mostly sexual) constraints imposed by the culture at large" (209). He then calls this form of liberation "crude" and "anti-feminist." I was a little confused by this point. Why was such sexually charged music anti-feminist? Women were fighting for the option to express their sexuality and desires too, rather than having to repress them based on patriarchal, Victorian definitions of morality. Was the music anti-feminist because even though it encouraged sexual liberation, it did so under sexist understandings of gender and sex? Was all sexually-charged music, then, anti-feminist? Did any of it help, rather than hurt, the goals of the Women's Liberation Movement?
After reading Waksman's article, I wonder if MC5 can be classified more so as a political movement group, rather than a band. Do you agree? Do you think that there were more political motives than artistic expression behind MC5? To follow this up, it also seems that MC5 was transgressive is many ways that Elvis was, including drawing off of black culture and being sexually provocative. Do you think that MC5 gained a lot of inspiration from Elvis Presley? If so, what does that say about their statement? Is it original? Is it meaningful?
Waksman relates black masculinity to the words "cool," "virile," "humility," "abandon," etc (Waksman 222). I'm really curious to know what terms Waksman would use to characterize white masculinity?
“Breaking down the barrier between musician and audience”, “male heterosexual pleasure”, “countercultural movement”—these words ring a familiar tune considering the times in which these styles of music were rising in, but how was the composition of the music affected by the political climate of the times, or what role, if any did it have in political movements? Listening to Rocket Reducer No. 62 made me think of beach/ fun music as far as its speed, but with the distortions from the guitar and the feedback from mikes and such, I was immersed into the scene of a live band in concert, an eclectic and almost transportive style of music that could be associated with masculinity in terms of its “dominant” sound that says “pay attention” and its lyrics, “I’m the man for ya baby”, grunts, and use of onomatopoeia “wam, bam”, tarzan-ish screams; What parts of the recordings/performance are a reflection of the culture behind the music?
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