[microsound] Re: privilege, boundaries and class

[Kim Cascone <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I guess my confusion resulted and still resides in not understanding  
> how taking Adorno to task for his dismissal of jazz in 'the jazz  
> quote' is privileged or bourgeois.  Maybe its my insistence of  
> focusing solely on the music that makes it that way.  As I stated  
> earlier, I don't really have a complaint about Adorno on the whole, as  
> I've not read enough of him to muster a complaint.

it is hard for most americans to read Marxist philosophy because a) the  
'real' left has no coherent presence or voice in the US; the result  
being a lack of 'leftist culture', b) the US mindset: soviet styled  
communism 'failed' which delegated the US system of democracy as the  
'winner' - result: Marx has been reduced to being a quaint and  
problematic philosopher who is no longer valid and c) Marxism as a  
cultural critique has been paved over by young fashionistas spouting  
po-mo Sokal-like rants...as a result it is difficult to casually take  
Adorno to task without placing the discourse in the broader context of  
Marxist cultural criticism...
Adorno was a great thinker but he drew from many other wonderful  
Marxist thinkers around him (e.g. the Frankfurt School) and before him  
(like Newton, he stood on the shoulders of giants)...so his opinions  
about Jazz were most likely not unique to him but might have been  
typical of someone of his political background and exposure (as Tad  
pointed out) to what 'Jazz' consisted of in Germany circa 1940's...
since most Marxist critique looks at the politcal-economic context in  
which a particular set of events takes place culture can not be  
analyzed/critiqued in a vacuum isolated from the forces that shape it  
and bring it into our lives...trying to bracket music off into a corner  
by itself serves no-one except music journalists trying to be 'on the  
tip' and people needing their music reviews reduced to clever  
soundbites...while we can (and do) pretend that music is separate from  
political-economic forces, the truth is that it isn't...
so while taking Adorno to task for his dismissal of Jazz is not  
privileged or bourgeois, dismissing Adorno on the grounds that music  
can be separated from the political-economic forces that shape it is.

for a broad introduction to Adorno you might want to check out a  
collection of his essays titled: "Prisms"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0262510251/ref=lpr_g_2/ 
103-2427804-5497424?v=glance&s=books
there is a used copy or two through Amazon for around $10.00


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