Popular Music, Gender and Postmodernism: Anger Is an Energy

237 Pages·1997·12.67 MB·English

by  Neil Nehring

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Anger Is an Energy

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Puhlication Data
Nehring, Neil, 1957­

Popular music, gender, and postmodernism : Anger is an energy / Neil

Nehring.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-7619-0835-8 (cloth). — ISBN 0-7619-0836-6 (pbk.)

1. Punk rock music—History and criticism. 2. Feminism and music.
3. Anger in music. 4. Postmodernism. I. Title.

ML3534.N44 1997

781.66—dc21 97-4590

This book is printed on acid-free paper.
97 98 99 00 01 02 03 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Acquiring Editor: Margaret Seawell
Editorial Assistant: Rente Piernot
Production Editor: Astrid Virding
Production Assistant: Denise Santoyo
Copy Editor: Joyce Kuhn
Typesetter/Designer: Danielle Dillahunt
Cover Designer: Ravi Balasuriya
i

Contents
Acknowledgments vn
Introduction ix
PARTI
1. No Respect for Suffering:
An Introduction to Postmodernism
2. The Vicious History of Aesthetics:
Romanticism, Modernism, and Postmodernism
on Mass Culture and Ressentiment 21
3. Collaborating With the Oppressors:
Postmodern Academics on Music 54
4. Kurt Cobain Died for Your Sins:
Postmodernism in Music Journalism 79
PART 2

5. Emotional Rescue: Feminist Philosophy on Anger 107

6. The Post-Postmodern Voice:

Emotion and Writing About Music 128

Ί. The Riot Grrrls and Carnival 150

Notes 180

Index 195

About the Author 203
i

Acknowledgments
This book is for my daughter Julia, who was born shortly after I came home
from a Babes in Toy land/My Bloody Valentine show. After hearing her first
musical composition, "I Want a Blue Guitar" (the only line), Fm confident she'll
grow up to be a Riot Grrrl.
I owe a great deal to many of my students over the years, who have not only
kept me up to date but also supplied crucial insights into all the issues in this
book. I want to thank Chidsey Dickson, in particular, for his generosity in sharing
useful material and for his general encouragement. The many bright young
people I have known possess a decency—an honesty and hopefulness—sorely
lacking in many older intellectuals. My conviction on this account animates the
entirety of the book: It's why I'm angry, if you have to ask.
Further confirmation of my outrage appeared just as the book went to press,
when the postmodern cynicism that I document went through still another
recycling with regard to alternative rock: see Thomas (Tom) Frank's more-
fatalistic-than-thou response ("Authenticity Crisis, Baby," Nation, 3 February
1997, p. 10) to Jon Pareles ("Alternatives to Alternative: What's Next?," New
York Times, 15 September 1996, sec. H, p. 34).
vii
viii POPULAR MUSIC, GENDER, AND POSTMODERNISM
Parts of this book have been published in another version, which the author
gratefully acknowledges permission to reprint: "Rock Around the Academy,"
American Literary History 5 (1993). Reprinted by permission of Oxford Uni­
versity Press.
Introduction

My favorite new song in 1992 was Bikini Kill's "Carnival." Among the first
Riot Grrrl groups, BK delivers a visceral feminism through punk rock. At the
time I was a 35-year-old SWM (straight white male) English professor, married
and a new parent, and fortunate enough to live in the musical hotbed of Austin,
Texas. The only changes since then are that I'm older, of course, have another
child, and go out less than ever.
By the standard that "difference" in identity from SWMs determines
authenticity, it may seem like sexploitation on my part to offer a testimonial to
Riot Grrrls and to what feminism has to teach us about the political importance
of anger. My previous work admittedly doesn't bode well for such a project. Γ ve
featured too many white males and expressed too confident a faith that humanity
can cope with the "postmodern" world. That easy sort of generalization about
humanity, in particular, is something I have since regretted. As black and
feminist scholars have pointed out about invoking humanity in general, a white
male speaking confidently for everyone else ignores the privilege that allows
him to be so secure, so untroubled by the ambiguities and contradictions of
individual and collective identity. In the worst instances, it's often implicit that
only white males actually count. The chief culprit in either case, historically, has
ix