Roll over Adorno : critical theory, popular culture, audiovisual media

286 Pages·2006·2.13 MB·English

by  Miklitsch, Robert

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Roll Over Adorno

Roll Over Adorno
Critical Theory, Popular Culture,
Audiovisual Media
Robert Miklitsch
State University of New York Press
Cover photo: Action Portrait of Chuck Berry. Frank Driggs Collection/Hulton
Archive/ Getty Images. Used by permission.
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2006 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data
Miklitsch, Robert, 1953–
Roll over Adorno : critical theory, popular culture, audiovisual media / Robert
Miklitsch.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in postmodern culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-6733-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-6734-1
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Television broadcasting—Social aspects—United States. 2. Motion
pictures—Social aspects—United States. 3. Popular music—Social aspects—
United States. 4. Popular culture—United States. I. Title. II. Series.
PN1992.6.M49 2006
302.23—dc22
2005015254
ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6733-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6734-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
It is peculiar to the bourgeois Utopia that it is not yet
able to conceive an image of perfect joy without that
of the person excluded from it. . . . we can understand
why the “problem of the Ninth Symphony” was
insoluble. In the fairytale Utopia, too, the stepmother
who must dance in burning shoes or is stuffed into a
barrel spiked with nails is an inescapable part of the
glorious wedding.
—Theodor Adorno, Beethoven
(cid:2)
On August 20th, 1977, as part of the US bicentennial
celebrations, a Voyager spacecraft left Cape Canav-
eral with a message to other life forms in our universe
and beyond. On board was a recording of the 5th
Movement from Beethoven’s String Quartet in B Flat,
Number 13, Opus 130; also, a piece of rock and roll
music called Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry.

Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Script xvii
INTRODUCTION: CRITICAL THEORY, POPULAR
CULTURE, AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA 1
Popular Music 3
Sound Film 8
Television 15
PART 1. POPULAR MUSIC: HI-LO FIDELITY 23
1. ROCK ‘N’ THEORY: CULTURAL STUDIES,
AUTOBIOGRAPHY, AND THE DEATH OF ROCK 25
A Side: The Birth of Rock, or Memory Train 25
B Side: Rock in Theory 29
The Culture of Rock 30
Rock, Rap, and Riot Grrrls 33
World Musics: After Rock Imperialism 35
Production of Culture 36
Forced Choice: Britney or Avril? 38
My Generation 40
2. ROLL OVER ADORNO: BEETHOVEN, CHUCK BERRY,
AND POPULAR MUSIC IN THE AGE OF MP3 43
Mass Culture, Ersatz Kantianism 44
From Beethoven to Fascism 46
Amerika: Beethoven or Bikinis 47
Radio Days 49
“Roll Over Beethoven” 52
Magic Spell and the Two Spheres of Music 54
MP3 57
Fantasia 58
REPRISE: BEETHOVEN’S HAIR 61
vii
viii ROLLOVERADORNO
PART 2. SOUND FILM: SCREEN THEORY AND
AUDIOVISUALITY 67
3. THE SUTURE SCENARIO: AUDIOVISUALITY AND
POST-SCREEN THEORY 69
Theory: The Suture Scenario 70
Post-Screen Theory: Suture-as-Desuturing 72
Audiovisuality in Tongues UntiedandSet It Off 73
Illustration A: Tongues Untied 74
Illustration B: Set It Off 79
4. AUDIOPHILIA: AUDIOVISUAL PLEASURE AND
NARRATIVE CINEMA IN JACKIE BROWN 91
Cinephilia 92
Scopophilia 94
From Scopophilia to Audiophilia: The Gaze quaRace 96
Audiophilia: Auditing Jackie Brown 98
“Across 110th Street”: Overture 99
“Street Life”: Jackie as Femme Noire 101
“Across 110th Street”: Dénouement 107
Audiophilia Reconsidered: “Asking for It” 111
Counterpoint: Post-Soul Music or Pre-Gangsta Rap? 117
REPRISE: ALEX’S “LOVELY LUDWIG VAN” AND
MARTY MCFLY’S WHITE ROCK MINSTREL SHOW 121
PART 3. TV: TELEVISION, TELEPHILIA, TELEVISUALITY 133
5. GEN-X TV: POLITICAL-LIBIDINAL STRUCTURES OF
FEELING IN MELROSE PLACE 135
Preview 136
After the Reagan Dynasty: “Help Me, Rhonda” 138
From Race to Sex-Gender: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang 142
The Romance of Capital: Fox, Female Address,and
Postfeminism 144
Melrose Space: The Fashion Mode 147
Adcult: The Commercial Supertext 149
Review 151
Contents ix
6. SHOT/COUNTERSHOT: SEXUALITY, PSYCHOANALYSIS,
AND POSTMODERN STYLE IN THE SOPRANOS 153
Shot: The Godfather 154
Citationality: The Gangster as Serio-Comic Hero 154
“I’m a Man”: Crossing Cultures 157
Psycho-Gangster TV: Seriality and Self-Reflexivity 159
À la Recherche du temps perdu 160
Primal Scene: Capicola as Proustian “TeaCookie” 162
Countershot: Case Study 164
Black and Blue: Puzo’s Women 166
Repetition Compulsion: From The Godfatherto
The Sopranos 167
Beyond the University 168
Post-Mortem: Bad Love 172
D-I-S-R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Tele-Psychoanalytic Metatext 173
Analysis Interminable 175
Martini Shot: “Hall Hath No Fury” 179
REPRISE: TONY SOPRANO, MEET BUFFY THE
VAMPIRE SLAYER 183
Notes 197
Bibliography 233
Index 253