Music writers’ disclaimers of theory mirror rock bands’ anti-intellectual mantras and reinforce consumerism
Evidence
Whereas Morley and Penman (self-taught working-class intellectuals both) complicated the relationship between theory and popular culture with writing that — in its formal properties, its style and its erudition, as well as in its content — contested commonsense, Deflationary Hedonic Relativism merely ratifies the empiricist dogmas that underpin consumerism. More than that, Owen Hatherley has astutely observed that, in addition to reiterating the standard Anglo-American bluff dismissal of metaphysics, the Deflationary Hedonistic Relativist disclaiming of theory (“we just like what we like, we don’t have a theory”) uncannily echoes the dreary mantras of the average NME indie band: “we just do what we do, anything else is a bonus”, “the music is the only important thing”. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1212
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Fisher’s broader K-Punk critiques of ‘popist’ anti-theory and Anglo-American empiricism; also to the common observation that rejecting theory is itself a theoretical position. — connects to: The stated rationales for musical arrangement conceal economic and aesthetic falsity; Theory’s embrace of immediacy compounds broader deskilling and anti-expert culture — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 251; Serious pop criticism contested common sense while popism ratifies consumerism — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1212 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Theory’s embrace of immediacy compounds broader deskilling and anti-expert culture
#expands(0.85) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 251 - The stated rationales for musical arrangement conceal economic and aesthetic falsity
#corroborates(0.82) - Serious pop criticism contested common sense while popism ratifies consumerism
#complicates(0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1212 - Poptimism merged music criticism with progressive identity politics
#expands(0.75) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 120 - Extreme Foucauldian premises reduce theory to passive consumption of discourse
#corroborates(0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 112