Musical origins themselves harbor ghosts, undoing authenticity claims

Evidence

There is no doubt that blues has a privileged position in pop’s metaphysics of presence: the image of the singer-songwriter alone with his guitar provides rockism with its emblem of authenticity and authorship. But Little Axe’s return to the supposed beginnings unsettles this by showing that there were ghosts at the origin. Hauntology is the proper temporal mode for a history made up of gaps, erased names and sudden abductions. The traces of gospel, spirituals and blues out of which Stone Cold Ohio is assembled are not the relics of a lost presence, but the fragments of a time permanently out of joint. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 302

Categorization

• DEFINE: Positions hauntology as the temporal mode proper to histories of gaps, erased names, and abductions like slavery.
• XREF: Connects to rockism and authenticity debates in popular music criticism; also to the family-as-haunted-structure claim from ch6. — connects to: Little Axe songs are accreted palimpsests rather than authored works — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 303; Dub blues evokes phantom-slave continuities rather than merely nostalgic sound — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 297; Authenticity judgments are shifting from origin to method of production — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 274 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• A mythical original whose authenticity cannot be verified anticipates deepfake provenance anxieties #expands (0.85) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 691
• A band’s inauthenticity can itself be its genuine artistic material. #qualifies (0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1052
• Authenticity judgments are shifting from origin to method of production #expands (0.78) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 274
• Return to authentic origins is impossible for modern subjects #corroborates (0.78) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 822