Political stasis confined music to entertainment, and formal experimentation is its only radical escape.

Evidence

The idea that music can change the world now seems hopelessly naïve. Thirty years of neoliberalism have convinced us that there is no alternative; that nothing will ever change. Political stasis has put music in its place: music might “raise awareness” or induce us to contribute to a good cause, but it remains entertainment. Yet what of music that refuses this status? What of the old avant-garde idea that, to be politically radical, music has to be formally experimental? — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1273

Categorization

• XREF: Chains to Fisher’s wider thesis on capitalist realism and the evacuation of political alternatives — and to later k-punk writing on post-punk’s political ambitions.