{"id":109,"date":"2017-10-14T23:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-10-15T03:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-01\/?p=109"},"modified":"2017-10-14T23:00:27","modified_gmt":"2017-10-15T03:00:27","slug":"from-a-house-you-didnt-build-and-cant-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-01\/uncategorized\/from-a-house-you-didnt-build-and-cant-control\/","title":{"rendered":"From a House You Didn’t Build and Can’t Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

When culture is mass-produced, all art is in danger of becoming the same.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n


\n<\/i>The historical deepening of capitalism has led to the homogenization of culture. \u00a0At least Theodor W. Adorno\u2014a German critical theorist\u2014 thought so. \u00a0In \u201cThe Culture Industry,\u201d Adorno argues that \u201ceach branch of culture\u201d has become \u201cunanimous with itself,\u201d as the burgeoning of mass production and mass consumption have developed hand in hand (Adorno 94). \u00a0Adorno\u2019s \u201cculture industry\u201d\u2014a theoretical system that weds technology and economics\u2014is a structure of domination in which those with power exercise their capacity to shape the mentality of the public (94, 95). \u00a0It is in the interest of capital to reduce dissent, to create easily satisfied desires, and to perpetuate itself. \u00a0And so, Adorno argues, potentially \u201cunruly\u201d forms like art, literature, and music are driven inexorably to sameness (99). \u00a0The result, in Adorno\u2019s view, is that \u201cgreat\u201d and \u201cserious\u201d art has been replaced by shallow forms that lend themselves to large-scale reproduction. \u00a0Art is \u201csubordinate[ed] \u2026 to [a] formula\u201d and the masses learn to be satisfied with that (99).<\/p>\n

Many contemporary music critics would agree with Adorno.<\/p>\n

Digital delivery means that consumers can stream or pirate the songs with the best hooks; music services rush to provide pre-selected playlists that further universalize the listening experience of consumers\u2014less and less aesthetic or intellectual effort is required of the audience (Hosenager; Serra; Collins). Much contemporary popular music does indeed deny listeners\u2014in Adorno\u2019s words\u2014 \u201cany dimension in which they might roam freely in imagination\u201d (100).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In other words, we like what Apple or Spotify wants us to like, while the profits roll to the shareholders. \u00a0But is it really that simple? \u00a0Modern music has trend-buckers as well as conformists. \u00a0Consider Vampire Weekend, an indie rock band whose most recent album, Modern Vampires of the City<\/i>, embodies many of the qualities that Adorno associates with great art: complexity, a willingness to counter prevailing ideologies, and the presumption of an engaged audience. Has Vampire Weekend found a way to escape the homogenizing forces that Adorno identified? \u00a0Or is their resistance only a qualified success, limited by the mass production landscape in which they necessarily function as commercial artists?<\/p>\n

No question that Vampire Weekend embraces complexity, a quality that Adorno sees as a primary casualty of capitalism (101, 96). \u00a0From the beginning, Vampire Weekend has blended intricate lyrics and sounds. \u00a0The band\u2014formed by Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Baio, and Chris Tomson while they were students at Columbia University\u2014launched their career with work that melded post-punk guitars with African pop music and ska, layered with wry vocals that addressed upper class life in New England and New York, composed by four men in Polo sweaters. \u00a0The interplay of elements in tension\u2014vividly evident in songs like “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>and “Giving up the Gun”<\/a>\u2014is at the center of Vampire Weekend <\/i>and Contra<\/i>.
\n
\nModern Vampires of the City<\/i>, released in 2013, is more intricate still. \u00a0The album is fundamentally concerned with the interplay of opposites, Adorno\u2019s \u201ctensions between the poles\u201d (102). \u00a0Musically, the album is constructed dually around pianos and muted guitars\u2014and auto-tune, which is used to distort Koenig\u2019s vocals and provide syncopated rhythms. \u00a0While more somber than the band\u2019s earlier releases, the melodies themselves are lighter\u2014which contrasts with the dark content of the stories they tell.<\/p>\n

The album opens with \u201cObvious Bicycle,\u201d<\/a> which follows a man who Koenig sings \u201coughta spare [his] face the razor \/ Because no one\u2019s going to spare the time for [him].\u201d \u00a0The song is a set-up for considerations that come later in the album, but it perfectly embodies a tense relationship between music and the lyrics\u2014the piano is soft and in the background, creating a dramatic contrast that emphasizes the harshness of the story itself. \u00a0Indeed, \u201cObvious Bicycle\u201d plays on that sharp contrast. \u00a0The melody is pleasant and quiet, but the narrator tells his friend he no longer has a reason to live and that he might as well \u201cspare the world a traitor.\u201d \u00a0This surprising \u00a0interplay\u2014between the lightness of the music and the darkness of the message\u2014is the sort of \u201cunresolved dissonance\u201d that the culture industry seems designed to squash (Adorno 101).<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nVampire Weekend\u2019s fascination with opposites and ambiguity is matched by a predilection for social critique. \u00a0Those criticisms are often implicit in their early work, where the contrast between the lyrics\u2019 preppy concerns and the world music overtones speak quietly about power. \u00a0But in Modern Vampires of the City<\/i>, the band more powerfully and directly challenges prevailing beliefs about class and religion, calling into question Adorno\u2019s claims about the inevitable ideological sameness of mass produced art (136). \u00a0Modern Vampires <\/i>suggests there are real choices to be made\u2014and real consequences to consider\u2014about faith, about aging, and about our relationships with one another.<\/p>\n

Pushback against social constructs preoccupies much of the album. \u00a0Koenig starts locally, arguing for the autonomy of the individual\u2014himself\u2014above the group. \u00a0On \u201cStep,\u201d<\/a> Koenig finds himself fighting against the judgements of the \u00a0\u201cpunks who would laugh when they saw us together,\u201d and the relatives who would only admire \u201ctales of a past life,\u201d finding solace in himself and his own growing up. \u00a0And on \u201cDiane Young,\u201d Koenig flips the narrative structure, condemning an Irish girl \u201cwith the luck of a Kennedy\u201d and others whose youthful exuberance has led them to \u201ctorch[] the Saab\u201d and go \u201ctottering off into that good night,\u201d all while the \u201cgovernment agents surround [them] again.\u201d \u00a0Between the two songs, Koenig finds himself distinct from the old and new, and is satisfied in that.<\/p>\n