dank_xiaopeng posted:i mean , really, is there anything that lenin stalin and mao didn't invent? really? REALLY?
no. all that is left is trowling the old tomes for hidden gems that we can use to own noobs
blinkandwheeze posted:felipe luciano, who was cofounder of the new york branch of the young lords party, was an original member of the last poets who were probably the first rap group. so yes Mao probably did invent the entirety of rap music.
This isn't correct in my opinion and borders on some Beatles invented rap stuff.
dank_xiaopeng posted:i mean , really, is there anything that lenin stalin and mao didn't invent? really? REALLY?
anime, possibly
dipshit420 posted:anime, possibly
the comic strip and comic book were invented by the japanese so that tells you something. *finishes my bourbon and gestures to the bartender who ignores me*
getfiscal posted:I think we can all agree that Mao would have loved hip hop.
this is the only post i read itt
blinkandwheeze posted:"cultural works are not inherently more valuable because of their intended political message" is a contrarian opinion?
it is if in response to people who explicitly said that they had other reasons for enjoying it
blinkandwheeze posted:Actually,
Works of art which lack artistic quality have no force, however progressive they are politically. Therefore, we oppose both the tendency to produce works of art with a wrong political viewpoint and the tendency towards the "poster and slogan style" which is correct in political viewpoint but lacking in artistic power. On questions of literature and art we must carry on a struggle on two fronts.
man they really dropped the ball on that one
(NB: This analysis is really only limited to punk because that's all i know, but i'm sure some of it is still somewhat applicable across genres.)
I think the possibilities for using music to push left politics are pretty grim. It's very easy to get people to accept revolutionary symbolism, even revolutionary narratives under the auspices of 'artistic license.' This is because bourgeois thinking encourages a separation between 'art' and everyday life, the former being some rarefied realm that exists in parallel to the world of work and politics but doesn't touch it. This is what also allows fascist symbology and ideas to proliferate, and since culture under capitalism is a product of capitalism, the 'cultural field' you're attempting to influence is already slanted towards reaction from the start.
music first has to break out of this ideological prison for the ideas it promotes to be meaningful imo
A recent encounter threw this into relief: I played a show not far back where one of the members of another band playing had a hammer and sickle tattoo on his hand. Since I was already halfway to being the drunkest I've been in months I eagerly asked him about it.
He quickly informed me that the tattoo was not to demonstrate his support of marxism-lenism or even socialism generally, but was because he was a big fan of The Dicks. From his reply I got the sense it was one he was fairly used to delivering to questions about the tattoo, so I just told him i also love the dicks and probably drank more.
For those unaware, the dicks were one of the first punk bands in texas, probably best known for their first single hate the police (which fucking rules: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8O2ToQ_Dok). They were also an explicitly revolutionary marxist band, who sang mostly about killing cops and the bourgeoisie, and prominently featured stalin on their records.
They also tried to translate their popularity, such as it was, into political action with the 'rock against reagan' festivals (modeled on the UK's rock against racism, which was moderately more successful likely due to punk's deeper working class roots in the uk). But the attempts and failures to try and mobilize a culturally signified identity (punk, in the u.s. specifically) as a political force is where i think a lot of analysis can be done.
(rhizzone synergy addendum: The Eat - Communist Radio b/w Catholic Love from a Florida band is probably worth noting)
cars posted:check out a guy named Jay-Z, in a couple months he's going to write and record lyrics that say the exact same things you said about putting harriet tubman on the 20
Edited by Keven ()
c_man posted:it is if in response to people who explicitly said that they had other reasons for enjoying it
they also said that the other reasons they have for enjoying this music are irrelevant and that art which aspires to this political direction is inherently more valuable, that this a primary arbiter of value. i don't really know what your point is