[lbo-talk] Taste in music {was: volume)

[Gail Brock]

In objection to hip-hop:
--- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> 
> It is not that much the lyrics but how the music is being used and by
> whom - blasted in everyone's face from cars and SUVs by urban gangstas,
> suburban jocks and assorted wannabes.  Nobody does that with classical
> music.

___________

One of the British papers reported within the last couple of days that American
soldiers had blasted an Iraqi neighborhood with the "Ride of the Valkyries" prior
to a sweep (sorry, I haven't been able to find the article again).  This is very
strange at so many levels.  The Wagner isn't the only possible classical
aggression soundtrack -- before "Apocalypse Now" I seem to remember that the
"1812 Overture" was  used in much the same way.  So are the screen images of the
attack of the helicopter cavalry so powerful that these kids (I'm assuming most
of the soldiers are late teens, early 20s) don't see the irony of the Vietnam
reference?  That reference was certainly the point of the British article.

  -- Gail

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