[lbo-talk] Eminem

Max B. Sawicky sawicky at bellatlantic.net
Wed Oct 27 13:44:05 PDT 2004


I luved it. The vote thing at the end is a striking blunting or reversal of the scary nightime street mob motif in the body of the video. Maybe it will scare away some of those GOP poll watchers who are slated to disrupt voting in minority precincts.

I didn't see a leader thing going on -- more anarchistic. The multiple Eminems -- shades of a previous appearance on MTV -- is less about a leader than about Everyman, IMO.

It's a little fascistic in the shortage of content, but nowhere near Reifenstahl. The latter's images glorified authority and regimentation. Eminem's people are not special bodies of armed men, nor do they march in formation. This was more like Chuck D's fight the power video, which I think is more vulnerable to the fascism charge, or "rhythmn nation" (more so still).

Note the vid is multi-racial in a big way (how could it not be), a strike against fascist connotations in an American film.

And this disgorges the totality of my knowledge or lack thereof about contemporary music videos. I stopped watching them when Friday Night Videos went off the air, ages ago.

I await with interest the professional judgements of Carroll and Yoshie.

-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Nathan Newman Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 4:23 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Eminem

Actually, the most interesting aspect of the video is that it creates a menacing mob-anarchist feel that is directed to going into voting. It makes voting en masse seem menacing, which it is to the powers that be, but that message hasn't been out there on the left for a while. The radical focus of the video is not just the donning of the hoods to go marching, but taking them off to go vote at the end of the video. It's a hip-hop "Clean for Gene" message in its essence.

And while there is a leadership vibe, it's couched in explaining and simplifying what's at stake to encourage folks to vote.

-- Nathan Newman

----- Original Message ----- From: "Steven Gotzler" <Steve at gotzler.org> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 3:06 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Eminem

There is a similar quality to the video that reminds me of Triumph of the Will. And while the lyrics do call on people to rise up and vote, they also ask people to let the singer lead them.

Steve

----- Original Message -----



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