Week 1

Week 1 of NYU Summer Class Brain Dance: Pop/Rock Music and Literature. Introductions and methodologies: cultural studies, comparative literature, critical theory. Musical tastes in attendance comprise Bon Iver, DeVotchKa, Rachel Yamagata, The Civil Wars, The Wonder Years, Yacht, Fleet Foxes, Maroon 5, Dave Matthews Band, Wanda Jackson, Mumford and Sons, Ringo Deathstarr, Lou Reed, Shabazz Palaces, Ella Fitzgerald and Cheap Trick.

For Week 1 we read Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, and considered pop music, melancholy and comedy, sad music/happy music ("What came first, the music or the misery?"); Cool Britannia, Lad Culture and Brit Pop (we watched music videos of Pulp's "Common People" and Blur's "Parklife"); musical elitism and snobbery, mainstream vs. independent music, music and social identity. Theoretical concepts included sublimation, hybridity, homosociality, the means of production and the age of mechanical reproduction. We watched clips of Stephen Frears' film adaptation of High Fidelity, set in Chicago instead of London, and considered differences between the book and film: the physicality Jack Black brought to the role of Barry was appreciated, and John Cusack was argued to be in the Top Five worst actors of all time.