Roll Over Adorno: Critical Theory, Popular Culture, Audiovisual Media

Contents

Contents List of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xiii Script xvii INTRODUCTION: CRITICAL THEORY, POPULAR CULTURE, AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA 1 Popular Music 3 Sound Film 8 Television 15 PART 1. POPULAR MUSIC: HI-LO FIDELITY 23 1. ROCK ‘N’ THEORY: CULTURAL STUDIES, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, AND THE DEATH OF ROCK 25 A Side: The Birth of Rock, or Memory Train 25 B Side: Rock in Theory 29 The Culture of Rock 30 Rock, Rap, and Riot Grrrls 33 World Musics: After Rock Imperialism 35 Production of Culture 36 Forced Choice: Britney or Avril? 38 My Generation 40 2. ROLL OVER ADORNO: BEETHOVEN, CHUCK BERRY, AND POPULAR MUSIC IN THE AGE OF MP3 43 Mass Culture, Ersatz Kantianism 44 From Beethoven to Fascism 46 Amerika: Beethoven or Bikinis 47 Radio Days 49 “Roll Over Beethoven” 52 Magic Spell and the Two Spheres of Music 54 MP3 57 Fantasia 58 REPRISE: BEETHOVEN’S HAIR 61 vii PART 2. SOUND FILM: SCREEN THEORY AND AUDIOVISUALITY 67 3. THE SUTURE SCENARIO: AUDIOVISUALITY AND POST-SCREEN THEORY 69 Theory: The Suture Scenario 70 Post-Screen Theory: Suture-as-Desuturing 72 Audiovisuality in Tongues Untied and Set It Off 73 Illustration A: Tongues Untied 74 Illustration B: Set It Off 79 4. AUDIOPHILIA: AUDIOVISUAL PLEASURE AND NARRATIVE CINEMA IN JACKIE BROWN 91 Cinephilia 92 Scopophilia 94 From Scopophilia to Audiophilia: The Gaze qua Race 96 Audiophilia: Auditing Jackie Brown 98 “Across 110th Street”: Overture 99 “Street Life”: Jackie as Femme Noire 101 “Across 110th Street”: Dénouement 107 Audiophilia Reconsidered: “Asking for It” 111 Counterpoint: Post-Soul Music or Pre-Gangsta Rap? 117 REPRISE: ALEX’S “LOVELY LUDWIG VAN” AND MARTY MCFLY’S WHITE ROCK MINSTREL SHOW 121 PART 3. TV: TELEVISION, TELEPHILIA, TELEVISUALITY 133 5. GEN-X TV: POLITICAL-LIBIDINAL STRUCTURES OF FEELING IN MELROSE PLACE 135 Preview 136 After the Reagan Dynasty: “Help Me, Rhonda” 138 From Race to Sex-Gender: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang 142 The Romance of Capital: Fox, Female Address, and Postfeminism 144 Melrose Space: The Fashion Mode 147 Adcult: The Commercial Supertext 149 Review 151 viii ROLL OVER ADORNO 6. SHOT/COUNTERSHOT: SEXUALITY, PSYCHOANALYSIS, AND POSTMODERN STYLE IN THE SOPRANOS 153 Shot: The Godfather 154 Citationality: The Gangster as Serio-Comic Hero 154 “I’m a Man”: Crossing Cultures 157 Psycho-Gangster TV: Seriality and Self-Reflexivity 159 À la Recherche du temps perdu 160 Primal Scene: Capicola as Proustian “Tea Cookie” 162 Countershot: Case Study 164 Black and Blue: Puzo’s Women 166 Repetition Compulsion: From The Godfather to The Sopranos 167 Beyond the University 168 Post-Mortem: Bad Love 172 D-I-S-R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Tele-Psychoanalytic Metatext 173 Analysis Interminable 175 Martini Shot: “Hall Hath No Fury” 179 REPRISE: TONY SOPRANO, MEET BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER 183 Notes 197 Bibliography 233 Index 253 Contents ix ...