Leck Mich im Arsch

            Jonquil had a rough morning on Friday, September 30^th. She was definitely in pain, and I’m pretty certain she is dying, but when I opened the apartment door to put my bike in the hallway that morning, she ran outside, though crying and staggering a bit as she went.

            On my way to class, a tall white van passed me with the windows open and I was surprised to hear a Phil Ochs song being played. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Phil Ochs’s music coming from a vehicle before. It went by too quickly for me to make out the song, but I think it was “The Party”. The one that goes, “The fire breathing rebels show up at the party early, their khaki coats are hung in the closet by the furs, asking handouts from the ladies while they criticize the lords, boasting of the murder of the very hands that pour …”

            The music the professor played over the lecture theatre’s sound system this time was Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”, and he followed that with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.

            The title of our lecture was “In Defence of Popular Arts”.

            We started by answering a review question with our iclickers. We had to choose from a list of things that Aestheticism can’t explain. Of course, my choice was wrong. The answer was that it can’t explain the value of insightful art. I was puzzled by the word “insight” in this context and so I asked if he had used that word in the last lecture. He told me that he had not. He is a tricky one!

            Shusterman defends the value of popular art. The dispute though is not that popular art is not art. It’s that popular art cannot be great art. In reference to “fine art”, don’t read too much into the word “fine”.

            He played us a video by Marianas Trench of a song called “Pop 101” – “ … A minor chord, tensions grow, now bring in the bass like so, now with momentum, go “stop” and bring the beat back. It’s called four on the floor, a beat you can’t ignore, I bring sexy back once more … The chords are 1-4-6-4, now I’m talking familiar, harmony in thirds, not fourths will take you into the pre-chorus. Real quick now, don’t bore us, hurry up and get to the chorus, dumbed down, they won’t ignore us. Get to the floor and hear some words you should know, like ‘DJ never let me go’ or ‘Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby’. How about one more last word like, ‘Hey girl, we’ve only got tonight.’ Some things just go together, like ‘Higher, desire and fire.’ Guitar and strings like these to sound like Black Eyed Peas. This one’s a filter sweep, this one’s Imogen Heap. Hipster music on cassette … Heartfelt pub anthems from Mumford and his sons, gang vocals here we come, been thinking, ‘I will always wait’. (Wobble bass) … I can pitch shift my voice if I want, I can make my voice low. The bridge is the part when you bring in a rapper friend (‘Sup!’), you simplify and slow the beat, abbreviate ‘feature’ to ‘feat’. [Anami vice] Quick now, fill in the gaps, okay. Water it down, eliminate that which you really would rap and give them a classic like, ‘Get-get-get cash, money to the floor …”

            Someone commented that it was a good song.

            The joke is that pop music is formulaic, trite and easy to understand. Not artistically valuable, but valuable as entertainment.

            We had an iclicker vote and found the group to be divided on whether pop art can be as great as fine art.

            Devlin projected an image of the poster for the film, “Mad Max 2015” and offered the opinion that the movie is an example of great pop art.

            When we are think of pop as bad and mediocre, we are thinking of bad examples. But there are also good examples, just as there is also crappy fine art.

            Someone offered the example of a Mozart song called “Leck Mich im Arsch” which translates as “Lick me in the arse”. It wasn’t meant to be published though and was written to be sung at the private parties of Mozart and some of his friends.

            We concede to the critic that there has to be something sophisticated about a work of art for it to be seen as fine art.

            Devlin informed us that Mad Max won the most Oscars in 2015.

            Good art will inevitably be esoteric and accessible only to those with taste.

            The Cognitivist says that art can only be good if it enriches understanding. But pop is not meant to be challenging. Not only is it not necessary to intellectually engage with art at a high level but it is also not sufficient.

            Shusterman’s big argument is that artistic value, whether aesthetic or cognitive, can come from the body. The body can appreciate art. True popular art is not intellectually challenging, but it is bodily challenging. Pop music is for dancing and therefore it is challenging.

            After class I spoke to Devlin against the argument that high art is more sophisticated than popular art. I told him what I’ve observed about most songs with sophisticated music having such simple lyrics and how the librettos of operas being such lousy examples of literature. Another student asked him about something else, but since there was another class coming in, we continued our conversation in the hall. It occurred to me while we were talking that there is a difference between popular art that is following a trend and art that breaks through to create the trend. He liked that idea.             We all walked together down the hall and downstairs to the atrium. We talked for several minutes, though most of the conversation was between the other student and the professor. I don’t quite get the idea that fine art is considered more challenging. I was thinking of how popular art in certain eras has challenged the status quo but it seems the argument might not be about that kind of challenge but rather about fine art being a challenge to understand in itself.