the website of paul aitken, guitarist - improviser - academic
This past few months I have been lucky enough to be among the organisers for Slavoj Žižek’s visit to the University of Leeds on Tuesday 18 March. We got over 550 people out to see one of the most interesting and provocative intellectuals alive today. It was a great event that showed what a spirit of volunteerism and collective investment in a project can bring!
Pictures are up at subalternstudies.
Will Merrin posted a fascinating essay at Media Studies 2.o back in September, which I have only just now got around to reading. He addresses the social networking user through Roger Caillois’s 1935 essay “Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia“. Merrin critiques the social networking profile and points out a beef I’ve had for a while with the proliferation of Facebook and its boring, blue and white layout used for every person on the site:
Once the construction of a personal webpage required some degree of programming expertise. Today the social networking user merely interacts with, manipulates and fills-in pre-programmed templates and applications.
In an interesting twist, especially with the references to Baudrillard, who often points to the importance of symbolic exchange in pre-industrial society in his work, it seems that the personally designed webpage now takes on the aura of artisanship. In effect, opportunities for difference and “individuality” are better able to be expressed through the freedom of basic html design than the restricted and similar nature of the Facebook profile page, which looks the same for everyone and the content of which is dictated by that which is made available to Facebook users.
What one hopes will add to one’s distinction only adds to ones depersonalisation: how many images of friends posing with drinks are there already on Facebook? And there is no hope here of resistance. Even the refusal to post a photo, the use of alternative images or attempts at an artistic subversion of the form merely take their place within a pre-coded representational system as part of the normal range of allowed responses.
Indeed, while many view social networking as liberatory, this essay points out some fairly important reasons why it can also been seen as further disconnecting and “depersonalising” the self from the world.
For a while I was thinking that I wouldn’t bother posting my MA online. Really, after the defense, and what with the evolution of my thought since I started the PhD, I figured it old news. But, I’ve decided to let it out of the dusty confines of my hard drive and give it some air. After all, what’s this whole academic thing about if it isn’t about sharing ideas, even if doing so risks criticism? It’s in the criticism that we can alter and adjust our thinking. So, while I stand by what I’ve written in this document, I’m not promoting it as my final position on these matters and I’m eagerly anticipating changes in my thought, even to the point of disagreeing with myself (which happens more often that not anyway, so what the hell)! Enjoy!
Abstract
With its almost exclusive focus on the economics of the music industry, the early-21st century debate over digital music piracy has obscured other vital areas of study in the relationship between popular music and the Internet. This thesis addresses some of these neglected areas, specifically issues of agency, representation, discipline, and authority; it examines each of these in relationship to the formation and maintenance different online music communities. I argue that contemporary online trends related to music promotion, consumption, and criticism are, in fact, part of a much larger socio-cultural re-envisioning of the relationships between artists and audiences, artists and the music industry, and among audience members themselves. The relationship between music and the Internet is not only subversive on the level of economics.I examine these issues in three key areas. Independent women’s music communities challenge patriarchal authority in the music industry as they use online discussion forums and websites to advance their own careers. The tension that exists between the traditional for-profit music industry and the developing ethic of sharing in the filesharing community creates the conditions whereby we can imagine alternative ways that music can circulate in culture. “Citizen media,” such as blogs and “open source” encyclopædias, allows for those who otherwise had no avenue for presenting their thoughts and ideas to engage in public discourse. Traditional understandings of authority and expertise are subject to revision as new ways of assessing authority develop for online sources. This is also evident in the struggles of “old-media” groups in reconciling their established publishing and editorial practices with emergent online practices.
This thesis foregrounds the work of individuals by drawing extensively from interviews, personal blogs, and online discussion forums. In this way, the monolithic “grand narratives” of the Internet, such as the filesharing “battle” or the democratic potential of online discourse, are shown to be the product of many individual subjectivities, each of whom contribute to authoring the online environment.
EDIT: Holy Crap! For those of you wondering what “Captialism” is, I have no answer. I only just noticed the misspelling on the cover today as I posted the picture! My parents sent me these pictures the day the bound copy arrived in the mail back in Novvember! I guess I never really looked close enough at them!
I am a Master!
I successfully defended my MA thesis Online Music Communities: Challenging Sexism, Capitalism, and Authority in Popular Music a week-and-a-half ago. The defence was rigorous and lengthy, but instructive as a result. I think I will take some time away from it before I look at it again and decide whether or not to post it for all to see.
It was a curious feeling, finishing the MA. After all, I spent two years of my life working on it and at times it was to the detriment of my sanity and interpersonal relationships. I felt at once relieved and proud. Throughout the process I had felt the constant nag of ‘work’, even when I was supposed to be ‘relaxing’ or ‘taking time off’. Among the myriad things I learned about my topic, I learned something else, perhaps a little more abstract, but nonetheless something that I feel is important to pursuing my career and life successfully in academia: I have to make sure to structure my time so as to permit some real ‘time off’! I need to learn to make ‘work’ work and ‘play’ play as I pursue my PhD.
My thanks to my advisor Dr. Christina Baade, my second reader Dr. Susan Fast, and the School of the Arts at McMaster University.
Big thanks also to my esteemed editors: Susan Aitken, Claire Blaustein, Basil Chiasson, and Valérie Savard for their input—it would have been a far poorer thesis without you!
Now, onto the PhD, yeesh! (I don’t know any heavy metal tunes about doctors, anyone?)
One of the great things about my involvement in music, both as a practitioner and as an academic, is that every year I am fortunate enough to be introduced to new music. Recently, when this happens I also find myself readdressing my musical history, in particular, favourite artists from my past that I had for one reason or another stopped listening to as much as I once did. Last year, the new band was Coheed & Cambria, courtesy of my 15 year old cousin, which led me to turn back to Rush and some of the heavier music of my high school years (Metallica, Van Halen). This year, I became acquainted (obsessed is perhaps a better word) with Umphrey’s McGee, courtesy of my friend Alex. Umphrey’s, with their incredible blend of jamband and prog rock aesthetics, inspired me to go back and listen with fresh ears to one of my favourite bands, Phish.
In doing so, I find that I come back, time and time again, to Trey Anastasio’s incredible guitar work on Phish’s quirky but epic “Reba” from 1990’s Lawnboy. I have always held the guitar solo from the studio version as an example of a “perfect” guitar solo, if there can be such a thing. I saw Phish a few times live (Concert Hall-Masonic Temple, Toronto 04/06/1994, The Great Went, Limestone, ME 08/16/1997, 08/17/1997 and Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, MI 11/11/1998) but I never once saw a live “Reba”. I have been on a bit of a Phish binge recently, and have been focussing on a lot of the Live Phish series, a great many of which come with “Reba’s”, to my delight. After hearing a few, I went on a search for “the best ‘Reba’ ever” and have since been compiling, when time permits, as many as I can get my hands on. I have also spent some time paring them down so I can listen to endless “Reba” “jam sections” (the guitar solo has evolved in the live setting to be oh so much more!) over and over, in a row, without being interrupted by the rest of the tune. These days I find myself returning over and over again to the classic New Year’s eve performance at Madison Square Garden (12/31/1995), this “Reba” solo has all but displaced the studio version as my new idea of what “perfect” might sound like.
Take a listen to both for yourself (or right-click on the titles to download)!
Reba (Lawnboy, 1990) (MP3, 7mb)
Reba (Madison Square Garden, NYC, NY 1995) (MP3, 15.5mb)
You can also see this being performed here (solo begins around 5′50″).
Some highlights from the Madison Square Garden solo (time indicators are for the above edited MP3):
I mean really, the whole damn thing is fantastic. The sensitivity of Paige’s piano playing is great to listen to after you’ve got past a few listens to Trey’s solo. Mike and drummer Jon Fishman aren’t slouches either. This performance is a great example of how what in another band would be “just a guitar solo” can turn into a serious bit of group improvisation where the guitar is really just another voice, albeit a prominent one.
Now, if you play, go play.
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