Thoughts on Audiotopia

While Josh Kun is fascinated by music for a multiplicity of reasons, his examination centers around the psychosocial significance of varied forms of music. He examines North American music (with cultural and national connections that extend beyond the continent) as it relates to the unique cultural identities of ethnic and national groups of Americans as both self-reflections and as responses to living within a heterogeneous but Anglo-Saxon dominated society. The interweaving of analytical orientations Kun uses mirrors the intricately varied fabric of what constitutes “American music.” I appreciated his examination of so many musical movements and works as phenomena that ruminate on cultural and cross-cultural examination, national identity, political oppression, and are themselves amalgamations of so many cultural forces. I admit, I wasn’t completely sold on the book or aware of what the author’s aims were after reading the first couple chapters, but as I continued, I truly came to appreciate this rich analysis of what is American music, as an art form. While he jumps from cultural studies, to art history, to anthropology, to biography, to political history, etc., he synthesizes these frames of reference in such a way that unifies the text successfully. This is interesting since one of the issues Kun examines is unity versus difference: “What all variations on the ‘symphonic nation’ school reproduced was the notion of harmony as a tool of power, an ordering force that when sounded through the symphonic and orchestrated totalities sought to give national form to the noise of difference,” (41). He notes this is describing the growing acceptance of jazz by whites as it became associated with written and orchestral music.
In Kun’s eyes, “All musical listening is a form of confrontation, of encounter, of the meeting of worlds and meanings,” (13). There is cultural and political conflict reflected in and caused by music. He specifically describes the
power of popular music in describing “its innate ability to refuse to stand still, to frustrate fixity, to confuse authority and baffle totality, to never be the same thing,” 12. The ability of music to create social controversy and threaten those in political power is perhaps best illustrated in his chapter on rock en español, which recounts the Mexican government’s suppression of youth culture in the early 1970s.
Kun also explores cultural identity as expressed in music. His discussion of Mickey Katz was useful in revealing the conflict between cultural pride and assimilation. That Katz was rejected by many Jews who felt his characters were “too Jewish” demonstrates how effective the dominant order is at quashing difference. There are feelings of guilt and embarrassment associated with such “ethnic” humor, a humor which in this case is presented for the group it depicts. It reminded me of discussions students had in this and another Cultural Studies class about the Tyler Perry productions, and their representation of “blackness,” viewed by a mostly black audience. Finally, the discussion of cultural identity is further complicated by music and art that has been influenced by various cultural and national sources, as with Langston Hughes and Basquiat (a writer and visual artist, respectively who were very influenced by music).

A video of Mickey Katz should follow this post enjoy.