resilience and melancholy: pop music, feminism, neoliberalism
When critical theorists like Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer diagnosed the relationship between popular music and the broader social world, they argued that the lack of dissonance in mainstream songs reflected larger social pressures to conform, adjust and submit to the status quo. In her fascinating book Resilience and Melancholy, philosopher Robin James remixes this connection between music, society and power. According to James, contemporary music actually relies on noise and dissonance as resources for productivity, as raw materials for the reproduction of social life. In other words, contemporary songs 'incite damage for the purpose of recycling it. Noisemaking is the means of musical, cultural and social production' (p. 6) This trend of making noise useful and productive is emblematic of neo liberalism's demand to be resilient in the face of trauma and loss. As James puts it, 'resilience discourse is what ties contemporary pop music aesthetics to neoliberal capitalism and racism/sexism' (p. 6) While previous systems of power encouraged selves to avoid damage, neo liberalism or what she calls 'multi racial white supremacist patriarchy' instructs us to name, demonstrate and (visibly) overcome various forms of damage. This ability to overcome loss, especially by marginalised communities and individuals, is 'rewarded with increased human capital, status, and other forms of recognition and recompense, because this individual's own resilience boosts society's resilience' (p. 7) Throughout this exhilarating text, James provides provocative readings of songs and videos that perform the resiliency imperative. At the same time, she cites and interprets songs and artists that refuse to turn noise, death and loss into something profitable.