Hip Hop and critical theory

[david wachtfogel]

I wrote:
>> > Hip-hop is just another pseudo-activity in this pseudo-reality. It's
>> > counter-productive, just like popular sixties culture (excluding the
>> > universities) was. John Lennon could write and sing:
>> >      Keep you doped up with religion and sex and TV
>> >      And you think you're so clever and classless and free
>> >      But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
>> >      A working class hero is something to be
>> > as much as he liked. The pseudo-activity of listening to his and other
>> > "protest music" had a strong narcotizing effect, creating the most
>> > neo-conservitive generation since Hoover.
Kevin:
>> Hip Hop as opiate for the masses?
and Rustum:
>
>What about theory as the opiate of academics?
In the Linsday Anderson marxist classic, Lucky Man, there's a grafiti in the
background of one of the scenes reading:
          Revolution is the opiate of the intelectuals
But enough of this shit. Hip Hop, like other forms of protest music, is
strongly narcotizing for several reasons. Prominent among these is the
"feel-good" atitude that reveberates through them. The singers are always
telling the listeners, "hey, you're alright, you're one of us". To quote
from The Clash satirical All Lost in the Supermarket:
     I'm all tuned in, I see all the programs
     I save coupons for packets of tea
     I've got my giant hit discoteque album
     I empty a bottle - feel a bit free
But the listener didn't buy the giant hit discoteque album. No. He bought
the latest Clash album. He's alright. He's one of us.
Sometimes I get the feeling that this list has the same effect on some
of it's subscribers. It gives them a feeling of being alright, of
belonging to some larger group that is better than society at large. On
the other hand ...
frankfurt-school@jefferson.village.virginia.edu as opiate of the
intelectuals?  I hope not.
                                    -- David Wachtfogel