Formal negativities, breakthroughs, ruptures and continuities in the music of Modest Mouse

Bibliographic Data

ID3207214
AuthorsKenneth M Smith (0000-0001-7414-9180, University of Liverpool, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume33
Issue3
Pages428-454
Publication date2014-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePopular Music (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0261-1430 • E-ISSN: 1474-0095
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0261143014000385
OpenAlexW2141797365
LanguageEN
References cited25

Indie-rock band Modest Mouse's earliest music connects aphoristic fragments into uniquely disjointed narratives that resist standard formal categorisation. The band's homespun narratives make us process dramatic interactions between drastically opposed musical paradigms as we search for new formal schema by which to classify them. This, I argue, is one answer to the 'negative dialectic' that Adorno thought was missing in popular music. In this paper I analyse three songs in particular depth, extending a methodology borrowed from the 'classical tradition' that extends Edward T. Cone's 'stratification' analyses of Igor Stravinsky. In Modest Mouse's later work, which seemingly signals a return to simpler strophic song forms, this dialectic is spread across entire albums such asGood News for People Who Love Bad News;but even in individual songs, despite a simplistic façade, my 'stratification graphs' reveal deep dialectical negativities

Art · Dialectic · Epistemology · Literature · Narrative · Schema (genetic algorithms · Stratification (seeds · Computer Science · History · Music History and Culture · Music Technology and Sound Studies · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy

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