The Contemporary: Gabriel Z. Ellis
Speaker(s): Gabriel Z. Ellis, PhD student in Musicology, èצӰ
Gabriel Z. Ellis on Hyperpop
"Aesthetic Autonomy and the Commodity Form"
Hyperpop, one of the first musical genres to come of age in the streaming era, is an art form that makes no bones about the fact that it is also a commodity.
Hyperpop tracks are hyper-catchy, hyper-short, and hyper-repetitive, almost explicitly designed to compel us to repeat them as often as possible. — They are also hyper-ambiguous.
On one hand, hyperpop seems to confirm the Frankfurt School’s fears about the “culture industry.” Rather than “autonomous” artworks free from the demands of the market, hyperpop tracks can be heard as incoherent grab-bags of ear-worms, “advertisements for themselves” totally complicit with the culture of consumerism.
On the other hand, as works that confront rather than conceal their commodity character, hyperpop tracks can also be heard as theoretical texts dedicated to self-consciously working out the affordances and limitations of their own conditions of production.
In the February 25th session of the Contemporary Research Workshop, Gabriel Ellis will lead a discussion about both these possibilities.
We will be discussing the following "primary texts":
RECOMMENDED LISTENING [HYPERPOP TRACKS]:
SOPHIE's “BIPP”
Tommy Cash's “X-RAY”
100 gecs' “mememe”
RECOMMENDED READING
Nicholas Brown, introduction to Autonomy: The Social Ontology of Art under Capitalism [Brown raises important questions about the relationship between commodification and aesthetic form.]
to receive the Zoom link.
...
Gabriel Z. Ellis is a Ph.D. Candidate in musicology at èצӰ. He writes on aesthetics and affect in popular music and culture.