Aliens Are Us: Cosmic Liminality, Remixticism, and Alienation in Psytrance

This article examines how popular culture is remixed for the purposes of facilitating mystical experiences within a global electronic dance music culture. In particular, it investigates the sampling of space travel and alien contact narratives within psytrance, whose DJ-producers are like media sham...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and popular culture
Main Author: St. John, Graham 1968- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: University of Saskatchewan [2013]
In: Journal of religion and popular culture
Further subjects:B Space
B Aliens
B psytrance
B Mysticism
B electronic dance music
B Popular Culture
B remix
B ET
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:This article examines how popular culture is remixed for the purposes of facilitating mystical experiences within a global electronic dance music culture. In particular, it investigates the sampling of space travel and alien contact narratives within psytrance, whose DJ-producers are like media shamans remixing fragments from cinema, TV series, documentaries, NASA's lunar program and other popular cultural sources for gnostic purposes. I explore ways outer space travel becomes a narrative device for interior travels, the "hero's journey," and how the figure of the alien other allegorizes the potential for the discovery of the self. In the artifice of remixticism, the alien is a device for universal consciousness and self-empowerment, a process I dub alienation.
ISSN:1703-289X
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and popular culture
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3138/jrpc.25.2.186