The Truth and Divinity of Sickness and Rage in the Karaoke of Despair
The wrath and demonic despair of much of contemporary rock music is indicative of a genuine religious need and search. In opposition to the Platonist moral approach to music (exhibited recently by the philosopher Roger Scruton's attack upon rock music) that condemns the monstrousness of much ro...
| Published in: | Journal of religion and popular culture |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University of Saskatchewan
[2003]
|
| In: |
Journal of religion and popular culture
|
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The wrath and demonic despair of much of contemporary rock music is indicative of a genuine religious need and search. In opposition to the Platonist moral approach to music (exhibited recently by the philosopher Roger Scruton's attack upon rock music) that condemns the monstrousness of much rock music, I take my direction from the (all but forgotten) German thinker, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy. Rosenstock-Huessy was a Christian thinker who saw that Nietzsche, by adopting the role of the Anti-Christ, was expressing an important truth about the spiritual poverty of moral idealism and the encroaching catastrophe that required a much more drastic spiritual expression in order to deal with it. I argue that much of contemporary rock is devoted to drawing attention to the spiritual impoverishment of modern life; the harshness of its music and message is a drastic means to wake us up spiritually. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1703-289X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religion and popular culture
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3138/jrpc.3.1.002 |