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BCM 301 week 9

Music History 2.0: The Amen Breakbeat

Andrew Whelan

awhelan@uow.edu.au

19.2010

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Overview

Approaching breaks, an example:Think

Social history of the amen from black pride to jungle

Why care about breakcore? the amen post-Napster the amen, contemporary subculture, and the market

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Whats a break?

Breakbeats are

points of rupture in their former contexts, pointsat which the thematic elements of a musicalpiece are suspended and the underlying rhythmsbrought center stage (Rose 1994: 73-74).

Rose, Tricia. 1994. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture inContemporary America. London: Wesleyan University Press.

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Think

Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock: It Takes

Two (1988, US)

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Think

Lynn Collins: Think (about it) (1972, US)

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Think

Various Production: Hater (2004, UK)

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Think

Dave Nada: Where Brooklyn At (2007, US)

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Think

Kid Cudi vs. Crookers: DaynNite (2008,

US)

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Breaks not addressed:

Funky Drummer, Hotpants, Impeach the

President, When the Levee Breaks,

Apache, Give the Drummer Some, Give itUp or Turn it Loose etc.

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Why address breaks?

Breakbeats as material history

Breakbeats as the wiring of popular

western dance musics since the birth of

hip-hop

Breakbeats as musemes

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AmenThe Winstons: Amen, Brother (1969, US)

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Amen

Roots: Jester Hairston: Amen (1963, US)

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Amen

Roots: Curtis Mayfield: Were a

Winner (1968, US)

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So how did we get here?

Bizzy B: Calling the Amen (2008, UK)

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(Re)surfacing in hip-hop

N.W.A: Straight Outta Compton (1988, US)

But dont forget:

2 Live Crew: Feel Alright Yall3rd Bass: Wordz of WisdomBrand Nubian: The Godz Must Be CrazyEric B. and Rakim: Casualties of WarFunky Technicians: AirtightHeavy D: MC Heavy D!Heavyweight: : Oh GoshJ. Majik: Arabian NightsMaestro Fresh Wes: Bring it OnNice & Smooth: Dope Not HypeSalt-N-Pepa: DesireScarface: Born KillerSchoolly D: How a Black Man Feels

etc., all around 88-90

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In early UK breakbeat

Mantronix: King of the Beats (1988, UK)

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Rave / breakbeat hardcore

Sonz of a Loop da Loop Era: Calm

Downizm (1993, UK)

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But as rave becomes jungle it gets

dark

Marvellous Cain: Dub Plate Style (1994,

UK)

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Jungle

Cutty Ranks: Limb by Limb (DJ SS

mix) (1995, US)

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Jungle

Jungle represents an extraordinary leap forwardin popular music form and sonority. Its richpolymetre and textural syntax, together with thelow salience of melody and harmony, mark a

radical departure from earlier styles Thesheerspeedof the successive moves fromhouse, to rave, to jungle in the period 1988-94 isalso unprecedented (2000: 140).

Toynbee, Jason. 2000. Making Popular Music: Musicians, Creativity and

Institutions. London: Arnold.

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Soundsystem as war machine

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Back into obscurity

Digital Hardcore Records (Berlin) Ambush

Records (London), and Bloody Fist

Records (Newcastle NSW), circa

1995-2000, keep producing undergroundtechno and keep using the amen

Jackal & Hide: The Jackal (1997, UK)

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Emergence of breakcore

Venetian Snares: Clearance Bin (2001,

CAN)

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Bedroom producers

Epsilon: Pills (2004, AUS)

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Plunderphonics and hardcorifying

the mainstream

Killjoy: Britney Stole My Crackpipe (2005,

AUS)

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Breakcore as hyperjungle, as

pastiche

Strog: Paranoid Mash up (2006, POL)

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Subcultures - the big picture

The monopolies and cartels of the early years have given way to new patterns of corporateorganization the culture industry, a branch of thecommunications industry, which in turn is a hugeoutgrowth of the military-industrial complex whosereal pay-off is in the form of new commodities for themass market The result is the electronification, integration and nowthe computerization of the production, processingand distribution of information, entertainment,education, and cultural activity in general, whichwashes daily over the atomized consumer fromcradle to grave (Chanan 1994: 281-282).

Chanan, Michael. 1994. Musica Practica: The Social Practice ofWestern Music from Gregorian Chant to Postmodernism.

London: Verso.

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Subcultures in a disenchantedworld

Subcultures emerge when the larger culture fails tomeet peoples needs for example, to provide resourcesor meanings so that some people find fault with theculture and form their own identity-granting communitiesof meanings. Large numbers of young people todayhave been rendered surplus populations with dimeconomic prospects. Many others find the meanings andvalues provided by global capital and its cultureindustries, shallow, empty, vacuous, ordehumanized (Langman and Halnon 2005: 273-274).

Langman, Lauren, and Karen Halnon. 2005. Globalization and the Grotesque. Pp.269-279 in Critical Globalization Studies, edited by Richard Appelbaum and WilliamRobinson.London: Routledge.

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Why care about breakcore?

Because breakcore is cool:

Whether it is expressed as appropriation, sampling,defacement, or hacking, there will be nothing more cool

to use the term of the nascent, everyday aesthetics ofknowledge work than committing acts of destructionagainst what is most valued in knowledge workthecontent, form or control of information (Liu 2004: 8).

Liu, Alan. 2004. The Laws of Cool: Knowledge Work and the Culture ofInformation. London: University of Chicago Press.

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Why care about breakcore?

It is possible to judge the strength of politicalpower by its legislation on noise and the

effectiveness of its control over it (Attali1985: 122).

Attali, Jacques. 1985. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. London:

University of Minnesota Press.