Baudrillard's Blues. Issue 1 (30th November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mueller, Charles
• Is Part Of: Popular music. Volume 35:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 84
• Page End: 99
• Publication Date: 2015-11-30
• Subjects: Popular music -- Periodicals; 780.4205
• DOI: 10.1017/S0261143015000823
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0261-1430

Abstract

Abstract: In his book, America, Jean Baudrillard characterised the United States as a nation created for the sole purpose of escaping history, a place that has purged itself of all negativity, and whose citizens live life in a perpetual present. Baudrillard's study of America provides an ideal framework with which to examine the ways that blues is both congenial and antithetical to postmodern America, and how the significations and meanings of blues have changed as the music has passed from modernity to postmodernity. Of particular interest is the question of whether African-American interpretations of blues can remain privileged. Examining blues music in the context of America provides clear cultural examples that support many of Baudrillard's often obscure metaphysical observations.