Music since the year 2000 has gone through three phases, which can be bracketed by the most prominent popular song at the turn of each decade. 1. … Baby One More Time by Britney Spears (1999) 2. Bad Romance by Lady Gaga (2009) 3. bad guy by Billie Eilish (2019) While the first and second … Continue reading Donda, Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, and the sonic revolution of the 2020s
Tag: Synthesis
The end of time: The Heidegger-Cassirer debate and the passage from trade to war
First published in August 2022. Philosopher Immanuel Kant is often referred to as the god of modern philosophy. A recent work of intellectual history by Professor Michael Rosen, entitled The Shadow of God: Kant, Hegel, and the passage from heaven to history, considers the end of Christendom and the replacement of its accompanying hegemony of … Continue reading The end of time: The Heidegger-Cassirer debate and the passage from trade to war
Rihanna’s Anti and the Lost Technical Artistry of the 2010s
The 2000s laid the technical foundations for a new musical moment in human history. The 2010s opened with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West, hosting rising stars Nicki Minaj and Rihanna as well as old greats like Jay-Z and indie act Bon Iver. This marked an artistic culmination of modern music akin to … Continue reading Rihanna’s Anti and the Lost Technical Artistry of the 2010s
Tchaikovsky, Drake, and how music dies
One of the most popular moves in popular music is to make everything about love. This is sweet, and there’s nothing wrong with it. But the problem is when music fails to recognise what this move entails: the death of music. Let me explain. Art to an extreme. Music in the modern age begun with … Continue reading Tchaikovsky, Drake, and how music dies
Machiavelli, Weber, Nietzsche, and the music of politics
It is commonplace in the social sciences to use music as a metaphor for politics. Power is ‘articulated’ through institutions by individuals ‘harmonising’ on common themes. But by what mechanism does power flow in the modern world? We imagine power to be a top-down pyramid, but it can equally be viewed as a web-like structure … Continue reading Machiavelli, Weber, Nietzsche, and the music of politics
Why Sabrina Carpenter is the next pop star
This post follows my review of Sabrina’s latest excellent album, ‘emails I can’t send’. I have a theory about music, as a balance between art and technique. I don’t think many people strike that balance. Those who do tend not to stand out from the crowd of extremes. There is a third type of pop … Continue reading Why Sabrina Carpenter is the next pop star
Why Stoicism is a scam
In the TV series The Dropout, Elizabeth Holmes cites Yoda’s dictum, ‘Do or do not — there is no try.’ But what *should* we do? Marcus Aurelius, who ruled after the most peaceful time in the Roman Empire and before the most violent time. Coincidence? For Yoda, we will do what is right only when … Continue reading Why Stoicism is a scam
From Bach to Born: A philosophy of music
Recently I’ve been writing about music. The study of music from a philosophical perspective is often ridiculed, as it is traced to the work of critical theorist Theodor Adorno, who preferred Bach and Beethoven to Mozart and jazz music (preferring not to comment on the decrepit condition of popular music). Adorno played the piano, but … Continue reading From Bach to Born: A philosophy of music
Edmund Wilson 