We Gotta Get Out of this Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture

Front Cover
Psychology Press, 1992 - Art - 436 pages
Consider this parodox: for many people, rock is dead, crushed by the weight of its own success and popularity, little more than a major voice of mainstream commercial entertainment. But for many others, especially among the new conservative Right, rock poses a greater threat now than ever before. What is it about rock that makes it so important in contemporary political struggles? Bringing together cultural, political, and economic analyses, Lawrence Grossberg offers an original and bold interpretation of the contemporary politics of both rock and popular culture in the United States. We Gotta Get Out of This Place explores four histories: the changing role of rock in everyday life; the emergence of an affective and popular conservatism; the crisis of contemporary capitalism; and the apparent inability of the Left to respond to these changes. These critical developments are bound together by their concern with postmodernity, understood as both a structure of everyday life and as a sensibility of popular culture. Everyone wants to get out of this place, but only the Right seems to have found a way to benefit from where we are.
 

Contents

Articulation and Culture
37
Mapping Popular Culture
69
Power and Daily Life
89
Articulation and Agency
113
Rock Cultures and Rock Formations
131
Rock the Liberal Consensus and Everyday
137
Rock and Youth
171
Rock Postmodernity and Authenticity
201
Hegemony and the Postmodern Frontier
263
Ideology and Affective Epidemics
281
The Disciplined Mobilization of Everyday Life
293
Life during Wartime
313
If Youre Sailing on the Titanic Go First
325
Glossary
397
Index
431
Copyright

Nation Hegemony and Culture
243

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