Music, Civil Rights, and Counterculture: Critical Aesthetics and Resistance in the United States, 1957-1968

This dissertation explores the role of music within the politics of liberation in the United States in the period of the late 1950s and the 1960s. Its focus is on the two dominant, but very different (and, it is argued, interconnected) mass political and cultural movements that converged in the course of the 1960s: civil rights and counterculture. Divergent tendencies in the popular musics of the period, which were drawn into the orbits of these two movements, are considered in the context of tensions between political commitment and aesthetic autonomy, between the call for collective political action and the pull of individualism, and between existing political reality and the utopian perspectives offered by art. The theoretical approach derives largely from critical theory (in particular Adorno, Bloch, and Marcuse), and the thesis argues that by tending toward autonomy and individualism popular musics in this period articulated a vision of society that was radically different from existing political realities. The study situates itself in the existing literature on protest music, but seeks to take this further by examining the complexity of responses in music of this period to protest and liberation movements beyond protest songs and politically committed music to discuss issues of social critique and critical reflection. After an initial consideration of what might be meant by the categories ‘protest music’ and socially or politically engaged music, considering among others the work of Eyerman and Jamison (1998), Mattern (1998), Roy (2010), Street (2011), and in particular Denisoff (1968), notions of political engagement and autonomy are discussed in relation to Adorno (1970) and Marcuse (1977). Subsequent chapters then function as case studies of particular tendencies as well as considering significant figures in the music of the period in the context of liberation, civil rights, Black Power, the counterculture, and the New Left. The Highlander Folk School is considered for the ways that it used music to foreground a collective political identity that was subverted by the needs of individual activists; Bob Dylan is examined in light of his retreat from collective political projects and his move toward aesthetic individualism that was nevertheless met with an increase in his perceived relevance to the liberation movements; John Coltrane for his experiments with autonomous music, despite the bitter political realities faced by many African Americans; and Frank Zappa, whose music, it is argued, attempted to stimulate a form of critical self-reflection amongst his audience

MAKING CREATIVE INDUSTRIES POLICY: THE MALAYSIAN CASE

With the launch of the Dasar Industri Kreatif Negara (DIKN) document in 2009, the creative industries have become a policy focus area for the Malaysian government in line with Wawasan 2020 (Vision 2020). By critically analysing the institutional background of the DIKN and creative industries policies implemented to date, this paper shows how the DIKN has been translated into subsequent policy. This paper argues that creative industries policy has largely narrowed to funding schemes and resulted in a proliferation of government agencies. Due in part to the legacy of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDEC), "digital" has increasingly come to be synonymous with "creative". We argue that this raises questions as to how the creative industries are perceived and supported and ultimately the meaning of creativity in the Malaysian creative industries policy contex

Testing self-report time-use diaries against objective instruments in real time

This study provides a new test of time-use diary methodology, comparing diaries with a pair of objective criterion measures: wearable cameras and accelerometers. A volunteer sample of respondents (n = 148) completed conventional self-report paper time-use diaries using the standard UK Harmonised European Time Use Study (HETUS) instrument. On the diary day, respondents wore a camera that continuously recorded images of their activities during waking hours (approximately 1,500–2,000 images/day) and also an accelerometer that tracked their physical activity continuously throughout the 24-hour period covered by the diary. Of the initial 148 participants recruited, 131 returned usable diary and camera records, of whom 124 also provided a usable whole-day accelerometer record. The comparison of the diary data with the camera and accelerometer records strongly supports the use of diary methodology at both the aggregate (sample) and individual levels. It provides evidence that time-use data could be used to complement physical activity questionnaires for providing population-level estimates of physical activity. It also implies new opportunities for investigating techniques for calibrating metabolic equivalent of task (MET) attributions to daily activities using large-scale, population-representative time-use diary studies

A4_13 Academic armour

This article considers the use of the first year physics textbook, Physics For Scientists and Engineersby Paul A. Tipler and Gene Mosca (Hereafter referred to as “Tiplerâ€) as body armour. The scenario isimagined in which the book is struck by a bullet and it is considered as to whether the bullet would orwould not penetrate through the book. It is found that the bullet would penetrate and hence the textwould not be of much use as body armour

A4_8 Don't Aim at Him!

 This paper investigates the horizontal deviation due to gravity that would be experienced by a bullet fired from a rifle. The paper looks at the recent setting of a new sharpshooting distance record as a case study for the investigation. While the deviation quoted by the soldier involved significantly differed from that calculated we show that a significant deviation is measured

A4_2 A Bright Night

The gas giant planet Jupiter is often referred to asa ‘failed star’. This paper investigates whether a change in brightness levels would be experienced by the Earth if Jupiter was in fact undergoing fusion and radiating. It is found that the luminosity generated by nuclear fusion within Jupiter would be a very small percentage of that produced by the Sun, even in the case where the mass of Jupiter is increased