Customer Reviews

Dan Graham: Rock/Music Writings

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I heard Dan Graham talk at a University earlier this year at a screening of his film "Rock My Religion" (1984). I found him inspiring and ordered "Rock/Music Writings" that night on amazon. When the book arrived and after I had read the first few pages I put it down, wanting to save it as a reward as I thought it would be a really good book. But I couldn't wait.

Dan Graham's book seems to me (an outsider to the worlds of rock and art) to be full of original and insightful ideas. In the early sections of the book where he describes bands, the writing is artistic and exploratory. Then the book moves into chapters that are more theoretical. His theory is made accessible to the reader and is presented in flowing style; you mightn't realise that it is theory to start with. In the section on "Rock My Religion", stills from the film are provided.

Dan Graham links rock to art. He sees how the rock of the 60s and early 70s was a construct from big record companies to tap into the new market of the teenager. In particular, he explains how the "rock star" was a fabrication; something which he says the audience always half knew anyway. But then punk was the answer to this. Punk was being ironic. Bondage was just symbolic and telling the public that we are repressed. Punk is evidently a representation of a representation of reality. The link with art is that pop art played a similar role by making clear that the idea of the creative genius artist was also constructed by "liberals" - people who reach a consensus about what is good and what is not. However, my reading may be wrong.

I think the book is complex, and could be read over again. "Complex" is how Dan Graham described the city in which I live. Based on his writings he seems complex too; and though he mightn't like it said, and though I don't know exactly what it means, I'd say he's a genius.

What lingered with me most after reading it, was his ideas of the feminine in the chapter "New Wave Rock and the Feminine". He discusses the often male oriented structure of film and music as based around the male ego and the pleasure women might derive from being looked at. But then he discusses music that has a female perspective. When he points out the Dylan's music is mostly the male perspective he told me something that was always in front of me and clear but which I had never noticed.

The only down side to the book is that because it is collected writings, some of the sections repeat themselves. However, I believe the book has a plentiful supply of rich material to inspire many.