meta matters

Here's a piece I enjoyed writing up for Tidal about a long-running interest: rock-about-rock, pop-about-pop, self-reflexive singers and songs, and the whole line of meta-music from "So You Want To Be A Rock'n'Roll Star" to "Black Beatles". 

There's a playlist that goes with it that also runs from "So You Want To Be A Rock'n'Roll Star" to "Black Beatles" and includes many, many more examples than could be fitted into an already bulging essay. 

Youtube clips I played at the Mark Fisher Memorial Lecture, and the ones I didn't get to play as time got tight. Plus some images.



                                                    

                                         

(Full lecture text to appear here shortly)

Mark Fisher Memorial Lecture - Friday 17th January - Goldsmiths, London

Next Friday I will be in London to deliver the third annual Mark Fisher Memorial Lecture at Goldsmiths.

It's at 6 pm at the Ian Gulland Lecture Theatre - and it's free, open to the public, with no booking required.

If you can't make it down, there's a livestream https://www.gold.ac.uk/live-stream/

Here's a foretaste:

Bridging the Chasm: the Promise of Music

In this third annual Mark Fisher memorial lecture, Simon Reynolds looks at the centrality of music – specifically popular music - in the K-punk vision. Talking about the formative postpunk era that lastingly shaped his outlook and his expectations for pop, Fisher once declared: “Music wasn’t only about music.” Through the prism of Fisher’s thinking as it evolved over two decades, Reynolds explores changing ideas about the relationship between pop and politics: the power that music has held out for successive generations, and the challenge of activating music’s promise in the world beyond.


Later that night there is a post-lecture party at Goldsmiths Student Union, with bands and DJs - including Mark Leckey playing some tunes. Full line-up and event info at Xenogothic.