8/10/2019 Musicology at Weimar Republic
1/5
Most German of the Arts: Musicology and Society from the Weimar Republic to the End ofHitler's Reich by Pamela M. PotterReview by: Christopher HaileyNotes, Second Series, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Sep., 1999), pp. 106-109Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/900476.
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2/5
NOTES,
September
1999
OTES,
September
1999
group
Take
That,
Paul McDonald
obviously
worked hard
to
provide
detailed
descrip-
tions
of
the
spectacles
he
analyzed,
but
some photographs would have made his
essay
more
vivid.
In
the
course of
his
discus-
sion of
Take That's
popularity among
young
female and
gay
male
audiences,
McDonald
fairly
critiques
psychoanalytic
approaches
that reduce
multiple perfor-
mances
of
gender
to
dichotomies;
he also
does
a
good
job
of
defending
informed tex-
tual
analysis
as an
illuminating
method that
need not
always
depend
upon
direct
ethno-
graphic
corroboration.
Unlike
McDonald,
Sean Cubitt makes no
effort to describe visual images carefully,
leaving
the reader
unable
to
judge
or re-
spond
to
his
assertions. That is the case
with his entire
chapter,
most of which does
not even
pretend
to address
popular
music,
and none of which
displays
much
concern
with other
people's responses,
with
history,
or with
musical
signification.
Cubitt
speaks
of our
responses,
of how we
respond,
but offers no evidence that would
ground
his assertions outside of his own
reactions.
His
contribution
is less
an analysis
of
social
meanings
than a
performance
of his own
reception
of
gendered images.
Sexing
the
Groove oncludes
with
an anno-
tated
bibliography
of
relevant work
in
cul-
tural
studies,
gender
studies,
and
popular
music;
it is
a
helpful compilation
with fair
group
Take
That,
Paul McDonald
obviously
worked hard
to
provide
detailed
descrip-
tions
of
the
spectacles
he
analyzed,
but
some photographs would have made his
essay
more
vivid.
In
the
course of
his
discus-
sion of
Take That's
popularity among
young
female and
gay
male
audiences,
McDonald
fairly
critiques
psychoanalytic
approaches
that reduce
multiple perfor-
mances
of
gender
to
dichotomies;
he also
does
a
good
job
of
defending
informed tex-
tual
analysis
as an
illuminating
method that
need not
always
depend
upon
direct
ethno-
graphic
corroboration.
Unlike
McDonald,
Sean Cubitt makes no
effort to describe visual images carefully,
leaving
the reader
unable
to
judge
or re-
spond
to
his
assertions. That is the case
with his entire
chapter,
most of which does
not even
pretend
to address
popular
music,
and none of which
displays
much
concern
with other
people's responses,
with
history,
or with
musical
signification.
Cubitt
speaks
of our
responses,
of how we
respond,
but offers no evidence that would
ground
his assertions outside of his own
reactions.
His
contribution
is less
an analysis
of
social
meanings
than a
performance
of his own
reception
of
gendered images.
Sexing
the
Groove oncludes
with
an anno-
tated
bibliography
of
relevant work
in
cul-
tural
studies,
gender
studies,
and
popular
music;
it is
a
helpful compilation
with fair
commentary,
although
it
inexplicably
omits
one of the most
important
previous
works
on
popular
music and
gender,
Lisa A.
Lewis's GenderPolitics and MTV: Voicingthe
Difference
(Philadelphia:
Temple
University
Press,
1990),
as well
as
George Lipsitz's
sev-
eral books on
cultural studies
and
popular
music. It would be
easy
to
criticize the cov-
erage
of
Sexing
the Groove tself: the
popu-
lar music of its
subtitle is limited to
Anglo-
American rock
and
pop,
and
even
within
those
boundaries
there is no
discussion of
hip hop,
for
example,
and almost no men-
tion of black musicians.
Although
divided
evenly by
gender,
the
contributors are
mostly British, and some of the musicians
they
discuss are less well
known
in
the
United States and elsewhere. But
to dwell
on
such limitations would
be
unfair,
given
the
great range
of musical
performances
of
gender
that are
insightfully
examined
here.
Despite
Whiteley's
unfulfilled
promise
to
bring
musical sound to the center of her
book's
analyses,
she
has
brought together
many
valuable
essays
and
produced
a useful
and
consequential
collection.
Sexing
the
Groove
s
one
of
the most
provocative,
en-
abling,
and
persuasive
recent contributions
to
popular-music
studies.
ROBERT
WALSER
Universityof California,
Los
Angeles
commentary,
although
it
inexplicably
omits
one of the most
important
previous
works
on
popular
music and
gender,
Lisa A.
Lewis's GenderPolitics and MTV: Voicingthe
Difference
(Philadelphia:
Temple
University
Press,
1990),
as well
as
George Lipsitz's
sev-
eral books on
cultural studies
and
popular
music. It would be
easy
to
criticize the cov-
erage
of
Sexing
the Groove tself: the
popu-
lar music of its
subtitle is limited to
Anglo-
American rock
and
pop,
and
even
within
those
boundaries
there is no
discussion of
hip hop,
for
example,
and almost no men-
tion of black musicians.
Although
divided
evenly by
gender,
the
contributors are
mostly British, and some of the musicians
they
discuss are less well
known
in
the
United States and elsewhere. But
to dwell
on
such limitations would
be
unfair,
given
the
great range
of musical
performances
of
gender
that are
insightfully
examined
here.
Despite
Whiteley's
unfulfilled
promise
to
bring
musical sound to the center of her
book's
analyses,
she
has
brought together
many
valuable
essays
and
produced
a useful
and
