Going Underground: The Politics of Free Music around 1968

Going Underground situates the demand for “free music” as part of a broader contestation of the terms of cultural consumption in the radical milieu of the long 1960s. At stake in the mobilizations recounted in the reflections of Action Directe-member Jean-Marc Rouillan was not just access to popular...

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Main Author: Timothy Scott Brown
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Éditions de l'EHESS 2020-03-01
Series:Transposition
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/transposition/4863
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author Timothy Scott Brown
author_facet Timothy Scott Brown
author_sort Timothy Scott Brown
collection DOAJ
description Going Underground situates the demand for “free music” as part of a broader contestation of the terms of cultural consumption in the radical milieu of the long 1960s. At stake in the mobilizations recounted in the reflections of Action Directe-member Jean-Marc Rouillan was not just access to popular music, but the validity of the subversive meanings ascribed to cultural production under capitalism. Struggling with the system’s ability to co-opt challenges to its hegemony by putting them up for sale, activists insisted that it was they, and not promoters or other financially-interested middle men, who had the right to determine the conditions under which liberatory cultural expression such as rock‘n’roll would be consumed. The insistence that music be “free” embodied a characteristic demand of the radical moment around 1968: that culture actually matter.
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spelling doaj-art-a2ed781df0ff4517b155983e13e048152025-08-20T02:20:15ZengÉditions de l'EHESSTransposition2110-61342020-03-01210.4000/transposition.4863Going Underground: The Politics of Free Music around 1968Timothy Scott BrownGoing Underground situates the demand for “free music” as part of a broader contestation of the terms of cultural consumption in the radical milieu of the long 1960s. At stake in the mobilizations recounted in the reflections of Action Directe-member Jean-Marc Rouillan was not just access to popular music, but the validity of the subversive meanings ascribed to cultural production under capitalism. Struggling with the system’s ability to co-opt challenges to its hegemony by putting them up for sale, activists insisted that it was they, and not promoters or other financially-interested middle men, who had the right to determine the conditions under which liberatory cultural expression such as rock‘n’roll would be consumed. The insistence that music be “free” embodied a characteristic demand of the radical moment around 1968: that culture actually matter.https://journals.openedition.org/transposition/4863rockDIYrecuperationsubcultureunderground
spellingShingle Timothy Scott Brown
Going Underground: The Politics of Free Music around 1968
Transposition
rock
DIY
recuperation
subculture
underground
title Going Underground: The Politics of Free Music around 1968
title_full Going Underground: The Politics of Free Music around 1968
title_fullStr Going Underground: The Politics of Free Music around 1968
title_full_unstemmed Going Underground: The Politics of Free Music around 1968
title_short Going Underground: The Politics of Free Music around 1968
title_sort going underground the politics of free music around 1968
topic rock
DIY
recuperation
subculture
underground
url https://journals.openedition.org/transposition/4863
work_keys_str_mv AT timothyscottbrown goingundergroundthepoliticsoffreemusicaround1968