Uploaded August 2019 | Updated September 2026, 49 minutes ago
crosstowntraffic2018.wordpress.com
This presentation took place as part of the conference Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice, which was hosted by The University of Huddersfield from September 3 - 5 2018. This event combined the IASPM UK&Ireland Biennial Conference, the 13th Art of Record Production Conference (ARP), an ISMMS conference, and the additional participation of Dancecult.
A recurrent theme within popular music studies has been discussion of how the field can integrate different disciplines and professions, for example exploring both music and its context; involving both practitioners and researchers; and encouraging interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Many different issues make such approaches challenging, and various different popular music focused subject organisations have developed somewhat independently of one another. This conference brought four such groups together, to exchange knowledge, collaborate, and encourage crosstalk.
/// SUPPORT
Popular Music Studies Research Group (PMSRG), University of Huddersfield research.hud.ac.uk/pmsrg/#
Centre for Music, Culture and Identity (CMCI), University of Huddersfield
research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cmci
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK and Ireland Branch (IASPM UK & Ireland)
iaspm.org.uk
Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP)
artofrecordproduction.com
Dancecult Research Network (DRN) studies into electronic dance music culture
dancecult-research.net
International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS)
metalstudies.org
/// ORGANIZERS
IASPM UK&I: Rupert Till
ARP: Katia Isakoff, Shara Rambarran
ISMMS: Karl Spracklen
Dancecult: Graham St. John
University of Huddersfield: Jan Herbst, Austin Moore, Lisa Colton, Toby Martin, Catherine Haworth, Mark Mynett
/// CREDITS
This online project was edited, collated, and made available online by Chris McConnell, Jack Zissell, and Colin Frank.
/// PRESENTATION DETAILS
The Affect of Neo-Conservative Politics and the Externalisation of Threat in Trent Reznor’s Post-9/11 Aesthetic
David Deacon - BIMM Institute Dublin/University College Dublin
/// ABSTRACT
This paper will engage an interdisciplinary nexus of topics and interpretive approaches, including affect theory, popular music studies, and cultural studies—specifically in relation to the post 9/11 atmosphere of trauma and threat in U.S. cultural production. I will propose a theoretical reading of Trent Reznor’s artistic endeavours as they were affected by the Neo-Conservative politics of the Bush Administration (2000-2009), specifically in relation to his 2007 concept album Year Zero, released under his most identifiable artistic moniker, Nine Inch Nails. It will be considered as both a narrative chronicle of mimetic threat—evoked through its post apocalyptic tonality—and a soundscape reflecting the atmosphere of trauma and anxiety synonymous with the War on Terror. Tropes of American exceptionalism and relegitimised patriotism bolstered by militarisation will be explored through the neo-Darwinian rhetoric typifying the ideological register and nationalistic dogma of the era. Brian Massumi’s perspective on affect theory will be enveloped into the analytical framework to explore the sonic and lyrical characteristics of the album, which I will argue signals an aesthetic shift from existential melancholia—a relatively distinctive trait of Reznor’s genre of industrial metal—toward an outward expression of anger, a propensity for combat, and domination. The latter will be proposed as Reznor’s externalisation of threat through the application of Massumi’s affect theory, and embedding Reznor’s album in a broader classification of post 9/11 cultural production. The shift in narrative voice will emerge as a notable aesthetic evolution in perspective serving to investigate the response to and examination of a climate of manufactured anxiety in popular song synonymous with the era. The concept behind the album will also serve to contextualise the propensity toward apocalyptic rhetoric in popular song arising out from this social, political, and cultural climate.
crosstowntraffic2018.wordpress.com
This presentation took place as part of the conference Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice, which was hosted by The University of Huddersfield from September 3 - 5 2018. This event combined the IASPM UK&Ireland Biennial Conference, the 13th Art of Record Production Conference (ARP), an ISMMS conference, and the additional participation of Dancecult.
A recurrent theme within popular music studies has been discussion of how the field can integrate different disciplines and professions, for example exploring both music and its context; involving both practitioners and researchers; and encouraging interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Many different issues make such approaches challenging, and various different popular music focused subject organisations have developed somewhat independently of one another. This conference brought four such groups together, to exchange knowledge, collaborate, and encourage crosstalk.
/// SUPPORT
Popular Music Studies Research Group (PMSRG), University of Huddersfield research.hud.ac.uk/pmsrg/#
Centre for Music, Culture and Identity (CMCI), University of Huddersfield
research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cmci
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK and Ireland Branch (IASPM UK & Ireland)
iaspm.org.uk
Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP)
artofrecordproduction.com
Dancecult Research Network (DRN) studies into electronic dance music culture
dancecult-research.net
International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS)
metalstudies.org
/// ORGANIZERS
IASPM UK&I: Rupert Till
ARP: Katia Isakoff, Shara Rambarran
ISMMS: Karl Spracklen
Dancecult: Graham St. John
University of Huddersfield: Jan Herbst, Austin Moore, Lisa Colton, Toby Martin, Catherine Haworth, Mark Mynett
/// CREDITS
This online project was edited, collated, and made available online by Chris McConnell, Jack Zissell, and Colin Frank.
/// PRESENTATION DETAILS
The Affect of Neo-Conservative Politics and the Externalisation of Threat in Trent Reznor’s Post-9/11 Aesthetic
David Deacon - BIMM Institute Dublin/University College Dublin
/// ABSTRACT
This paper will engage an interdisciplinary nexus of topics and interpretive approaches, including affect theory, popular music studies, and cultural studies—specifically in relation to the post 9/11 atmosphere of trauma and threat in U.S. cultural production. I will propose a theoretical reading of Trent Reznor’s artistic endeavours as they were affected by the Neo-Conservative politics of the Bush Administration (2000-2009), specifically in relation to his 2007 concept album Year Zero, released under his most identifiable artistic moniker, Nine Inch Nails. It will be considered as both a narrative chronicle of mimetic threat—evoked through its post apocalyptic tonality—and a soundscape reflecting the atmosphere of trauma and anxiety synonymous with the War on Terror. Tropes of American exceptionalism and relegitimised patriotism bolstered by militarisation will be explored through the neo-Darwinian rhetoric typifying the ideological register and nationalistic dogma of the era. Brian Massumi’s perspective on affect theory will be enveloped into the analytical framework to explore the sonic and lyrical characteristics of the album, which I will argue signals an aesthetic shift from existential melancholia—a relatively distinctive trait of Reznor’s genre of industrial metal—toward an outward expression of anger, a propensity for combat, and domination. The latter will be proposed as Reznor’s externalisation of threat through the application of Massumi’s affect theory, and embedding Reznor’s album in a broader classification of post 9/11 cultural production. The shift in narrative voice will emerge as a notable aesthetic evolution in perspective serving to investigate the response to and examination of a climate of manufactured anxiety in popular song synonymous with the era. The concept behind the album will also serve to contextualise the propensity toward apocalyptic rhetoric in popular song arising out from this social, political, and cultural climate.
