The Politics of Post-9/11 Music: Sound, Trauma, and the Music Industry in the Time of Terror

Seeking to extend discussions of 9/11 music beyond the acts typically associated with the September 11th attacks"U2, Toby Keith, The Dixie Chicks, Bruce Springsteen"this collection interrogates the politics of a variety of post-9/11 music scenes. Contributors add an aural dimension to what has been a visual conceptualization of this important moment in US history by articulating the role that lesser-known contemporary musicians have played"or have refused to play"in constructing a politics of protest in direct response to the trauma inflicted that day. Encouraging new conceptualizations of what constitutes 'political music,' The Politics of Post-9/11 Music covers topics as diverse as the rise of Internet music distribution, Christian punk rock, rap music in the Obama era, and nostalgia for 1960s political activism.

Joseph P. Fisher is a Learning Specialist in the Office of Disability Support Services at The George Washington University. His research interests are in twentieth and twenty-first century American literary and cultural studies, as well as in popular music studies. His most recent project has been organizing the symposium Composing Disability: Writing, Communication, Culture, which has brought international attention to The George Washington University. Brian Flota is the author of A Survey of Multicultural San Francisco Bay Literature, 1955-1979, which was awarded the Adele Mellen Prize for Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship in 2009. His scholarly work has appeared in journals such as Interdisciplinary Humanities and EAPSU Online. He also contributes music reviews to the online blog The Fiddleback. He received his Ph.D. in English from The George Washington University in 2006 and has taught at George Mason University and Oklahoma State University. He is currently affiliated with the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Contents: Foreword; Introduction - greet death: post-9/11 music and the sound of decay, Joseph P. Fisher and Brian Flota; Part I Electric Dreams: The Medium and the Message: Rock, enroll: music and militarization since 9/11, Samuel Dwinell; Music, terrorism, response: the conditioning logic of code and networks, Benjamin J. Robertson; Technostalgia and the resurgence of cassette culture, Craig Eley. Part II Hail to the Thief: Post-9/11 Experimental Music: Why protest albums can't teach dissent: the emergent complexity of post-9/11 protest, Conrad Amenta; On a maddening loop: post-9/11 rubble music, Isaac Vayo; Terrorism and the politics of improvisation, Rob Wallace; Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero and the biopolitics of media convergence, Katheryn Wright. Part III What's Going On, Again?: Protest and Nostalgia: Casualties of war: Hip Hop and the old racial politics of the post-9/11 era, Aisha Staggers; That was now, this is then: recycling 60s style in post-9/11 music, Jeffrey Roessner; A new morning in Amerika: conservative politics and punk rock in the 2000s, Matthew Siblo; 'Agony and irony': indie culture's sardonic response to America's post-9/11 devolution, S. Todd Atchison. Part IV Idle American, American Idol: Mainstream Media and Ideology: Post-Dixie Chicks country: Carrie Underwood and the negotiation of feminist country identity, Molly Brost; Walking the great line: Underoath and Christian fundamentalism in punk rock after 9/11, Gerrit Roessler; War is heavy metal: soundtracking the US war in Iraq, Steve Waksman; Index.