Neoliberal reason, contemporary music, and proximal critique
Wilson, Samuel J. (2024) Neoliberal reason, contemporary music, and proximal critique. Twentieth-Century Music, 21 (3). pp. 329-362. ISSN 1478-5722
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Text (WILSON SJ. Neoliberal Reason, Contemporary Music, and Proximal Critique. Twentieth-Century Music. 2024;21(3):329-362. doi:10.1017/S1478572224000070)
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Abstract
Theodor W. Adorno suggested that music is mediated by socially derived forms of reason, a provocation here considered with respect to neoliberalism. Drawing on a Foucauldian understanding of neoliberalism, which in Wendy Brown's summary takes neoliberalism as ‘a specific and normative mode of reason’, I consider what this means for immanent features of music and processes of its composition. This critical attention to music's formal, aesthetic register enables me to go beyond the more well-established (although nonetheless valuable) frameworks for discussing music and neoliberalism, which focus on music's relation to labour conditions and creative industries. A range of music and sonic art is discussed, work by Chino Amobi, Brian Eno, Bryn Harrison, Sarah Hennies, Johannes Kreidler, Wolfgang Rihm, Marina Rosenfeld, and John Zorn. I ultimately argue that some core features of Adorno's conception of critical art and music need reformulating for the neoliberal age.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2024. |
| Keywords: | neolibralism, music, neoliberal logic, composition, rationality, reason, |
| Depositing User: | Karen Smith |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Jul 2026 14:11 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Jul 2026 14:11 |
| URI: | https://theplace.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/10 |
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