Relation between subject and object in pop music
Thursday, July 16th, 2009Finally, and shortly before the end of the semester: a blog entry concerning the relation of subjectivity and objectivity – or, if you wish, the position of the individual in the society – mirrored in four up-to-date texts emerged from German pop culture (if there is such a thing).
The first one was written by an artist called PeterLicht, a musician, writer and graphic artist who’s currently working in theatre. The Song is called “Räume räumen” (“clearing rooms” or “To clear rooms”).
I apologize for the bumpy translation that consequently ignores any measure/metre or rhyme.
clearing rooms
The room is full but no one is here
This here reaches me, reaches me not
My day doesn’t have as many seconds
as I would need in order to say my ‘no’, my ‘no’s’:
No no no, no no, no, no no, no no, no no, no, no, no.
The room is full but noone is here
who disturbs is thrown, thrown out out out
disturbing, flying and clearing rooms
I don’t have to be here, here I don’t even want to be missed
better outside on the roads in september rain, the warm rain.
No no no, no no, no, no no, no no, no no, no, no, no.
I think whoever I see ought to be happy
We like the land, we acupuncture the ground
we massage the streets, we cream the houses
we mop the cities, we cool the motors
we like the land, we acupuncture the ground
with big stealbars
with big stealbars
we anoint the concrete, we yoke(join) the wires
we console the machines, we talk to the membranes
we’re laying our hands on infrastructure
with big hands
with big hands
And then your picture in the clouds and the wind from above
You there - I here
with big hearts
with big hearts
Yes yes yes
yes yes
yes
yes yes yes yes
yes yes
yes
yes yes yes yes
yes yes
Let’s be happy
or be lost
Let’s get smaller
on the horizon
I don’t see anything else
on the horizon
Let’s go further
than our eyes can see
I don’t see anything else
but in a distant prospect lots of light
in a distant prospect lots of light
in a distant prospect lots of light
Interpretation (an attempt):
The album on which the song appeared is called “Melancholy and Society” (also title of an essay about the ‘prohibition of melancholy’ in Utopia, by Wolf Lepenies, a Sociologist at FU Berlin,).
The title reflects on the larger context in which PeterLicht is currently moving about: the loss of utopian impulses in society and the retreat into private, even bourgeois, environment.
So the seemingly paradox complaint that “the room is full but no one is here” might reflect on both the growing individualization and lack of ‘political engagement’ and, at the same time, the growing super-supply with information.
The second verse is perhaps quite simply lamenting the loss of room for experiment, the unusual, the useless…
The beautiful and sort of architecturesque third verse is maybe an ironic take on the violent yet utterly helpless way in which we try to shape our environment?
The end could be understood as an invitation to leave the tragic and stuck present and move on towards something we don’t know yet – still, it seems promising.
(this might be a little enigmatic unless you know other lyrics of PeterLicht dealing with the end respectively the recommencement of history).
We are many
we are many
every single one of us
we are many
every secret wish
we are many
our name is legion
we are many
a whole lexicon
we are many
we are like orgon-energy
we are many
a crazy phantasy
this could happen to me, I know I know I know
this could happen to you, you know you know you know
we are many
nothing binds us to nothing
we are many
useless for you and me
we are many
bad weed that grows tall
we are many
committing petty crimes
this could happen to us, I know I know I know
that’s a way to live here you know you know you know
we could touch right now right now right now
we could bloom silently right now right now right now
we are many
forever foreign to each other
we are many
states that everybody knows
something like a good advice:
If you say ‘I’ you haven’t said a thing
tenthousand things at a time
a signal to each other
plant, animal and mineral
our souls arrow and lightning and dream
even though we hardly know ourselves
we are blind and deaf and mute
nothing but guff and excrescence
in us around us surrounding us
we are the world that grows in hollow
the wind that constantly turns
the song that sings itself
because we forget we are men
we are many
we are many
…
we are many
every single one of us
we are many
every secret wish
Conspirate against yourself
conspirate against yourself
and your pain will ease
be happy, cause you are alone
and close to the wild heart you will be
conspirate against yourself
and your wounds will open up
don’t wonder, you know for sure
in this war every trick is allowed
You don’t have to show what you can
You mustn’t say what you think
They shouldn’t know how you feel
take all this as your present
conspirate against yourself
the enemies will surrender
by themselves, as you have the air of power
they put a rose petal beneath your bed
conspirate against yourself
and your pain will ease
be happy, close your eyes
noone who will sense the same as you
You don’t have to show what you can
You mustn’t say what you think
No conscience afflicting you
No foreign power guiding you
You don’t have to show what you can
You mustn’t say what you think
They shouldn’t know how you feel
take all this as your present
You don’t have to show what you can
You mustn’t say what you think
No conscience afflicting you
No foreign power guiding you
Imitations
Imitations of you
reside in me
Imitations of you
confederate with me
touch and accompany me
say “There is no true I”
feel and regret nothing
spit into the deniers’ faces
Your good is my good
Your beautiful is my beautiful
Your true is my true
Imitations of you
recur in me
imitations of you
knock on the door
and gently they talk at me:
“You don’t have to be yourself”
and gently they talk at me:
“we will free you from yourself”
your bad is my bad
your sad is my sad
your sad is my SO SAD
You have travelled so far
in zigzag through time
nowhere to stay
sometimes only adoing through dreams
Almost through the whole world
you are appointed to me
Almost through the whole world
you are appointed to me
your good is my good
your beautiful is my beautiful
your true is my true
your bad is my bad
your sad is my sad
your sad is my SO SAD
Three variations of an old topic: Who am I, and what separates me from the others. Or, in a more modern language: the relation between objectivity and subjectivity (which we have been talking about extensively in the context of Latour and of Serres’ ‘Quasi-objects’).
The first one is a euphoric celebration of the possibilities that lie within each and every human being, the magic of diversity and the new beginning, and, last not least: of the beautiful and oscillating empire of uselessness.
The second one has a more serious undertone, it deals with the necessities and fears that result from the fact that in our everyday life we are usually considered (and often make the mistake of considering ourselves) to be that unbearable ONE PERSON.
Luckily, the song is providing us with a strategy to fight that fixation: I am not one of you – I am just one among you.
The third song is sneakily hiding the problem of subject-object in what on first sight appears to be a simple, almost dull love song.
All songs taken from the album “Kapitulation”, 2008.
Should be possible to listen to / watch them on youtube:
Imitationen
Verschwör Dich gegen Dich
Wir sind Viele
Of course, the interpretations are incomplete and probably only half-accurate. Feel free to see anything else in the lyrics.
