Among philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche is the most widely associated with Nihilism. According to Nietzsche the world has no order or structure besides what we give it "Every belief, every considering something-true," Nietzsche explains, "is necessarily false because there is simply no true world" . Nietzsche’s nihilism requires an essential denial of every compulsory significance and implication: "Nihilism is . . . not only the belief that everything deserves to perish; but one actually puts one's shoulder to the plough; one destroys" . As far as Nihilism, Self-Destruction the proto punk movement and early punk culture, it seems hard to separate one from the other. From Iggy Pop’s self mutilation by rolling around on glass shards on stage, …show more content…
In 1973 the Stooges released the song “Search and Destroy”, an apocalyptic masterpiece. Within the song we can hear “cheerful nihilism” as Iggy sings “I'm a street walking cheetah, with a heart full of napalm. I'm a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb. I am a world's forgotten boy, the one who searches and destroys…the one who's searchin' only to destroy”. Iggy Pop’s “cheerful nihilism” is a different approach as far as delivery. Compared to other front men who delivered their lyrics with aggression, Iggy advances his subject matter with what almost seems like an ironic joy. As Far as the lyrical relationship to nihilism, Iggy Pop is pulling imagery from the Vietnam War, mostly quoting the military tactic used by the US: to seek out the enemy, destroy them, and withdraw. The Vietnam War has been politically charged with the antiwar movement of the 1960s and was also the first war that “in your living room’ due to the advancement of televisions. The U.S. government has had a history of killing civilians during the war, and American citizens were constantly wondering the ethical reasoning for the actions they were witnessing for the first time on television. Nihilists believe it is a supposition that a conviction in morality, religion or philosophy can stop people from harming each other. People who hurt other people believe in one thing or another; they believe, automatically, in the rationale they use for their actions. Whether they chose a moral structure, which calls for punishing those who transgress their ideology, or their minds twist the position, in order to validate what they feel. People like Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler, rationalize their cruelty in the language of what they believe is morality. Not saying that morality leads to acts of cruelty, but it unquestionably has not stopped them. The human predisposition to embrace a moral system
Cobain, the lead guitarist, writer and singer for a band called Nirvana shook the groggy music world with the release of Smells Like Teen Spirit from the album Nevermind over twenty years ago on September 10, 1991. Nobody ever imagined that the simple four-chord progression would ever grab so much attention that it would hit number 6, let alone the Nevermind album knocking Michael Jackson’s Dangerous out of the No. 1 spot on the Billboards. (Shmoop) The fact that a grungy, distortion filled song became such a radio hit proved that Nirvana’s shy singer was now the much needed voice for the youth. New found fame hurdled the little known Cobain into the limelight almost instantly; hungry fans gobbled up and imitated everything they could about him. No longer were kids interested in listening the pop music that saturated the 80’s; they now had music that voiced how aloof they felt about their existence. Kids who were misunderstood by their parents and elders, finally...
"1991: The Year Punk Broke" is a documentary about the leading punk figures in the nineties such as Sonic Youth and Nirvana. In the continuation of the documentary, the viewer finds Thurstoon Moore of Sonic Youth asking young music enthusiats: “People see rock and roll as youth culture, and when youth culture becomes monopolized by big business, what are the youth to do?". In addition to the question, he states, "I think we should destroy the bogus capitalist process that is destroying youth culture by mass marketing and commercial behavior control and the first step to do is to destroy the record companies.” "The bogus capitalist process" that Moore talks about refers to the aggressive capitalist side of any market, but more
In philosophy “Nihilism” is a position of radical skepticism. It is the belief that all values are baseless and nothing is known. The word “Nihilism” itself conveys a sense of abolishing or destroying (IEP). Nietzsche’s work and writings are mostly associated with nihilism in general, and moral nihilism especially. Moral nihilism questions the reality and the foundation of moral values. Nietzsche supported his view on morality by many arguments and discussions on the true nature of our inner self. Through my paper on Moral Nihilism, I will explain 5 major arguments and then try to construct a deductive argument for each, relying on Nietzsche’s book II “Daybreak”.
The hippie aesthetic era was an important time in rock and roll during the late 60’s and on into the early 80’s. It was a time were rock had a sense of purpose. They sung about the issues that plagued the country. It was also a time where technology would play an important roll in the sound of music, with the advancement in recording and synthesizer technology (Covach, “The Hippie Aesthetic”). The hippie aesthetic was not immune to the advancement of music. This essay will go over three songs that represent the different aspects of this era. It’ll will review a song that is predominately hippie aesthetic, a song that is a little of both, and finally a song that has no trace of hippie aesthetic.
The biggest influential song on Nirvana’s Nevermind album was the first song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It reached number 6 on the Top 40 Charts. This song was groundbreaking for Nirvana and the alternative music scene as a whole. After the release of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” white, middle-class youth of the United States finally had a style of music to call their own and express their “teenage anthems” (Stuessy, Joe). This was the first song to emerge from alternative rock and to be known in the mainstream of rock and roll, expressing their generation’s expectations, “...here we are now, entertain us”(Stuessy, Joe). “Smells like Teen Spirit” was Curt Cobain’s “attempt to write the ultimate pop song”(Nevermind, Nirvana). He used the soft-loud dynamics of his favorite band, the Pixies. The insidious hooks also showed his admiration for the Beatle’s John Lennon(Nevermind, Nirvana). The style used in this song is simple, plain, loud, and straight-forward. Musically, there is nothing very “innovative” or difficult. However, the reason it is important to rock history is because it brought America’s attention to the once before underground style of grunge. “A driving drum beat, powered by Novelsek’s rhythmic bass, and a memorable guitar riff and solo, mix perfectly with Kurt Cobain’s depressing yet humorous lyrics” (Kastner, Patrick). While it has certainly been overplayed in the past years, it is still an essential part of Rock history.
Listeners can immediately recognize the low, deep screech of Townshend’s voice as the core of the song. As he belts out what seem to be rhythmic, artless words, a look deeper shows the complexity behind it all. These melodic lyrics contain confrontational messages while creating an unforgettable anthem for the teenage population. Exhilaration runs through the veins of the lyrics sung by Townshend, creating a feeling of excitement. It encourages listeners to cave in to their urge to jump up and down along with the beat of the music, in only a way rock ‘n’ roll music can. The higher-pitched vocals that sing Talkin’ bout my generation give listeners a break from the commanding voice of Townshend. They are sweet and upbeat in a way that is appealing to the young and repelling to the old. This sense of youthfulness and urgency within the lyrics gives young listeners a sense of power and makes them proud to be defiant towards the values their parents have forced upon them. The tune, while staying buoyant, evokes fury and rebellion, which is exactly The Who’s intended goal
The song lyrics above are from the soundtrack of the film Menace II Society and correspond directly to the hardships that people are given when growing up in the ghetto and when surrounded by a life of violence. Because they know nothing other than this aggressive and brutal way of life, they continue this violent cycle and rarely break away to begin a new way of life.
The moral code that people establish for themselves reflects the environment that they grow up in. For
The late 1970s gave birth to a punk culture that further distended into an evolution of the genre during the mid-1980s, particularly in Seattle, USA. A punk inspired movement called grunge became internationally recognized after Nirvana’s debut release album ‘Nevermind’, in 1995. Grunge gained a mass recognition for its punk ideology, attire and music, which stemmed further away, and was in itself a rejection to the mainstream metal and pop boom in the music industry of that time. Grunge incorporated a fusion of cultural and social threads that linked themes like feminism, liberalism, anti-authoritarianism, wry post-modernism, and not least a love of dirty, abrasive music; grunge reconciled all these into a seminal whole. (Standard grunge definition, Internet source)
The genre thrived and declared its difference from other types of music. In order to freely express themselves, "punk players and singers rejected musical ostentation and artifice" (Morrison 2006,). They abandoned embellishments, keyboards and productions. "... all that was left was slashing guitars, pumping bass, thumping drums, and snarling voices singing frankly realistic lyrics" (Morrison 2006,). The music itself seemed to offend instead of please.
movements including Anarchism, Nihilism and Marxism that gave Punk it’s revolutionary zeal. Punk Music though was more than a political statement, it was
Taking this to be true, Kaufman argues that there is every reason to believe that on the whole our moral judgments will tend to be true. Furthermore, when we take the moral realist’s argument that morality has a deep connection with human flourishing, there are evolutionary reasons, Kaufman believes, for believing that there is a connection between moral judgments and actions that for the most part promote our well being.
While maintaining a open look of this moral law, Lewis presents two objections one would present to the moral law: “The moral law is just herd instinct” and “Morality is just social convention. The moral law is not a herd instinct due to man’s choice to suppress stronger instincts in fa...
“In a world of hate, there has to be a light. Be that light and spread some love. Maybe this day, the youth can make a difference. No more hate!” Christofer Drew, the lead singer of the band Never Shout Never, believes that our generation can change the world by spreading the love. Not only does this quote display his point of view, but so do many of his songs, specifically the song “Harmony.” In the music video for “Harmony,” Drew gives his harmonious stance on the concept of war by creating a silly illustration of war for his youthful audience.
Nietzsche believed this to be a form of nihilism because mankind valued precisely what was halting his advancement. With this in mind, Nietzsche began his bold movement towards the revaluation of all values.