We Gotta Get Out of This Place

by Lawrence Grossberg

Bringing together cultural, political and economic analyses, Lawrence Grossberg offers an original and bold interpretation of the contemporary politics of both rock and popular culture.

Genres: Cultural Studies

444 pages, Paperback

First published May 21, 1992

About the author

Morris Davis Distinguished Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies, adjunct distinguished professor of anthropology, and the director of the University Program in Cultural Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He has won numerous awards from the National Communication Association and the International Communication Association, as well as the University of North Carolina Distinguished Teaching Award (for post-baccalaureate teaching). He has been the co-editor of the international journal Cultural Studies for over fifteen years. He has written extensively about the philosophy and theory of culture and
communication, and the interdisciplinary practice of cultural studies. His research focused for many years on American popular music and youth culture, but his recent work has turned to the contemporary
U.S. political culture and the global struggle over the possible ways of being modern. His work has been translated into a dozen languages.

Reviews

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another startling example of a book pertaining to the intersection of cultural studies and American politics that was written in the 1990s that feels as if it was written more recently. Although Grossberg does not interrogate rock music nowhere nearly as much as the title and description of the book implies, what he does provide is a detailed interrogation of American hegemony, the “New Right,” and the role communication plays in establishing culture and politics. The only aspect of this book that does not seem contemporary to me pertains to Grossberg’s final chapter, which, in his efforts to scrutinize the failures of what he understands as “politics of identity,” does not seem to understand how intersectional identity affects subjectivity. Despite this flaw, there is much in this book to unpack, and I imagine I will return to this book throughout my career as a scholar of American culture.

[Arda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of my notes from Culture Studies class:

Grossberg (1992) recognizes the significance and power of popular culture as an active and defining force in shaping identity. His reflections bring into attention the question of what, but specifically, how cultural norms and practices, when mixed together, construct and shape up identities. His analysis speculates the historical, but also the social, economic and political dimensions that provide the space and access for the cultural formulations to have place in the ground and play an active role in our day-to-day lives. In this respect, cultural references and influences become incorporated within the social structures.

It is worth mentioning here that the cultural formations are not to be under-estimated, for they become identity: Identity, in that respect, is not limited to nationalism: it includes other things such as the love of rock music and how the involvement and investment in that love ultimately becomes identity: the love of rock, in that sense, defines a person – it is a formation of identity. Grossberg’s take on this matter asserts that identities are shaped out of that very personal investment carried out through practices and rituals within social connections.

The important element to consider again, in Grossberg’s view, is how the popular becomes popular: There are many elements when considering this question, and Grossberg observes different elements that draw people towards developing taste. Those elements include passion, escapism, and fun, but he also determines that taste involves, first and foremost, the sense itself: the direct sense, prior to the interpretation and the analysis of it [this brings to the mind the lyrics of Pink Floyd: “All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be.”] The investment and personal involvement in the sensed things in life; those that are emotionally felt and sensed, guide our “mattering maps” (Grossberg, 1992, p. 80). Those maps soon start to have a life of their own, shared by a group of people, directing them to function as based on those senses that they had been immersed in. It is through those mattering maps – the things that get regarded as worthy, important, felt, seen, and deemed as important – that take us towards constructing identities.

[Karen Jean Martinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The opening section on cultural studies is, at times, too abstract for me. But I soldier on.

I found the notion of affective alliances to be particularly interesting - it's a more theoretical explanation of the "What's the Matter with Kansas" phenomenon.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A social analysis of politics and passion--I wonder if I can use Deleuze and Guattari's line of flight to reframe this relation