Microphone Fiends

by Andrew Ross (Editor), Trica Rose (Editor)

Microphone Fiends , a collection of original essays and interviews, brings together some of the best known scholars, critics, journalists and performers to focus on the contemporary scene. It includes theoretical discussions of musical history along with social commentaries about genres like disco, metal and rap music, and case histories of specific movements like the Riot Grrls, funk clubbing in Rio de Janeiro, and the British rave scene.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

286 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1994

About the author

Andrew Ross is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, and a social activist. A contributor to The Nation, the Village Voice, New York Times, and Artforum, he is the author of many books, including, most recently, Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World’s Least Sustainable City and Nice Work if You Can Get It: Life and Labor in Precarious Times.

Reviews

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, it’s taken me half a year to make it through Microphone Fiends. I won’t blame it on the book, a collection of 18 pieces (many of them short) plus an intro. Its outdatedness - its genesis was a 1992 conference at Princeton University - does generally detract from its value, although it sometimes enhances and amplifies it in interesting ways.

Having grown up during the “disco sucks” era, I personally was most enlightened by the pieces in the “Dance Continuum” section, particularly the statements from Lady Kier Kirby and Tricia Rose’s interview with Willi Ninja. Susan McClary’s essay in the “Histories and Futures” was also relevant, although I had read similar work by her before.

Donna Gaines’ “Border Crossing in the U.S.A.” is a (not unduly) harsh, critical look at the institutions that had already failed or were in process of failing our white suburban youth back in the 1980s and ‘90s...well, guess what, folks? I’m not sure that all that much has changed.

Ditto for the communities that gave birth to hip hop and rap, and for the Riot Grrrls. (You don’t seem to have come such a long way, baby.) Joanne Gottlieb and Gayle Wald’s essay on the Grrrls concludes that, “if Riot Grrrl wants to raise feminist consciousness on a large scale, then it will have to negotiate a relation to the mainstream that does not merely reify the opposition between mainstream and subculture.” It would be very interesting to read a well-informed consideration of how well hip hop and rap have managed that negotiation in their sphere vs how/whether Riot Grrrl has done so in the years since. I couldn’t presume to speculate; I just don’t know nearly enough about any of these youth cultures. In any case, equality is still a distant dream for those represented here, especially taking into account the 2016 election backlash against women and people of color.

Rounding it out, Christgau’s piece is mostly unenlightening, and Walser’s beef about metal musicians breaking the boundaries between high- and low-brow culture is characteristically quaint.

In conclusion: if you really want the scoop on the musical/dance genres discussed in this book, you’re probably better off finding more recent sources. Although this collection was not without interest, I'm sorry to report that part of that interest is simply that, in spite of all the youthful defiance portrayed within, these youths - much like the baby boomers before them - didn't come close to solving the problem of youth disenfranchisement.

[Chi Chi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting collection of essays about music and youth culture, even if it's a little up and down (I still don't know the point of Robert Christgau's piece is). It covers a decent range of material, going from hip hop to disco to riot grrl, and has some interesting contributors like Willie Ninja to go along with academic writers like Tricia Rose.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found it to be too dense and overly analytical.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure - skipped a few essays that were dense/irrelevant (the loose definition of "youth music" including forms like heavy metal and samba was frustrating). Overall a good collection that functions most interestingly as a historical document -- interesting to see takes on Riot Grrrl, hip-hop, etc. through the political/cultural/social climates of the late 80s/early 90s. Lawrence Grossberg's clever work on the "rock formation" - challenging the rationale behind "rock is dead" mindsets and posing rock music as "affective machine" standing in resistance to "negative changes in everyday life". Susan McClary's piece on the relationship of the body and movement to popular music is still revelatory.