Comments on: Paradoxes of Conservative Pop Culture Studies, pt. 1

By: Carl’s Rock Songbook #77: Is Conor Friedersdorf Right That We Need More Conservative Rap Critics? » Postmodern Conservative | A First Things Blog

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 22:49:10 +0000

[...] the first of those “paradox” posts discussed the fact that while Peter is right that the genre of the [...]

By: Carl Eric Scott

Carl Eric Scott — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:40:10 +0000

You made my day, Colin.

The relevant posts are songbook #s 48-52. #52 contains links to all of them, so I’ll provide the link here: http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/postmodernconservative/2012/06/23/carls-rock-songbook-52-rock-recycle-ment-explained/

By: Colin Brown

Colin Brown — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:57:23 +0000

It’s good to hear that the Songbook has been renewed for another/ (second-and-a-half?) season. The series in response to Reynolds’ RETROMANIA and the Perpetual Repetition of recent Rock is definitely a favorite, and one I’ve gone back to read a second and third time. I was reminded of it last night in a conversation with a friend who was explaining to me his thoughts on a recent Tegan & Sarah album, and his “newly” coined term “New Eighties Pop.”
If there was a post or series of posts that ought to be expanded upon, I would say its your RETROMANIA series. I would be interested in reading your thoughts in contrasting contemporary rock and pop’s fixation on the past few decades – a “movement” I’ve started to call Retro-Nouveau – with an understanding of working within a tradition, properly understood.

By: TUESDAY GOD & CAESAR EDITION | Big Pulpit

TUESDAY GOD & CAESAR EDITION | Big Pulpit — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:46:07 +0000

[...] Paradoxes of Conservative Pop Culture – Carl Scott, PoMoCon / First Things [...]

By: Pseudoplotinus

Pseudoplotinus — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 02:29:51 +0000

Carl, yours and WM’s comments brings to mind the ideas the Inklings had about the nature of paganism and how its expressions couldn’t help but reveal some, albeit distorted, truths about man’s need for the gospel. Lewis famously invoked this principle in his “The Grand Miracle” when suggesting Christ as the truth to which such pagan figures as the Corn King, who dies and is born again in phase with the seasons, are illustrative shadows.

I see in the popular culture today merely another instance of that paganism, “idolatry” as WM said condemingly. But as distorted as these expressions may seem, they only have resonance because of how they speak to something authentic to its consumers. Much of it is chaff, but some is wheat.

If I were to suggest a charter for the Pomocon Mission, speaking as merely one of its consumers, I would say that it is to apply what tools there are of cultural discernment and thought to today’s media, affairs and politics to extricate what kernal there is. This is what I find primarily motivates my continuing return to this website as I am always surprised what new insights the Pomocon team has in store.

By: Ken Mafli

Ken Mafli — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:02:53 +0000

“I believe television is uniquely stultifying and uniquely anti-social. Lots of people have social gatherings with music on in the background. Want to kill conversation at a social gathering? Turn on TV. That is a pretty good indication of their relative power and impact.”

I would agree that TV is more engaging from a “sensual” standpoint – but that is because it engages more of our senses. We are a race that wants to bear witness – we want to see. So a medium that engages our visual and our auditory senses… it is naturally more compelling. But that does not imply a sinister nature.

By: Paradoxes of Conservative Pop Culture Studies, pt. 1 | CATHOLIC FEAST

Paradoxes of Conservative Pop Culture Studies, pt. 1 | CATHOLIC FEAST — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:34:37 +0000

[...] With my Rock Songbook about to get underway again, I’d like to make a few observations about how I see it fitting, and not fitting in, into the recent uptick of interest in pop culture studies. And that means some observations about such studies in general. There’s been lots of conservative Source: Postmodern Conservative [...]

By: Paradoxes of Conservative Pop Culture Studies, pt. 1 – First Things (blog) | Conservatives for America

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:03:05 +0000

[...] Paradoxes of Conservative Pop Culture Studies, pt. 1First Things (blog)With my Rock Songbook about to get underway again, I'd like to make a few observations about how I see it fitting, and not fitting in, into the recent uptick of interest in pop culture studies. And that means some observations about such studies in … [...]