Modern fantasy began with the release of George Lucas’s “Star Wars,” in 1977, which paid homage to the “Flash Gordon” and “Buck Rogers” serials of the thirties. The project drew Wagner comparisons almost from the[…]
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Category: Music
“It is an astonishing cultural transformation: the “Ride” remade into an anthem of American supremacy. This displacement is of a piece with other troubling historical continuities of the postwar era: Nazi scientists migrating to America, Gestapo-style torture techniques resurfacing in Iraq, the cult of the sculpted body perpetuating Riefenstahl’s Aryan ideal”
It is an astonishing cultural transformation: the “Ride” remade into an anthem of American supremacy. This displacement is of a piece with other troubling historical continuities of the postwar era: Nazi scientists migrating to America,[…]
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“‘Apocalypse’ soon became a military fetish object, its Wagner scene influencing real-life behavior”
The entrance of the main Valkyrie motif coincides with a wide shot of fourteen helicopters in flight. The soldiers ready their guns; Kilgore nods to the music. Another wide shot coincides with a gleaming B-major[…]
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“The ‘Ride’ seems a foreordained choice for the helicopter operation in ‘Apocalypse Now'”
For decades before Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” aerial warfare had been stirring thoughts of the Valkyries and their “air-horses,” as Wagner called them. In Proust’s “Time Regained,” the Germanophile dandy Robert de Saint-Loup watches a zeppelin[…]
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“The New Music Business is…not about capitalizing on hilarious memes, but building relationships with fans”
The New Music Business is not supported by the major record labels. It’s not about a hit, but a career. It’s not about capitalizing on hilarious memes, but building relationships with fans. … Getting signed[…]
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“What does it mean to be a hip-hop parent?”
What does it mean to be a hip-hop parent? For me, it means moving heaven and earth to protect my daughter from any hint of the menace that threatened my own teenage years. It means[…]
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Yankee Doodle’s “lyrics were venomous”
The lyrics were venomous. “Yankee” was a withering word for a colonist. A “doodle” was a rube or a fool, and the doodle in this song rides a pony, instead of a horse, which makes[…]
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“I can’t believe ‘Across the Stars’ is in Star Wars – it’s so rich”
I still listen to this piece and I get chills. I can’t believe it’s in Star Wars – it’s so rich. I mean there’s this sort of like very gentle love story emerging and then[…]
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“…the parade music at the end [of The Phantom Menace] is ‘The Emperor’s Theme’ in disguise”
“The Emperor’s Theme” shows up, you know, a couple times, so “The Emperor’s Theme” happens at the very beginning, then when he checks in during the invasion, you get “The Emperor’s Theme” again, then when[…]
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Star Wars “is a very, very rich soundtrack”
It is a very, very rich soundtrack; there’s so much going on and it’s a very diverse soundtrack. And, of course, it sticks to kind of the Romantic orchestral tradition of the 19th century, what[…]
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