The politics of pleasure : the role of music in Adam Curtis' Radical journalism

Abstract

I argue that Curtis’ strategies function as a radical critique of dominant news narratives. In effect, Curtis uses music to interrogate the relationship between individual pleasure and political ideology. He structures the audience’s identification with the popular culture as it is depicted alongside historical events. His devices of audiovisual juxtaposition foreground the music and compel the viewer to interrogate their own individual affective responses, memory, and social identification with it. Such interrogation challenges individuals to recognize how they operate as subjects of a popular culture in which the pleasures of the individual are intrinsically political.

I analyze how popular, repurposed music in the films of Adam Curtis functions as a language of political and cultural critique. Using a method that integrates analytical approaches within documentary studies, affect theory, and sound studies, I present a broad analysis of Curtis’ films, followed by a closer analysis of three works: The Trap (2007), It Felt like a Kiss (2009), and his most recent work, HyperNormalisation (2016).

Curtis’ work demonstrates the capacity to which sound and music can structure affective interactions with archival footage. Through a more focused inquiry into the role of sound, this study extends Baron’s framework of the archive effect. It raises important considerations regarding the use of music as a narrative device and as a point of historical signification.

Today’s digital environment features a growing circulation of repurposed archival audiovisual material. This dissertation builds on Jaimie Baron’s argument that the repurposing of audiovisual footage forms the contemporary experience of history today. I expand on her framework of reception by examining the role of music in this process.