Arl.e> ther L e>e>k .at. t h e Aesthet. i c s e>f t.he p~p~l.ar Arts Edward G. Lawry

About twenty years ago, Abraham Kaplan delivered a l ively and memorable paper to the American Philosophi cal Association on the aesthetics of the popu l ar arts. Ap pearing during the heyday of formal i st criticism of the arts in America, the clear condemnation of the popular arts in his open ing para­ graph surprised no one. "Aesthetics," Kaplan said, is so largely occupied with the good in art that it has little to s ay about what is merely better or worse, and especially about what is worse. Unremitting talk about the good, however , ;s not only boring but usually inconsequential as well . The study of dis- values may have much to offer both aesthetics and criticism for thesame reason that the physiologist looks to disease and the priest becomes learned in sin. Artistic taste and understanding might better be served by a museum of horribil ia presented as such . It;s f r om this standpoint that I invite attention to the aesthetics of the popular arts.1 But many things have happened i n the last twenty years to make us want to rethink the casual identificati on of popular art with "dis- value" that Kap lan takes for granted: the rise in popularity of folk music. the transformation of rock and roll by the- Beatle's amrOtners ~ advent; of poster art, the ever increasing sophistication of advertising, the power of tel evision , the seriousness of film critics, the strong presence of modern dance, and full ­ scale attempts (at least in the 60's) at street theater and gueri lla theater. / Al l this, during the gradual eroding of the dominance of formalist criticism, / ought t.o make us reevaluate popular art once mo re. Noreover, there is a special reason why professional educators should think careful l y about popular art . To a significant degree, teachers transmit cultural tastes. If they have nothi ng to say about the art that a vast maj or i ty of students are already committed to , they will lose credibi l ity in recommending the explora­ tion of the so- called high arts. Although I am not advocating an acceptance of the position, it is clearly the case that for the majority of children through young adults, Springsteen, not Bach, is the boss.

What I would 1 ike to do is ask performance of dance at all.2 But you to question the sometimes rigid let us ignore the question "I s it distinctions within the arts that 1 ;ve, or is it Memorex? " for the are often too easily accepted . Ask time being and concentrate just on yourself, for example , H the the liveliest authentic cases of the dancing of Fred Astaire during his popular and the high arts. prime was high art or popular art? Hig h a..rl.d. How about the dancing of John l?' c>p~ l a..r- Art.s Travol ta ;n Saturday Night Fever? How might we go about trying to How about the break dancing in the distinguish the high arts from the movi e Flashdance? The questions popular arts? First we might think here are interesting partly because of the nature of the communication of what they overlook.--name l y that we get through the arts. It i s a the three cases of the "art" ·of venerable tradition to think that dancing I mention were all "movie high art som ehow ennobles people, dancing," and it is perhaps question­ and puts them ; nt o contact wi th the able if movi e dancing is really a great human themes that enlarge

I 61 f their sensibilities. Though the important human themes in tnem , more abstract arts (dance and anywhere from the exotic anti-dis­ especially music) have had more crimination themes of Culture Club trouble fitting this model than to the familiar simp l e themes of the representational painting and heart that country music ;s so 1 i terature, a 11 the arts have had famous for. I am not try; ng to this c l a im made on their behalf. In convince anybody that Boy George an d an important way I think that this loretta lynn are the artistic equa ls vi ew ; s true . Power and g1 ory, of Pavarotti and Sills, but only to despa; r and wretchedness, the call attention to the undisputed triumph of t he spirit, the betrayal fact that their music contains of country. family or lover, ambi ­ important human themes. tion, r ad i cal ingratitude, hope and Some of you may be uncomfortabl e pain, and the healing of the commu ­ by my discussion of the high, noble nity: are these not the very truths of popul ar art because you substance of the high arts over the may think that popular art treats centuries? But are these themes not themes commerc i a 11 y, ina wa y so present in popular arts? Are all cl early tied to an appeal to the the popular arts filled with the mass market that the comparison I·lith trivial sensational ism of the tQ£ themes of high art is artifi cia l moment? I do not think we can Qf}sophi sti c. In that case you may distinguish high art from popular be thinking about the difference art by saying high art has nob le or between high art and popular art as serious themes and popular art the difference in seriousness of expresses base or trivial ones. purpose of the artists. it is Current students tell me that something li ke this that Ted Kachel, the secret knowl edge of the "true past schoiar-in- residence for th~ way" of life is contained in the Tulsa- based American Theater Compa ­ music of Pr i nce. I had a student ny, had in mi nd in a two-part several years ago, who now has a article in the newsletter of the major fellowship in the English Tulsa Arts and Humanities Counci l . department at the University of There, in distinguishing t he popular Virginia, who left as his thank you arts f rom the ser i ous performing to me a tape which contains the arts , he says of the relationship music of Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison between artists and audience that and Iggy Pop . Such students are "In one case, the transaction is young adul ts who have read widely, primarily a business r elationship, a have strong interests in the arts monetary exchange, a quid pro quo, and have refined sensibil ities. while in the other, it i s primari ly Again, the hit song "We Are the a spiritual encounter."3 ! wi ll World" was thought sufficiently avoid commenting on how much econom ­ meaningful to be the motif and ics enters into the minds of ser ious shining example of a recent speech performers, leaving that to your by aU. S. Congressman to the gradu­ meditation on human nature, but when ating class of the College of Arts I consider popular artists, I would and Sc; ences a t Ok l ahoma State insist that a central motivation for University. If we focus on music, a most popular artists is to perform pervasive and dominant popular art according to standardS of the craft form, we certainly find a l ot of (howeve r it is conceived). I am triviality and mind lessness , but reminded of this fact in a very even when we are not ina peri ad of powerful way by the brilliantly burning social questions (like the choreographed movie Fame. Perhaps late 60's) we can find popular it is the black mag i c of art, but artists trying to produce music with that movie is wonderfully conv incing

62 that the moti vation of serious and cnaracter of the artist-producer of pc pu l ar artists are of a piece. tne art \'mrk take up an express i ve Th i s can be corroborated by a orientation. Those cr1tlCS who' plenitude of independent evidence. concern themse lves with the effect It is surely i mpossible to imagine of the art work up on the audience that the concerts of Janis Jopl in take up a pragmatic orientation. were not spiritual encounters, just And tnose critics who concern as it is impossible not to believe themselves with the i ntrinsic t ha t someth i ng spec i ali s happen i og pattern or logic of the art work at a Bruce Springsteen concert. take up an objective or;entat;on .4 These popular ar t i sts and most of Although the orientations are full the others on e can think of are of overl app ing interests and each hardly cynical about their activi ­ or i entati on con tains critics who are ties. They are surel y not indiffer­ in many I'lays very different from one ent to the business aspects of their another, the schema can help clarify profession, but that does not stop the frequently made distinction them from being concerned about the between high and popular arts made quality of their work and about the on formalist bases. satisfactions and changes it effects During the 20 th century, the in their audiences. Because popular objective orientation has been art i s fleeting (be i ng absorbed into dominan t in criticism of the arts of the category of high art if it stays h i gh culture , often battl ing the around too l ong) , there is li ttl e of pragmatic orientation. He might t he se l f - conscious sense of partici­ think of the Cl ive Bell - Roger f r y pating in a cultural institution the school of formalism in the visual way there mi ght be for someone who arts and the schoo l of New Criticism was about to direct Hamlet . Never­ that had such a heavy influence on theless, the seriousness of commit ­ literary criticism during the middle ment, the motivation to excellence, decades of this century. Both the concern for t he quality of movements had the effect of concen­ reception in an audience can present trating attention on the ;:latterning - us wi th no strong 1 i ne to demarcate of aesthetic elements in seeking t he high and popular arts. key to the va lue of the ar t object. Perhaps a promising way to Both were highly critical of art distinguish the high and the popular obj ects wni ch sacri fi ced coherence arts is to argue that the greater and harmony of the organic art concern for formal beauty in high object in order to create isol ated art and the relative lack of form in "special effects" in the audience . the popul ar arts is enough to Very often ;n criticism of t his explain the intuitive division . The sort, works were criticized as point deserves a bit of explanation "senti mental ," mean ing .that they s ince it is almost a truism among were mak i"9 efforts to get a r eac­ aesthetic i ans that form and content tion of the audience that was not are inextricably wedded and that "earned" through the manipulation of formlessness is not a logical aesthetic materials. 5 possi bility. While every content ne cessari l y Consider the helpful framework has come packaged ina form, the that Meyer Abrams uses to categorize popular arts are often thought to cri ti ca 1 approaches. Those cri ti cs sacri fice the coherence and integri­ who are concerned to say how far the ty of their form for the rhetorical art work represents or resembles the i mpact of content. As the director wider worl d take up a mimetic depicted in the movie Swe et libert.,Y I orientation. Tho se critics who explains hi s fail - safe fo rmula for • concern themselves with the special making successful movies, no matter t 63 'lIhat else you do, be sure to "defy and ther efo r e should not be admitted authority, destroy property and take to the ranks of hi gh art. off your clothes." This charge of a This k ind of cri t ici sm seems to r el ative l ack of concern for form in me often correct, and extends to a the popular arts versus the high much 1 arger percentage of "'lar ks of ar ts is commonly made. Soap operas popular art as op posed to high art . are not really candidates for high Neverthel ess , we make a crucial art because they have no beginnings, mistake, especially serious for middl es and ends , though they do pedagogy, if we th i nk that this way have a high degree of intensity i n of drawing t he 1 ines distinguishes dramatic conflict (so high that it two kinds of beast: the high art is almost ludi crous). Popular mus ic wh i ch has fo r m and the popular art cannot be sustained for any longer wh ich does not. Rather, the dis­ than 2 1/ 2 minutes at a time because tinction operates within bo t h high of t he 1 ack of camp 1 i cated mus; ca 1 art and popul ar art , and we are structure, yet i ts rhythms are vital f orced in the end to real i ze that and i nsistent (mindlessly so, say high art and popular art are terms its critics). Many movies depend wh ich are externally descript ive of upon the personal appeal of the aesthetic items, no t i ns ights into actors rather than aesthetically t he essence of distinct categories. created "characters" so that it is Some of the simple songs of Rob ert easy to remember that Jennifer Seals Bu rns are only r ead in classes of played the l ead character in Fl ash­ literature, but have the sma ll form dance, but imp ossible to remember and simplicity of a typi cal pop hi t. ~name of her character (which Some albums of popular music and suggests we are less interested in certainly many films which are aimed the fiction presented for aesthetic at a mass audience are exceptionally pleasure than for the social or wel l -crafted and ex hi bit a sophisti­ moral pleasure of knowing the actual cated artistic inte l ligence . personali t y and beauty of the It is more typical to r ecogn i ze actors ) . In the end , this charge of the minor gems of h igh a rt than i t a sacr i fice of form to the more i s t o r ecogn i ze the more formidab l e commercial possibil Hies of content works of popu l ar art . So, if you is r.eal'y a logical extension of the will indulge me , I will do a l ittl e t wo previous criticisms; the dis­ forma l anal ysis of t he mov ie Flash tinction between substantial and dance to demonstrate my point that trivial themes and the distinction popular art can be well-formed and between varying artistic motiva­ complicated. I choose this example tions. But from the point of view for a numbe r of r easons: 1) it is a of the forma list, it is not a combin ation of many arts: music, quest ion of whether popul ar art does dance, drama ; 2 ) i t centers around a not have important themes or even t heme of the h igh arts versus the that t he arti sts are more interested popular ar ts; and 3) it has rare l y in money t han aesthetics. The be en taken seriously as wo r thwhile formal i sts just want to know what art. gets wrought wi th the themes by the An.a..lysis e>f seriousness . Whether the artists F la..shda..n..c:::e have the dedication to submit to The action of Flashdance is rigorous train i ng , whether they have minimal. An eighteen-year- old girl , a desire for mon ey and an indiffer­ on her own, and improb ab ly emp l oy ed ence to their art, the point of as a we lder in a steel mill, works those who mak e th i s ki nd of distinc­ at ni ght as a po pu l ar dancer i n a t ion is simp l y ' that popul ar art bl ue - coll ar bar and yearns to dance forms are just simpl ist ic or mot l ey, in serious ballet. In spite of her

64 lack of training, she summons the Another strong visual image ;s courage to tryout for the classical tied to the crucial theme of charac­ repertory in the steel town of ter strength. The mOlJie pits the Pittsburg. The real point of the honesty and hardwork i ngness of the movie is the theme of striving for blue- collar character against the and risking for higher things sleaziness of the pornographic world without losing your humanity . The into which one can fall and also theme tightly concentrates the against the artlficially and smug­ action and the characters . It is ness of the hi gher c l ass territory played out not only in Alexandra, wh i ch comes wi th success. The idea the central character, but in two of character strength is underscored parallel characters . Jeanne, by the strong geometrical images if Alexandra ' s good friend, practices architecture which punctuate the for two years for an ice skating film . Mawby's Bar and the Carnegie competition which she loses because Music Hall in Pittsburg are shown she falls twice during her perfor­ several times in foursquare frontal mance. Richie, the cook in the images which last several seconds in blue- collar bar whe r e Alex works as the screen. In contrast, the only a dancer and Jeanne as a waitress, images we get of Zanzibar. the wants to be a stand- up comedi a n. topless dive to wh i ch Jeanne gravi ­ With only a little success locally, tates in her short- term loss of he takes off late one night for Los self- respect, are obl i que. In fact, Angeles to try to make it . He comes the facade of Zanzibar itself is back quickly, a failure, for reasons curvilinear, not cleanly geometric which are obscure. All three of like the strength exhibited by the these characters think of their Musi c Hal l or Mawby' s. Another attempts to succeed as a move to a interesting reinforcement of this higher reality. Alex especially theme is Grunt, Alex's dog, who admires the classical ballet to looks more l ike a cross between a whi ch she aspi res as a wondrous and pig and a small bull than a dog. ·out - of -~ each life. The dog is strong and loyal and The move to a higher reality is reflects the ideals that we are symbolized visually in the movie by supposed to admire in the charac­ a number of shots where the charac- ters . ters are mov; ng through long, At one point in the film, when expansi ve corri dol's. Once, when Alex, true to her hard work ethic, Alex first stops to pick up an refuses to attend the audition that application for the repertory, she Nick has set up for her through his walks down a comparatively narrow connections on the Arts Council, corridor where the dancers are Nick says, "You give up your dream, stretching and warming up . The room you die." Nick seems to have a l most in which she finally has her audi­ given up his dream, when in his tion is unlike a stage by being youth, he married an upper- class significantly longer vertically than b 1 oode because, as he says, "1 twas horizontally. We find her develop­ the safe thing." But somehow, he ing her love for Nick, her steel realized that one should not go on mi 11 boss, by runn; ng with him with the safe thing and divorced through warehouses or old buildings. her. It is one of the worst defects She 1 ives at the end of a narrow of the film that the esse~ce of alley in whose distance we see her Nick's success is extremely vague. bicycle several times. Even the He comes off as a weak character stage at Mawby's on whi ch she does (and surely has the weakest lines) her flashdance is a thrust stage -­ compared wi th the two women and the almost a walkway . puny cook- comic, Richie. Richie

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·•1 takes a pun ch which breaks his nose see her at the end l aughing and to help Alex o ut of a jam . Al ex running out of the audi ti on hall to goes and fe tches Jeanne from Zan­ Ni ck and Gr unt who are wa i t i I" g f or zi bar because she is her friend. he r. Earlier, Al e x asked Hannah i f And Hannah, a kind of European t he principal dancer a l ways got godmother to Alex, takes the time fl owers at the end of her perfor­ and patience to encourage Alex into mance and how t hat fe l t. Hannah her poss i ble career in the classical said, "You l et me know." Nick and ballet . Hannah, by the way, is the Grunt wa it for Alex with the bouquet only human evidence that the of roses and she extracts one and strength of character is part of the gives it to Nick just as i t happens high culture eth i c. Her house ;s with cl assical dancers. Si nce Nick shot foursquare by the camera. She has bought the flowe r s be fore he knows ballet from the i nside and knows if Alex has made the company , speaks we 11 for it. Th ere is a it is clear that the symbo l of hint , however , that like the younger actua 1 dance success has been characters i n the movie , she is a transmuted into a symbol of courage failure. But it ;s Hannah, Al ex, and character . It is that whi ch the Richi e , and Jeanne who are the movie makes important, not mere peo pl e in the movi e who are support­ striving t o follow one's dream. ive , loyal, and honest. And insofar Many aspects of character , p~ralle l ­ as t.h at is the case> they represent i s m of plot, symbols and im ages have strong human va l ues whi ch remain cooperated t o ma ke a pict!.Jre wi th superior to any kind of success. complex and substantia l form . Therefore, Nick i s impo rtant ly wrong Fl ash dance has its fl a .... s, no when he says , "You give up your doubt; 1n its inability to handle dream, you die." A superfi cial clearly the character of Nick , in anal ysi s could take that as a tag its failure to g ive a sati s factory l i ne for the movi e and assume it i s expl anation of Al e x 's i nitial a simpl istic mo ral izing to "stri ve , situation of independence, and i n t o seek to find, and not to yield." its caricature of the upp er-cl ass But t his mora l is crucially condi­ figures who appear in the film . But tioned by t he t heme Of retaining i t ; s a strong and r easonab l y fr i endship, human ity, and self-re­ ~Jl - in tegrated film. The point [ spect . 'an /trying to make is that there are At the s ame time that it encou r ­ .~ analyses of these popu lar works of ages the dream of the higher reali ­ art which are of a piece with what ty, the movie celebrates the best of we might do with serious ones. the lower class,precisely insofar as Ped,age>gica.l that best embodies the spiritual Irnplica. tic>rl.s __ strength that the theme spotl ights. I hope the pedagog ical imp 11 ca­ At one point in the film, we see t ions of this argument are obvious . Alex and Jeanne walking home and If popular art is not different in s topp i ng to wa tch some street ki nd from high art , a nd if our break-dancers. It is a 'Jreat students are inundated with popul ar de l i ght and a stroke of great wit to art, i t rema ins for us to exp loi t s ee Al ex i ncorporat i ng the f1 ashy these facts rather than deny them. back spin of break- dancing in her It might be worth our t i me to attend audition at the c l assi cal repertory. to t he much vaunted organic charac­ Mo st vi ewers of the mo vi e assume ter of art when t hinking about our Alex succeeds in getti ng accepted posture toward aesthetic education. into the repertory school after If we think of each work of art as going all out at her aUdition, but having a kind of life and persona li ­ the facts are l eft ambiguous. We t y of its own, then our t ask is no t

66 to separate the high from the (as Oxford Press did) and you may be popular, but the better from the sU"prised to find some very obscure worse vyherever it appears . It is Irish poets represented there.6 I equal ly obvious, hope , that such don't think we shou l d be in the evaluations must appeal to the works business of making perfect tastes, on thei r own terms. When , in our but rather i n helping people to civics lessons, we hold up Abraham appreciate the art they come into Lincol n to the admiration of school ­ contact with and of putting them ch il dren, his keen intelligence and into contact with art wh i ch seems to wit , his strong moral fiber and his have satisfied many over a l ong po l itical sagacity, we do not period of time . thereby recommend that they lose That doesn't require that we personal affection for their own take away their popul ar favorites. fathers, who may be below average in How can we avoid real izing that a intelligence, lack a sense of humor, fair amount of the clash between the and not have much practical sense. popular and the high arts is a class When it comes to taste in human matter? But even ; f we don't want beings, we always recommend that we to do away with class distinctions, try to see the best that is in a we need to build a society in which person and that we make room for everyone can respect the val ue that that in the economy of our assess­ is truly enjoyed at every level of ment. Wh i le we might recognize a society. Years ago, C.S . Lewis certain universality in the great wrote a lovely little book cal led An soul s of hi story, we do not stop Exoeriment i n Cr iticism.7 In it, he loving our family and local friends tried to conduct an experiment by even as we recogni ze a certa i n using the hypothesis tha~ there are idiosyncrasy in our doing it. no bad books , just bad readers. If we can get students to thi nk Those if us who love the art that is honestl y, carefully, and cogently in the canon of the best and want about what they locally encounter, _ our children to love it too, will . then they may be abl e to use that J 'I have a much easier time of it if we general approach in opening up the can show them that we take what they more universal . But we must stop like seriously. Then we can tal k to thinking that what is local is by them about it and make it more that fact not worthy to be held in likely that they wi l l be able to the pantheon. Even the greatest and I take what we like seriousl y. As we most refined sensibilities have had -do that, we may discover that there quirks in their tastes. Take a ;s more to take seriously in the great poet like Yeats and ask him to popul ar arts than we had previous l y compose an anthology of modern verse imagined.

F e>e>t.rl.e>t.es

1 Abraham Kaplan, "The Aesthetics of the Popu l ar Arts," in Modern Culture and the Arts, ed . by James B. Hall and Barry Ul anov, second edition, New York: McGraw- Hill, 1972, p.48 .

2 The technological advances of the last hundred years have complicated the high art/popular art distinction enormously. In addition to the new arts of technology, like film and photography, there has been an unprece­ dented delivery into popularly accessible forms of what is regarded as high art: from the reproductions of works of visual art in books to the presentation by radio, record and tape of great orchestras playing works ,f by classic composers . To what extent the availabil ity of art to masses

67 t of people makes for a popu lar art regardless of content or form is a question I want to ignore. Li ke Kaplan, I am assuming a rough and ready distinction between works that fall into generally acknowledged classes of hi gh and popular art while admitting that this distinction is eas i er to assume for Kaplan . 3 Theodore Kachel, "Where Are the Audiences fo r A.R.T . ?, " The Harwel - den Letter, Vol.Z, No.2, March- April 1985, p.3. 4 M.H. Abrams, The Mirror and the Lamp: Romanti c Theory and the "C"r-'.i.;;t -'.i *c"a-'.l _T"r,-,a"d,-i"t~i"o",n , New Yo r k : \L W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1958 , pp.3- 29.

5 For a compact display of this orientation, see Cl eanth Brooks, "The Problem of Belief and the Problem of Cognition" in The We ll Wrouoht Urn , New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1947, pp . 252- 266, and Clive- Bell, "The Aesthetic Hypothesis" i n Art, New York: Capricorn Books, 1958, pp.1S- 34 . 6 W.B. Yeats. The Oxford Book of r"'odern Verse 1892- 1935. New York : Oxford Uni versity Press, 1936 . 7 C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism, Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- s ity Press, 1969.

Edward G. Lawry is Associate Professor and Head of Ph i losophy at Oklahoma State University, Stil l water.

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