Important Questions about The Resistance!

[pwoper_fish]

Hi! It's me again. I was going to post this as a reply to my initial Art History Project thread, but I decided that creating a new thread entirely would allow me to make this topic more specific and less jumbled. In essence, for those that do not know about my project, here are the requirements:

• Give a formal analysis, contextual analysis, and full description of a particular work of art
  
• How does the artist define art? Who is the audience? Can you connect it to past art? Is there a precedent in the artworld for this piece?
  
• Why did you select this artist as your topic; your personal feelings about the art The paper should be accompanied by a slide presentation you will give to the class.
  
• The paper should be accompanied by a slide presentation you will give to the class.
  

My art history teacher said that I should choose one album in order to make the paper more specific and in-depth. Because I had trouble deciding which album would be the most contextually-dense, I polled my twitter followers (the options I gave were OoS, Absolution, The Resistance, and Drones), with The Resistance receiving the most votes.

So, In conclusion of this droning thread, what are your thoughts on TR? Is there anything that you can lend me that could satisfy any of the above requirements?

I really appreciate any help you could offer. Thank you!

[L.]

I am quite sure your teacher is lot more interested in getting your point of view and your thoughts on The Resistance than what a bunch of people in the internet think.

[jonisdead]

I am quite sure your teacher is lot more interested in getting your point of view and your thoughts on The Resistance than what a bunch of people in the internet think.

 

Savage.

[denise3112]

I am quite sure your teacher is lot more interested in getting your point of view and your thoughts on The Resistance than what a bunch of people in the internet think.

 

Savage.

 

well, blunt maybe, but not savage.

 

Several people gave you helpful advice on your other thread and posted links for you to follow.

 

It's time now for you to do some independent research of your own. When you've got something perhaps you can share it here and I'm sure people will be interested.

 

out of curiosity, hope you don't mind me asking, how old are you?

[Clunge]

Muse's music/themes have so little significant depth, I'd be astonished if you could wrestle any of their albums to fit that brief.

[haze015]

I really appreciate any help you could offer. Thank you!

 

Don't do Muse. The Resistance is also a bad choice as its all over the place genre-wise.

 

Pick something from genres such as Punk, Hip Hop or anything with genuine ties to a location and its socio-political issues.

The second part of that brief relies heavily on contextual analysis, not vague comparisons to classical composers as people were doing in the other thread as you're unlikely to find sources to confirm any link there.

[pwoper_fish]

well, blunt maybe, but not savage.

 

Several people gave you helpful advice on your other thread and posted links for you to follow.

 

It's time now for you to do some independent research of your own. When you've got something perhaps you can share it here and I'm sure people will be interested.

 

out of curiosity, hope you don't mind me asking, how old are you?

 

I definitely plan on using some of the information shared on my original post, and on tumblr, one of my followers made a great suggestion: relate TR to war propaganda, such as "join or die" posters and whatnot. I have also heard a lot of things about TR, claiming that it was inspired by the French Revolution, 1984, etc. (but I'm not believing that without solid evidence).

 

And to answer your question, I am sixteen, finishing up my sophomore year of high school!

[serpentsatellite]

It is absolutely related to 1984, as Matt himself has said so.

 

There are a lot of easy to find resources out there.

[matthijs]

Don't do Muse. The Resistance is also a bad choice as its all over the place genre-wise.

 

Pick something from genres such as Punk, Hip Hop or anything with genuine ties to a location and its socio-political issues.

The second part of that brief relies heavily on contextual analysis, not vague comparisons to classical composers as people were doing in the other thread as you're unlikely to find sources to confirm any link there.

 

Go back to the hipster cave you came from

[Hat]

claiming that it was inspired by the French Revolution, 1984, etc. (but I'm not believing that without solid evidence).

You could literally just google "Muse 1984" to find sources. Good luck with your project...

[pwoper_fish]

I've actually found quite a lot! I'll try to insert a "read more" link so that I don't have a super long post here. This is what I have so far:

 

 

As of recent, the music world has been booming with synthesizers, modified bass, autotune, and songs about parties, drugs, and relationships. Few musical artists manage to get in-depth with modern crisis, and an even smaller number can create natural, raw, and unique sound. However, this is not the case with Muse. Formerly called the “Rocket Baby Dolls,” “Gothic Plague,” and “Fixed Penalty,” Muse is a three-piece band, made up of Matthew Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Christopher Wolstenholme (bass guitar, backing vocals, harmonica, lead vocals), and Dominic Howard (drums, percussion). The group formed in 1994 when the three were in secondary school, living in Devon, England. Fifteen years later, The Resistance was released in Europe on September 14, 2009. This was the group’s fifth studio album, and was the first album actually produced by the band itself. The album, much like the other six, has genre influences from a myriad of classifications, including glam rock, R&B, disco, and classical. Quoting Bellamy on the album, it has “an emphasis on rhythm and contemporary R&B at the start. Then it gets epic and strange, then it becomes contemporary classical music.”

The Resistance spans fifty-four minutes and thirteen seconds, and includes eleven tracks, with six singles. Below are the track names, lengths, and the singles are indicated by a “***.”

***Uprising - 5:02

***Resistance - 5:46

***Undisclosed Desires - 3:56

***United States of Eurasia / Collateral Damage (Excerpt from Nocturne in E-Flat, Op. 9 No. 2) - 5:47

Guiding Light - 4:13

Unnatural Selection - 6:54

***MK Ultra - 4:06

I Belong to You / Mon Cœr S’ouvre à Ta Voix) - 5:38

***Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 1 (Overture) - 4:18

***Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 2 (Cross-pollination) - 3:56

***Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 3 (Redemption) - 4:36

There have been various rumors about the driving force behind this album, two of which being the French Revolution and the 1984, the novel by George Orwell. However, I interpret this piece as a more general piece, with a similar theme to their latest album (Drones, 2015). Several of the songs tap into the idea of conspiracies (MK Ultra), a corrupt ruler (United States of Eurasia), and a riot against the higher power (Uprising). I believe that The Resistance is about finding one’s self, learning to not take things at face value, and that despite the advertised glamor and benefits of government, there is always room for corruption and tyranny.

Muse’s frontman, Bellamy, described the album before release in an interview as “a more progressive album with a lot of longer, piano based songs, with similarities to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.” Matthew also drew influences for this album from the paranormal; he stated that when he was younger, he used to play with an Ouija board regularly, even claiming that the board had predicted the Gulf War a year before it happened. At the time of the album’s creation, Bellamy was living in a villa located in Como, Italy, which had formerly belonged to the opera composer Vincenzo Bellinii, and admitted in an interview to staying up late at night playing the composer’s pieces on piano, hoping to make content (although he was unsuccessful). He also decided that in lyrics, he would include ideas from personal issues, which was very different from his thoughts on the matter in previous albums.

 

 

[pwoper_fish]

You could literally just google "Muse 1984" to find sources. Good luck with your project...

 

thank you! and yeah, i know, i've been heavily relying on the muse wiki. i've been doing that as well as looking at musical influences.

[Hat]

Matt has specifically talked about the influence that 1984 had on the album. For example the song Resistance is quite directly related to the story of the book.

 

I don't know many comments you want on what you quoted but synths, autotune and lyrics about drugs and rocknroll are nothing new. It might be worth re-evaluating how unique you think the kind of music that Muse makes is, because stuff like "Few musical artists manage to get in-depth with modern crisis" really wouldn't fly in my book.

 

EDIT: And make sure you don't use musewiki as your main source.

[MartianSpaghettiRider]

Matt has specifically talked about the influence that 1984 had on the album. For example the song Resistance is quite directly related to the story of the book.

 

I don't know many comments you want on what you quoted but synths, autotune and lyrics about drugs and rocknroll are nothing new. It might be worth re-evaluating how unique you think the kind of music that Muse makes is, because stuff like "Few musical artists manage to get in-depth with modern crisis" really wouldn't fly in my book.

 

EDIT: And make sure you don't use musewiki as your main source.

 

He/she could explain how they integrate the theatrical feel and the accessorial use of over-simplified and campy lyrics subdued to musical bases from operatic arias into their most recent productions.

[denise3112]

And to answer your question, I am sixteen, finishing up my sophomore year of high school!

 

Good for you.

 

I suggest that to add to what you've already done, you look at some of the lyrics in the songs to give actual evidence of how they connect to 'past art'. So for example, the novel 1984 is a v important novel in an artistic and social sense, and the song 'The Resistance' has a line about 'the thought police' which relates directly to this novel. 'The thought police' is a really important idea which the novel explores in an original and disturbing way. And the relationship in Muse's song mirrors the story of the lovers in the book, who must keep their love secret.

This is just one example but you can find others if you look.

 

Good luck!

[haze015]

Go back to the hipster cave you came from

 

So the modules and essays I did on musicology, which is what this project basically is, is "hipster"?

 

But yeah, doesn't look like a uni thing, so probably ok with The Resistance.