Reconstructing Pop/Subculture: Art, Rock, and Andy Warhol

by Van M. Cagle

This exploration of the phenomena of Andy Warhol′s influence on glitter rock and pop art reconceptualizes and re-evaluates many of the theoretical claims of subculture theory. Reconstructing Pop//Subculture provides an historical account of the tensions that arose in Western culture during the 1960s and 1970s between various factions which were forced to engage in explicit confrontations//dichotomies. Cagle proposes a theoretical framework that incorporates notions of productivity with reception and re-examines the critical relationships between style, youth culture, incorporation, hegemony and resistance. He focuses on the ways in which fans take up trends presented through the mass media and adopt them through disi

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Ruth Easy-Difficult · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not to be too indulgent with hyperbole but this is literally The Book. By all means should be assigned as mandatory reading for anyone with even a passing interest in popular music and performance art. The extent to which modern and contemporary art is a direct product of Warhol's work with the Factory is mind-blowing. Like Tom Cruise, it now seems almost impossible to have a proper conversation about popular culture without lavishing space to the discussion of Warhol. It's strange to think that he has by and large been written off by the 21st century's majority as a greedy faux-artist who exploited the vapidity of New York critics, when in reality that's an unbelievably gross simplification of the actual social culture that he was critiquing and reworking.
Not to draw back all conversation to J.G. Thirlwell and industrial, but what the book makes apparent is how pop art and glitter rock established the strong tradition of performance art in show, as well as the use of alter-egos and props for the purpose of engaging the audience in a moving piece - all of which became characteristic of performances by Foetus, Throbbing Gristle, and to a lesser extent Einstürzende Neubauten. It's a wonder that Bowie, Warhol, Alice Cooper, as well as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable don't get brought up more in discussion of proto-Industrial. Cagle describes Punk as the successors to Glitter, but I'd argue that Industrial applies pop theory with greater faithfulness (at least in terms of on-stage trends. Punk achieved a visual style out of the foundations of Glitter in a way that Industrial never did).

[Jay Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this in a secondhand bookshop in Kilkenny and read it in a couple of days. Coincidence or serendipity, but either way a timely text given the current resurgence in the kind of affectless nihilism embodied by Andy Warhol and described by J. G. Ballard, not to mention the gender bending, sexual experimentation, and anti-elite elitism characteristic of the music associated with the Factory (Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Bowie, etc.) and glam rock (T. Rex, Sweet, New York Dolls etc.).

Published in 1995 but perhaps resonates more strongly today.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. I have to admit I didn't read the whole thing just because I only needed a bit of it for an essay but what I read was okay. I found a lot of what he said really hard to understand and sometimes didn't relate. Maybe if I had read the whole thing it would have all come together.