Affordance to Kill: Sound Agency and Auditory Experiences of a Norwegian Terrorist and American Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan
During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some American soldiers commonly listened to music in order to “motivate” themselves before action. Previous studies have shown that their most frequent choices to this effect pertained to two genres: “gangsta” rap and heavy metal. At another extreme of armed...
Enregistré dans:
| Dans: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/transposition, |
|---|---|
| Auteur principal: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Anglais |
| Publié: |
Transposition
2020
|
| Sujets: | |
| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| id |
openedition-oai:revues.org:transposition_4065 |
|---|---|
| record_format |
openedition |
| spelling |
openedition-oai:revues.org:transposition_4065 https://doi.org/10.4000/transposition.4065 urn:doi:10.4000/transposition.4065 en https://journals.openedition.org/transposition/4065 2020-03-19T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/lmck https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Affordance to Kill: Sound Agency and Auditory Experiences of a Norwegian Terrorist and American Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan Transposition Éditions de l’EHESS info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2110-6134 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/transposition Stoichita, Victor A. guerre cinéma terrorisme affordance agentivité war terrorism affordance agency soundtrack During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some American soldiers commonly listened to music in order to “motivate” themselves before action. Previous studies have shown that their most frequent choices to this effect pertained to two genres: “gangsta” rap and heavy metal. At another extreme of armed violence, Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik reported listening to a selection of tunes in the preparation of his 2011 massacre and possibly also during its perpetration. His musical choices sounded radically different from metal and rap. Yet, all of these styles of music had previously been associated with graphic violence throughout popular movies and video games. This paper asks how each type of music “worked” in motivating its listener for armed confrontation. The comparison requires going beyond the fact that mainstream media interact with common imaginaries of violence. The hypothesis here is that the differences between the terrorist’s and the soldier’s playlists reflect deeper contrasts in their engagements with the opponent. This case study of musical “motivation” leads to a broader discussion of the interplay between the agency of the listener, as opposed to the agency which he or she sometimes locates in the music itself. Durant les guerres en Irak et Afghanistan, certains soldats états-uniens écoutaient régulièrement de la musique pour « se motiver » avant de partir en mission. Les études existantes montrent que leurs choix s’orientaient principalement vers deux genres : le « gangsta » rap et le heavy metal. À un autre extrême de la violence armée, le terroriste norvégien Anders Behring Breivik affirmait avoir fréquemment écouté de la musique pour préparer son massacre de 2011. Ses choix musicaux étaient radicalement différents de ceux des soldats états-uniens. Néanmoins, ses musiques comme celles des soldats avaient été fréquemment associées à des scènes de violence dans l’industrie des films et des jeux vidéo. Cet article interroge la manière dont ces musiques purent s’avérer « fonctionnelles » pour motiver leurs auditeurs en vue de la confrontation. La comparaison proposée requiert de dépasser le constat que les médias grand public interagissent avec les imaginaires individuels de la violence. L’hypothèse envisagée ici est que les différences entre les choix musicaux du terroriste et ceux des soldats reflètent un contraste plus profond dans leurs manières d’envisager la confrontation. Les cas de « motivation » ici étudiés conduisent aussi à une discussion plus large de la qualité d’agent dont certains auditeurs investissent certaines des musiques qu’ils écoutent. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
guerre cinéma terrorisme affordance agentivité war terrorism affordance agency soundtrack |
| spellingShingle |
guerre cinéma terrorisme affordance agentivité war terrorism affordance agency soundtrack Stoichita, Victor A. Affordance to Kill: Sound Agency and Auditory Experiences of a Norwegian Terrorist and American Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan |
| description |
During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some American soldiers commonly listened to music in order to “motivate” themselves before action. Previous studies have shown that their most frequent choices to this effect pertained to two genres: “gangsta” rap and heavy metal. At another extreme of armed violence, Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik reported listening to a selection of tunes in the preparation of his 2011 massacre and possibly also during its perpetration. His musical choices sounded radically different from metal and rap. Yet, all of these styles of music had previously been associated with graphic violence throughout popular movies and video games. This paper asks how each type of music “worked” in motivating its listener for armed confrontation. The comparison requires going beyond the fact that mainstream media interact with common imaginaries of violence. The hypothesis here is that the differences between the terrorist’s and the soldier’s playlists reflect deeper contrasts in their engagements with the opponent. This case study of musical “motivation” leads to a broader discussion of the interplay between the agency of the listener, as opposed to the agency which he or she sometimes locates in the music itself. |
| author |
Stoichita, Victor A. |
| author_facet |
Stoichita, Victor A. |
| author_sort |
Stoichita, Victor A. |
| title |
Affordance to Kill: Sound Agency and Auditory Experiences of a Norwegian Terrorist and American Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan |
| title_short |
Affordance to Kill: Sound Agency and Auditory Experiences of a Norwegian Terrorist and American Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan |
| title_full |
Affordance to Kill: Sound Agency and Auditory Experiences of a Norwegian Terrorist and American Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan |
| title_fullStr |
Affordance to Kill: Sound Agency and Auditory Experiences of a Norwegian Terrorist and American Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Affordance to Kill: Sound Agency and Auditory Experiences of a Norwegian Terrorist and American Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan |
| title_sort |
affordance to kill: sound agency and auditory experiences of a norwegian terrorist and american soldiers in iraq and afghanistan |
| publisher |
Transposition |
| publishDate |
2020 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/transposition |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/transposition.4065 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/transposition/4065 |
| _version_ |
1877294068543782912 |