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Political Cosmopolitanism: The Case of Muzak and Gong

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Globalization, Music and Cultures of Distinction

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Abstract

This chapter looks at magazines with lower commercial success but higher symbolic recognition than Ciao 2001, especially for their aesthetic and political innovations: the monthlies Muzak and Gong. This chapter investigates these magazines’ ‘political cosmopolitanism’, which questioned the commercial and cultural domination of Anglo-American pop-rock and promoted normative aesthetic boundaries. More generally, this chapter reconstructs the forms of political activism which, during the 1970s, animated various sectors of Italian society, and which made political engagement an important line of division among music critics.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Pintor, G. (1974). ‘Per il pop suo malgrado’. Muzak, n. 10–11 (August–September): 46.

  2. 2.

    According to Andrea Valcarenghi (founder of Re Nudo and among the festival’s organizers), the festival’s last edition (1976) had an audience of approximately 120,000 people in four days. See Caroli, D. (1976). ‘Parco Lambro. Tirando le somme’. Ciao 2001, n. 32–33 (15–22 August): 37–38. The main institutions of the underground were based in Milan (Re Nudo) and Rome (Stampa Alternativa). However, the Italian counterculture was a relatively widespread phenomenon; it was supported by a variety of initiatives ranging from hand-made zines to groups that remained active for most of the 1970s (Echaurren and Salaris 1999).

  3. 3.

    Editorial board (1974). ‘Muzakcontrolibro’. Muzak, n. 10–11 (August–September): 2.

  4. 4.

    To some extent, this symbolic struggle over youth mirrored real generational differences. Being born mostly between the late 1940s and mid-1950s, the founding members of Muzak and Gong were attacking an older (and hence ‘false’) representative of the youth: Saverio Rotondi. Ciao 2001’s director and co-owner was 40 years old in 1973, and used to stress his age as a sign of experience. As he told to his readers in October 1973: ‘...it’s been three years since I started managing this magazine […] I still do it with the enthusiasm of an age which, luckily enough, makes it possible for me to stay close to the ideas of young generations’. See Rotondi, S. (1973). ‘Conosciamoci meglio’. Ciao 2001, n. 45 (11 November): 4–5.

  5. 5.

    Anonymous (1975). No title. Gong, n. 1 (January): 7.

  6. 6.

    Antonucci Ferrara, A. (1975). ‘Scherzi da prete e consumismo’. Gong, n. 12 (December): 10.

  7. 7.

    Editorial board (1974). ‘Winds of change’. Muzak, n. 9 (July): 3.

  8. 8.

    Editorial board (1974). ‘Muzakcompleanno: verso il futuro’. Muzak, n. 12 (October): 2.

  9. 9.

    Editorial board (1974). ‘Utilità di Muzak’, Muzak, n. 13 (November): 2.

  10. 10.

    Another reason behind the break between Muzak and Gong was musical disagreements. Indeed, while both monthlies gave growing space to avant-garde jazz (Chap. 7) and defined similar projects of legitimation, Muzak was slightly more inclusive in musical terms, considering also the folk revival and some singer-songwriters as artistically valuable. Gong’s critics openly disagreed with this position (Bolelli 1979).

  11. 11.

    Antonucci Ferrara, A. (1975). ‘Basta con i fascisti’. Gong, n. 4 (April): 11.

  12. 12.

    In Italy, abortion remained illegal until 1978. However, in 1975, the Italian constitutional law introduced a distinction between embryos and human life, and defined the health of mothers as more important than the life of embryos. That same year, the Movement of Liberation of Italian Women (MDL) and the Radical Party organized a collection of signatures for a referendum to legalize abortion, which gathered 800,000 signatures. According to Ginsborg (1990: 369), women’s mobilization about abortion ‘was able to transform it from an important civil rights question into a wide-ranging discussion on women’s position in Italian society’.

  13. 13.

    Pintor, G. (1975). ‘Contrappunti ai fatti: musica in movimento’. Muzak, n. 5 (September): 7.

  14. 14.

    Anonymous (1976). No title. Gong, n. 5 (May): 10.

  15. 15.

    Pintor, G. (1976). ‘Contrappunti ai fatti: All’ombra delle lotte e dentro le urne’, Muzak, n. 13 (June): 8–9.

  16. 16.

    According to their public biographies (Ravera 2004); Dell’Arti 2014), various members of Muzak were politically active and close to far-left groups (notably Lotta Continua and Circoli Ottobre). This was the case of directors Giaime Pintor and Lidia Ravera, and critics Marco Lombardo Radice and Luigi Manconi (who used to write under the pseudonym Simone Dessì). It is less clear if the people who launched Gong were similarly involved on a personal level with the New Left, as critics’ public biographies remain silent on the issue.

  17. 17.

    Pintor, G. (1974). ‘Festival Aleatori’. Muzak, n. 10–11 (August–September): 15.

  18. 18.

    Pintor, G. (1974): 15.

  19. 19.

    Editorial board (1975). ‘Lettera aperta al ministro dello spettacolo’. Muzak, n. 1 (April): 7.

  20. 20.

    Delconte, P. and Masotti, R. (1975). ‘Inchiesta Gong. I nuovi circuiti alternativi musicali. La lunga marcia’. Gong, n. 10 (October): 9–12.

  21. 21.

    Anonymous (1975). ‘Allonsanfan – contro cultura. Per uscire dal caos’. Gong, n. 2 (February): 56.

  22. 22.

    Anonymous (1975): 56.

  23. 23.

    Pintor, G. (1974). ‘Festival Aleatori’. Muzak, n. 10–11 (August–September): 15.

  24. 24.

    Antonucci Ferrara, A. (1975). ‘Musica e candelotti. La festa di Re Nudo’. Gong, n. 7–8 (August–September): 31–32.

  25. 25.

    Antonucci Ferrara, A. (1975): 31–32.

  26. 26.

    Ravera, L. (1975). ‘Juke-box al prosciutto’. Muzak, n. 4 (July): 35–36.

  27. 27.

    Ravera, L. (1975): 35–36.

  28. 28.

    The monthlies always devoted some pages to adverts, and Gong used to defend this choice to those readers who accused the magazine of ‘selling out’. Adverts that appeared in the monthlies included record companies’ pages on new releases, hi-fi equipment, and a variety of products aimed at young people, like anti-spot creams, discounts on travel and so on.

  29. 29.

    Villa, M. (1976). ‘Dibattito sui circuiti musicali: in cammino per cambiare’. Gong, n. 7/8 (August–September): 11–13.

  30. 30.

    Delconte, P. and Masotti, R. (1975). ‘Inchiesta Gong. I nuovi circuiti alternativi musicali. La lunga marcia’. Gong, n. 10 (October): 9–12.

  31. 31.

    Castaldo, G. (1975). ‘Feste: Evviva l’Unità… nella diversità’. Muzak, n. 7 (November): 10–12.

  32. 32.

    Pintor, G. (1975). ‘E’ morto il pop, viva il jazz’. Muzak, n. 6 (October): 15–17.

  33. 33.

    Bolelli, F. (1975). ‘Circuiti alternativi: qualche riflessione teorica’. Gong, n. 9: 44–45.

  34. 34.

    Bolelli, F. (1975): 45.

  35. 35.

    However, the impact of the monthlies’ proposals on the movement is unclear. Historical sources suggest that this was rather modest. In late 1976, Gong’s critic Franco Bolelli lamented that the magazine was ‘not a political force, nor the publication most read by local cultural authorities [assessori alla cultura]’; see Bolelli, F. (1976) ‘Sulla politica dei raduni estivi. Le polveri bagnate’. Gong, n. 10 (October): 10. Similarly, one of the most comprehensive histories of the Italian counter-culture provides only a brief mention of Gong and Muzak (Echaurren and Salaris 1999: 151). By contrast, their symbolic recognition is greater in histories of Italian popular music and among later generations of critics (see Conclusion).

  36. 36.

    Rotondi, S. (1977). Answer to Maurizio Iliono (Sezze), ‘Ventunenne comunista’. Ciao 2001, n. 24 (19 June): 5–6.

  37. 37.

    Ruocco, A. (1976). ‘1975–76 Scuolaortobiezionedroga’. Ciao 2001, n. 1 (11 January): 13–14.

  38. 38.

    Rotondi, S. (1976). Answer to Claudio Scarpa (Rome), ‘Un delitto non parlarne’. Ciao 2001, n. 8 (29 February): 5–6.

  39. 39.

    Caroli, D. (1976). ‘Quattro giorni al Parco Lambro. Musica, violenza, dibattiti, gente’. Ciao 2001, n. 30 (1 August): 42–44.

  40. 40.

    Anonymous (1974). ‘Da Santamonica. La stangata’. Ciao 2001, n. 31 (4 August 1974): 15–17.

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  1. University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Simone Varriale

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Varriale, S. (2016). Political Cosmopolitanism: The Case of Muzak and Gong . In: Globalization, Music and Cultures of Distinction. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56450-4_6

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