Results for “collective ritual/dance”

Songs

Ramones

This is the Ramones' cover of a 1964 surf-pop nugget, stripped down and sped up into a blast of bubblegum escapism. It's not a…

escapism idealized geography youthful pleasure-seeking

Prince

"Batdance" is less a song than a sound collage built to promote the 1989 Batman film, splicing dance-funk grooves with dialogue…

media spectacle identity/duality commercialism and tie-in culture

Yes

A three-part suite that moves from pastoral invocation through cosmic address to a mantra-like affirmation of shared awakening.…

cosmic consciousness nature as spiritual messenger transmission of hidden knowledge

The Staple Singers

This is the Staple Singers' rendition of the traditional African American spiritual, built almost entirely on call-and-response…

deliverance and salvation collective faith and community crossing over / transition between states

Bob Dylan

Dylan's cover of a call-and-response children's Christmas polka builds a cumulative list of Santa's attributes through a…

holiday ritual and repetition Americana and civic satire nonsense/novelty performance

Paul Simon

A reunion single from Simon and Garfunkel that reads as a bitter anti-nostalgia song, dismantling the idea of small-town…

small-town disillusionment loss of faith suppressed violence

Mott the Hoople

A glam-rock anthem that assembles a cast of disaffected, gender-bending teenagers and hands them a vague, urgent 'news' to…

generational rupture glam identity and androgyny disaffection with 60s idealism

Public Enemy

A protest anthem built as a dance record: Chuck D argues that political consciousness and Black pride are things you build in…

Black pride and self-definition institutional racism who gets to be a national hero