Negativland has never played a kind of music that could be labelled as industrial. The role of experimenting, cultural sabotage, pranks, a clever play on the border of what’s allowed and what’s forbidden, as well as its extreme anti-authoritarianism of the industrial culture makes Negativland a phenomenon close to the participants (both the artists and audience) of Wrocław Industrial Festival. Negativland is a 100% American entity, combining culture jamming, spoken word performance, and new alternative electronics with folk culture. The sounds – captured, cut, glued, distorted, and placed outside their original context are combined with theoretical reflection. Negativland’s weapons are irony and mockery. It’s hard to single out one Negativland album – the classic ones are A Big 10-8 Place, Points, Free, and Escape From Noise. Each of them is filled with a pastiche collage of monologues, announcements, advertisements, educational programmes, fragments of folk and children’s songs – edited radio programme fragments, noises, and found sounds. They sound almost like eloquent feature radio programmes packed with twisted humour and wordplay. The multimedia collective Negativland (Richard Lyons, Mark Hosler, and Peter Conheim) was a pioneer in sampling, cut-ups, and experiments with tape. Already in the early 1980s, it started a perverse game with show business, advertising, and corporate visual identity. The artists tackled copyright issues, plagiarism, and the abuse of copyright enforcement. The great turning point in the history of Negativland was the consequences of the release of their album entitled U2. Island Records’ reaction showed the monstrosity of the pop entertainment company that claims to be an alternative group. The scandal did not harm Negativland, which had already ridiculed or mocked other companies or public figures. The massive reaction of U2 management became a catalyst for the great popularity of Negativland, whose concept gained fame and followers in many circles of contemporary culture. In recent years, three members have left the group, but Negativland is going to take part in WIF and this news is quite a sensation! [ws]
NEGATIVLAND (USA)
