If your idea of threatening music involves a bunch of sweaty punks pushing each other until someone gets something in their eye, then prepare for a perspective shift, as we introduce you to ‘danger music’.
If there’s one movement in music that truly embodies that DGAF spirit it’s this: an avant garde form of music that embodies various composers and performers who seek to excite and antagonise their listeners in equal measure. The term was coined by the music academic Paul Nuage for music made that would do damage to either the performer or listener. Much like punk, the music is made by art school students, mostly from the Fluxus art movement, who sought to rebel against everything that had come before. It all varies from unlistenable noise to vaguely listenable noise, with one consistent ingredient: danger.
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Researching the genre I came upon such composers as Takehisa Kosugi, whose “Music For Revolution” directs the performer to gouge one eye out five years from now. Or Nam June Paik, whose composition “Danger Music for Dick Higgins” instructs people to listen and imagine “creeping into the vagina of a living whale”, which certainly beats a Fucked Up mosh pit.
I chatted to author David Cope – whose book New Directions in Music focused on defining the genre – and asked him about how it came about and if the genre had ever really put him in danger.
Noisey: How would you define ‘danger music’?
David: Music that poses a real danger to its audience. It’s definitely not for the casual listener.
Could you give a brief history of it?
The term began began with Paul Nuage’s book Music is Dangerous in the early 20th century and continued with Nam June Paik’s “Danger Music for Dick Higgins” and Phil Corner’s “One antipersonnel-type CBU bomb will be thrown into the audience”. The piece was cancelled before it could be performed.
That would be pretty dangerous to attend..
That’s the point, it was an anti-war statement about the Vietnam war.
It definitely makes a statement to say you’re gonna throw a bomb into the audience.
Yeah, a lot of the later examples in the late sixties were anti-war. In Nuage’s case, he believed that all music is dangerous in that it changes audiences. It can cause wars. In fact, Hitler supposedly invaded Poland using a marching band playing the Polish National Anthem and received cheers instead of gunfire.
So, how much danger would people actually be in by listening to the genre?
In the case of most performances, severe hearing problems are the norm and being fiercely confronted by the performers at any sort of live performance. No one to my knowledge has been killed yet.
What’s the most dangerous stunt they’ve pulled in a live setting?
I attended a jet engine concert in LA in 1968 at Occidental College where, once ignited, the thing nearly deafened everyone and sent the entire audience into panic that could have resulted in injuries.
How loud can it get?
Much louder than the ear can take, it’s all the severe speaker setups.
What’s your relationship with the genre?
Aside from many other things I do, I write about experimental music which I find interesting and throughout provoking.
What are your favourite danger pieces?
Phil Corner threw a rifle into the audience on his “Prelude from Four Suits”. ‘Danger music’ ideas are often more philosophical than actual. And, Robert Ashley’s Wolfman includes voices screaming into microphones with feedback at extremely high levels – it’s a particular favourite of mine.
Thanks David!
Follow Dan on Twitter: @KeenDang
