Images of 9/11 in pop culture
At Jazzit on Saturday there were two guys doing visuals for the party. One was a friend of Bill’s, the other was a friend of J Montonn’s. During one of Katsue’s songs, I forget which one, J’s friend played his pre-prepared visuals. They included images of the 9/11 attacks, of the tsunamis in Sri Lanka and Phuket, of the Challenger space shuttle, and of the Tiananmen Square protests in which a student blocked the path a number of tanks.
These were all very provocative images but were they suitable for a pop concert? The visuals opened with a recording of the first plane flying into one of the Twin Towers. I saw it and was surprised, and then a little shocked. Bill pointed it out to me and he was also shocked. Nobody else seemed to mind, which made me think that perhaps I was overreacting. It was just an image that we had all seen hundreds of times before. It’s a taboo, I guess, and as such it borders on the line of bad taste… or is it art?
I personally didn’t bat an eyelid when Princess Diana died, but I am certain that if someone made a video for a pop concert of the footage of the fateful crash (if there even is any) people would be outraged. It seems that 9/11 has crossed firmly over into popular culture and the initial shock of the images has been lost. We treat the whole thing as we treat any other image in pop culture; it loses its humanity and realism. It’s not even a symbol of the real. I am certain that Hollywood has played a large part in this transition.
The visuals didn’t fit the song and I didn’t think they were artistic in the slightest. When the images moved onto the tsunami in Phuket I felt angry. Why was he undermining these powerful moments for the sake of a two-piece electronic band? Don’t get me wrong, the music was great, but the visuals were not suited.
The Tiananmen Square protests gave the world what I consider to be the greatest single image of the twentieth century. The most famous photo of the incident was taken by Jeff Widener. It showed an unknown man with two bags standing in front of a procession of tanks.
We don’t know who he was, where he was from, or what his story was. But he was there, doing this amazing thing that the entire world saw. I remember seeing it when I was younger and being transfixed with how beautiful an image it was. I didn’t know anything about what it meant (I was only seven) but it struck me and left a lasting impression. Seeing this image at Jazzit on Saturday totally undermined all meaning it contained for me. Using these images to evoke emotion in anyone was cheap.
Perhaps I’m just cynical, but it saddened me a little to see such powerful images being misused. The irony was that our flyer for the event had a picture of the Challenger space shuttle on it. I didn’t design the flyer and at first I didn’t even know what it was (I thought it was just smoke), but then someone pointed it out to me.
Techno’ tags: Challenger Space Shuttle, September 11 Attacks, World Trade Center, Thailand, Bangkok, Tiananmen Square protests
December 21st, 2006 at 2:56 pm
Sounds like using images of tragic events purely for shock value. I wonder what a relative of one of the victims of 9/11 or the tsunami would have felt if they had been there. I agree, don’t quite see the connection between those images and dance music.
Each to his own I guess.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:59 pm
When film directors and musicians set out to create their art they do so with the intention of taking the viewer to a different mental state, to a different place. Many artists seek to impart a message or philosophy through their work. However, to create this impression within the viewer the artist must hold the viewer’s attention by creating a ‘moment’ so to speak which the viewer takes away with them. I would have thought that by using such images you mention to create a politically incorrect montage of shocking and violent imagery would deaden any message the artist wished to impart.
The fact that, assuming the creator had a message to impart in the first place, he or she chose a club night at Jazz It to unveil their creation speaks volumes in and of itself.
In post-9/11 Hollywood, many films chose to digitally edit out North and South Towers because they thought that seeing the structures in a movie would bring viewers back to reality and break their suspension of belief. I would imagine any DJ worth his salt would have been a little annoyed to see the audience looking through him and up at the imagery projected on the wall.
I think visuals for club nights should compliment the music creating a beautiful harmony, not steal the limelight from the music…
Find out who did it?
Peace
L
December 22nd, 2006 at 4:57 am
L, I’m in full agreement! excellent comment.
December 22nd, 2006 at 8:13 am
I’m in two minds.
Using those images during the party were outrageous I believe. Although we did use a picture of the Challenger space shuttle explosion, it was on purpose of being ironic with the name of the party : ” Wrong “.
After a little while, the feeling of being upset made me realize that the VJ wanted, maybe, to provoke something, a reaction. Which is good I believe.
But after watching all the others visuals he had prepared ( snippets of video games, japanese animation movies clips ), I realised the visuals had absolutely no connection with the music whatsoever and were, sorry to admit, lazy work.
December 23rd, 2006 at 12:30 pm
i haven’t been to the concert, was there to late.
but personally i have not that big problem with using that ” shock images” in a music/pop sub culture context.
maybe i would blame it as lame because i’ts nothing new, see it many times before from other bands or know about it.
for example throbbing gristle, music pioneers in the late 70s. they show castration videos during their concerts or using the a picture of the auschwitz crematorium as symbol for their record label, make a song called cyclon-b zombie. or do you know the coverpicture of dead kennedys ‘holiday in cambodia’ record?
or chris corda, a Deejay Gigolos record artist using 9/11 images in a video. you can watch it here http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org
just to name a few, i will not discuss the meaning of using such pictures now just want state that the taboo is allready broken.
but in my exemples is all man-mad madness and the using was well considered.
using now the pictures of the dead from the tsunami, it’s nothing about was goes wrong in mankind (or what mankind actually is), so i have my doubt about to transmitter a deeper meaning, sounds like just a cheap shock, lukewarm. so i agree with you.
the chinese tank man picture, wow, that brings memorys to me. i was 18 this year living in the wrong side of the iron curtain and we have been just start a ‘revolution’ to kick out the stalinists. but this is completely an other topic. you have been 7 at this time — oh young boy. but your writings and thought are good.