Relating Music and Art

Curated by Becky Reilly

Andy Warhol's 1962 Campbell's Soup Cans and the Buggles' 1979 single "Video Killed the Radio Star" both reflect the rise of consumerism and new technology and cope with their effects.  They reflect the domestic issues of the cold war, away from the international scene.  With the Cold War's ongoing arms race and intervention into other countries, the United States fueled industry over decades to produce a consumer culture of mass-production and rapid change.  Old ideas yielded to new inventions, for better or for worse.  Both pieces seem discontent with American culture but also upbeat on the surface.

Warhol created his Campbell's Soup Cans in a wave of pop art inspiration, recalling that he had had the soup for lunch for more than twenty years.  The painting shows his loyalty to the brand.  In one panel with one soup can, Warhol may have produced a rosy, homey piece between the can's shades of red, gold, and subdued white.  But this repetition of can upon can rejects that feeling for something more mechanical.  The very painting of so many panels mimics the process of mass-production.  He subverts the comfort of the everyday.  The familiarity of a cup of soup becomes an invasion of ideology into the household.  Some critics saw a Marxist message of sameness, while others believed that it praised American industry.  Its banal subject matter was also a source of controversy as critics debated whether art was only in new experience or whether the effect could be achieved by interpreting nontraditional objects.

"Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first music video broadcast on MTV and despite its upbeat rhythm and melody shows an unhappy view of the future.  The lead singer wears sunglasses and a shiny, futuristic suit, apathetic to his surroundings and singing expressionlessly.  He is the embodiment of the song's title, showing how the march of progress tosses aside the old for the new, just as the modernists (as in post 5 ) feared.  The verses sound fairly modern, the minimalist piano and vocals like a contemporary song.  The lyrics illustrate the betrayal of a radio celebrity to television culture as the singer states, "They took the credit for your second symphony/Rewritten by machine and new technology."  The song seems a strange choice to celebrate the music video scene, portraying television's appropriation of music as cold and mechanical.

This is my last post for the art history blog.  It has been wonderful being able to write this year and having such great class… and a greater great audience.  Thank you for reading.