O imaginário medieval como experiência estética literária nas canções do álbum Little Dark Age, da banda indie MGMT

Abstract

The use of medieval imagery is a tradition that has long persisted in various artistic productions, despite its possible problems. The medieval is present in the album Little Dark Age (2018), by the American indie band MGMT. In this album, the band evokes elements of this imagery while criticizing the problems it sees in contemporary life. With the advance of technology, the contemporary subject, on the one hand, communicates more dynamically and has greater access to culture and, on the other, experiences loneliness, misinformation and intolerance. In this society of the spectacle, artistic productions (books, songs, films, etc.) are hostages of the cultural industry that, in turn, produces standardized arts with the intention of making a profit, leaving aside originality. Thus, popular songs are often seen as an object manipulated by capitalism, because the industry follows a formula that influences people to consume new products similar to those they have consumed before. The indie (independent) artists emerge as an answer to this system. However, their discourse may seem contradictory, since they criticize the industry while they are inserted in it. With these questions in mind, the aim of this dissertation is to analyze the reason for the band's choice for the evocation of medieval imagery. Therefore, as proposed by Ruth Finnegann (2008), we will discuss the three dimensions of songs in a unified way, understanding this genre as one of the most complete literary forms of communication of feelings and sensations. In order to develop these issues, in agreement with Antonio Candido (2006), we will examine how the contemporary social context and the aesthetic structure of lyrical, musical and performatic production relate to each other. We will also draw on the theoretical discussions of Debord (1997), Adorno (1996), Eco (1986), Le Goff (2005), Schøllhammer (2007) and Laplantine & Trindade (2017). Based on the analysis of the lyrical, musical and performatic dimensions, we will discuss the possibilities of interpretation derived from the association of social elements with the aesthetic experience of the Little Dark Age's songs and their relations with the echoes of the medieval imagery.