Todd Snider/The Magnetic Fields

Continuation to my previous post: The music involved doesn't have to have overtly nationalistic lyrics, just a recognizable rhythm or style. Often folk music has the biggest effect.  I would guess that the "white power" music probably didn't exert its influence through the words (which were likely inaudible unless you really paid attention since the music was played at soft, background levels), but more through its structure..which I'm guessing is of the angry/metal type.

Well, assuming the researchers randomized what type of music was played to each person, kept other environmental factors constant, and did the requisite tests of statistical significance, I don't think there's any doubt that the different allocations of money were caused by the different types of music. 

Exactly how this happened, i.e. what the explanatory mechanisms involved were, is a matter of conjecture. I'm speculating that it involves the disinhibition of underlying predispositions to make in-group/out-group distinctions, and feel greater affiliation to the in-group (and perhaps also more aggrieved towards the out-group).  The reason for my speculation is the widespread (and continued) use of music to instill feelings of nationalism in the various countries that make up the former Yugoslavia. Even family and friends who don't appear to be nationalistic act and talk quite differently if the background music is American rather than from their specific piece of the former-Yugoslav pie. It's scary.

Which isn't, also, to say that it can't make people more invidious. In a record store in London, some Jay-Z came over the speakers, and a very old man about an aisle or so away from me said: "What is this n*gger sh*t?"

And so the fun continues. I'm loving the new Todd Snider and it was less expensive than the new Springsteen which, artistically anyhow, I'm having trouble even liking. But I'll give it several more listens.

My 1969 Ballot after whittling down the 36 I own.

1.) The Band - The Band (15)

2.) Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis (14)

3.) The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground (14)

4.) The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed (12)

5.) Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy and the Poorboys (11)

6.) Sly and the Family Stone - Stand! (8)

7.) Joe Cocker - Joe Cocker! (7)

8.) Bob Dylan - Nashville Skyline (7)

9.) Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River (6)

10.) The Grateful Dead - Aoxomoxoa (6)

So Close and Yet So Far

11.) The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin

12.) Wilson Pickett - Hey Jude

13.) The Beatles - Abbey Road

14.) The Jefferson Airplane - Bless Its Pointed Little Head

15.) Delaney and Bonnie - Accept No Substitute

16.) The Who - Tommy

17.) The Moody Blues - To Our Children's Children's Children

18.) Otis Redding - Love Man

19.) Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

20.) Janis Joplin - I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!

Let me clear my conscience first. Or to phrase it differently, let me state my pride in my guilty pleasure - The Moody Blues. It's the only album of theirs I care about and I love it. I guess it's the space journey concept that has sold me. Jefferson Airplane's "Volunteers" doesn't hold up for me the way it once did, but "Bless Its Pointed..." has never diminished for me. Thanks Stone Man! Plus it's one of my favorite album titles of all time. I've had the Wilson Pickett on vinyl for decades and the back of the cover credits lists "David" Allman handling guitar chores.

"Aoxomoxoa" got the points not just because of the classics "St. Stephen" and "China Cat Sunflower" but also for two eccentric treats: "Diamond Dupree's Blues" and "Mountains of the Moon". Love 'em love 'em love em.  Except maybe for Rod Stewart (what ever became of him?), Joe Cocker is my favorite white male interpreter of song during that era. My favorite versions of "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" and "Darling Be Home Soon" are just the beginning. Finally, Dusty or the Velvets could have filled the #1 slot.

Thank you Patrick.

This soft bigotry toward Presence is intolerable!

Not to mention In Through the Out Door! (Seriously, I like that album)

Heh.  I almost wrote post-Houses of the Holy.  Really would've pissed people off then...

The cited research finding that music can prime underlying feelings of in-group affiliation is not the least bit surprising to me, and no joke where I come from (former Yugoslavia).

 but his work, post-Physical Graffiti, is respectable

The researchers, who tested 138 students with different genres, say the finding shows that because rock is associated with white people, people unconsciously favour their own race after listening.

Speaking of Led Zep, did anyone else read that in the Daily Mail ( goo.gl/YYH4Q )? WTH? I'm guessing the problem here is the journalist for overstating the study's conclusions, but the quotes from the researchers aren't helping either.

'Those who listened to the rock music gave more to the white group, but split the rest equally among the other three – in other words they weren't punitive against the others as were the listeners of the white power rock.'

PS -To Frapton and Irene-just checked the calendar-

those days don't work for me-thanks anyway

                  Greg