Preface to Nihilism in Music Videos




NIHILISM DEFINITIONS
Nihilism -  "a radical skepticism that condemns existence." Nietzsche believed that the corrosive effects of this line of thought would erode morality, religion and other institutions. 
        - Comes from "nihil" like "annihilate", to destroy completely, to bring nothing.
        - "Man is a rope tied between the animal and the superman- a rope over an abyss." - Nietzsche. Everything man does is meaningless. We are only a bridge to something greater (the superman) or to nothing.
        
Nihilist -  Believes in nothing, has no loyalties. A passive nihilist has no allegiances or 
convictions, while an active nihilist seeks to destroy. 

The Superman - Neither refers to the DC character or the Aryan race, as the Nazis misinterpreted it to mean. The Superman refers to mans' primitive nature and infinite potential. We are on the brink of become better than our individuals, but held back by our animalistic nature. The Superman may very well be AI. 

Existential Nihilism-  There is no greater purpose, no higher being and no afterlife. So what do you do with yourself?
 - There are two major schools of thought. Either do whatever you want to extremes because nothing means anything anyways. Or find meaning within your own life, whether it's work or family, etc.

Moral Nihlism -  Morality is just a human construct. You are not in control of the stimuli or response neurons that cause you to act anyways. So just do what your stimuli tell you and stop feeling bad about it.

Epistemological Nihilism -  (Descarte's Monster) Basically an all-encompassing skepticism. All knowledge is untrue or unable to be proven. OR: our senses and science will never be able to prove beyond a doubt that existence is not a simulation. So why bother believing in anything, if nothing can be proven. 

Black Nihilism - Refers to types of art that aims at being or addressing meaninglessness/nothingness. It's a blank canvas, it's 4:33, it has no substance. 

Cosmic Nihilism - The universe is so infinitesimally large and indifferent that nothing you do could ever possibly matter. Cosmic Nihilism and Nihilistic Horror are linked in the idea that there is a larger, invisible world that affects ours. The thought experiment is to imagine the world without humans, without any conscious being. That is the universe in purist form, and it is an infinite, crushing abyss.

Nihilistic Horror / The Occult-  The media studies by Eugene Thacker. His Nihilistic Horror Trilogy explores how meaninglessness and nothingness is used in art to be frightening. That unknowningness/meaninglessness/and unseen forces are much scarier than any boogieman. Unseen forces like black magic, dark matter, unseen demons, an uncaring universe. Are all players, and at once, nothing, no players at all. Words that point a finger at no one.


NIHILISM & MUSIC
I reached out to a musician friend of mine and this is what he had to say: 
"It's difficult to find tons of nihilism in music because music is inherently unnecessary; so the act of creating music itself is inherently meaningful."  - @Gardnsound

I really enjoyed that and it helped me come to the conclusion of the bell curve. I think because music is inherently meaningful, music videos must be inherently meaningless to make room for the meaning of the song. They are the frame, not the painting.


Nihilism in music is not a new experiment. Gardnsound referred me to the movement that influenced Nietzsche. The Serialists sought to strip music of its traditional form, ignoring structure. While I have yet to find a music video that lives up to these masters, I believe the philosophy still pervades many of the works and am hopeful to find a video that upsets this notion.

There are modern genres of music that tend to be more nihilistic than others. Punk and Metal are the first that come to mind. Metal is a sort of celebration of the darkness, and rage against the void. Punk is  a dismantling of formal institutions. The serialists deconstructed form. And in their own way, each worships destruction. I saw many articles that argue the emptiness of Pop and rap music is in its own way nihilistic. While they may be inherently meaningless, they rely on narrative and formal structure in ways that an intentionally nihilistic piece would seek to destroy or disassemble.

For my money, and I am extremely biased here, I would like to advocate that country and folk are the most nihilistic, not in subject matter but in feeling. That slowly giving in, of drifting away, of leaving an enriched life for a desolate one. The most popular American music in Africa is country music. Not because of the lyrics but because they understand the feeling. The feeling of leaving a home full of love and joy to work in tall buildings, to find success built on a lie among meaningless institutions. 



Personal Notes
- Nietzsche didn't say "God is dead" as a celebration of atheism, but because Christianity, and therefore Western Philosophy, inherently undermines the living of life by prioritizing the afterlife. We must forget Western Philosophy and remember ourselves or risk not living a life worthwhile. 
    - Books to look into: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil
    - Three main focuses: The idea of man, of the world/god, of morality/ethics.
    - First in Russian Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev as "a creed of total negation.
    - conflict lies between the "real world", the "apparent" (material) world, and the "future world" (heaven). Plato VS Christianity VS Nietzsche 
    - the death of the two worlds (apparent and real) ushers in the beginning of the new age of philosophy, where there is only one world. 
    - Kant argues in Critique of Pure Reason that we can never know how the world is "in itself" therefore if the world is unattainable, then life and action is superfluous. 
    - Sartre said that we have to define the meaning of our own existence. 

Arguments Against Nihilism
     - Arguments made against Active Nihlism. Because that would mean acts of destruction. Active positive pragmatism is the alternative, with a goal of finding fuller lives for oneself and others. Assuming that "Active Philosophy" means being able to practice philosophical ideologies in your daily life. "The futures we imagine will always collide with the circumstances of our present." - Jose Ortega Y Gasset


Sweet Sauce


https://www.iep.utm.edu/nihilism/

Dorling Kindersley Ltd. The Philosophy Book; Big Ideas Simply Explained. DK Ltd, Penguin Random House, 2010, dk.com, 345 Hudson St, NY, NYC. 


In the Dust of this Planet [Horror of Philosophy]. Thacker, Eugene. 2010

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