Groove, Marxism and Music w/ Mark Abel

"Groove music is the music of our age. […] The sounds emanating from the earphones of the millions of iPods and other audio devices that are so much a part of contemporary life are even more overwhelmingly dominated by groove music." – Mark Abel, Groove: The Aesthetics of Measured Time

In his 2014 book Groove, Mark Abel delves into the aesthetics of measured time, tracing the emergence of groove music in the 20th century and its intricate relationship with social time. From a historical materialist perspective, Abel examines how musical developments are shaped by the socio-economic foundations of the societies that produce them. This Marxist approach invites us to read musical time alongside social time, unpacking themes of class, work, and production.

Drawing on thinkers such as Bergson, Schutz, and Adorno, Abel critically explores the intersections of musical time, modernism, African rhythmic traditions, and the temporal structures of capitalism. His work offers a profound investigation into how groove music reflects and reshapes our experience of time under modernity.

In this session, we will join Mark Abel to explore two key temporal concepts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: the musical time of groove and the social time of capitalism. Together, we will discuss how these two dimensions of time interact, challenge one another, and provide insight into our contemporary experience.