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Originally Posted by MellySingsDoom
Isn't it the case too that JL helped fund publication of "OZ", "International Times" etc - perhaps an "avant-garde" response to the more established forms of media at that time?
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I believe he did, yes. But again, this was at a time when it was becoming quite acceptable to do so. The idea of an 'alternative society' of which the underground press had become its unofficial voice had been quite widely established by the time Lennon became actively involved - again, largely around the time he met Yoko. McCartney had also sort of forced his hand a bit, when proclaiming on ITN news that The Beatles took drugs - a disclosure that Lennon went ballisitic about. So in a way, Lennon was being pushed into the underground (so to speak) against his will. Once there however, and faced with an increasingly hostile mainstream press (as well as a police force keen to bust any pop star it could find) the underground press was something he became increasingly relient on, and so it makes sense that he'd eventually have to support it. I'm not saying that Lennon's entire relationship with the Underground was that cynical - his commitment to the various radical movements in the US which threatened to have him expelled from the country demonstrates his passion for such causes. However, his early move into this area was, i think, brought about more by circumstances outside of his control than any real initial empathy towards it.
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Originally Posted by Glice
I'm more getting at the notion in the popular consciousness that the 'avant-garde' is somehow in opposition to 'pop' forms, or that avant-garde is a term applied to anything which falls outside of the major narrative of 'popular music'.
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While i agree with you, there is, as you know, a strand within the avant-garde itself (most notably popularised by Greenberg and Adorno) which sees the tradition very much in this way - as some kind of antidote to 'popular' or 'kitsch' culture. Personally, I think the avant-garde has always been at its strongest when engaging directly with popular culture (as happened with, for example, the surrealists in their commitment to Hollywood cinema) rather than simply rejecting it. What's more, this tactic of engagement between supposedly 'high' and 'low' cultural forms within the avant-garde serves to almost entirely undermine the relevance of a term like postmodernism, which is always handy.