La Monte Young vs. The Velvet: Minimalism vs. Punk, Art vs. Pop: Postmodern Constructions and Deconstructions

Postmodern theory has recently brought to light the collapse of the boundary separating classical and popular cultures. Minimalism and La Monte Young, on the one hand, and punk and the Velvet Underground, on the other, frequently serve to illustrate the new order of things, in which the dialogue between these hitherto antagonistic universes has finally opened. Young, however, has not always been a “classical” composer, and the Velvet Underground only started to be considered as a “punk” band after it split up. It was, in fact, through the reconstructions of critics and musicologists that these musicians were sectioned off within an apparently compartmentalized universe. And it is through more recent reconstructions, notably those of “postmodern musicology”, that they have been reunited under a single banner. This article examines the way Young and the Velvet Underground, minimalism and punk, are confronted in critical and musicological literature with an aim to explicating the role played by this literature in the construction of these musicians' histories and these genres. This confrontation pleads in favor of the reintroduction of musicological ideologies and policies in the history of music.