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The Art Ensemble of Chicago's ‘Get in Line’: Politics, Theatre, and Play

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2013

PAUL STEINBECK
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Abstract

The music of the Art Ensemble of Chicago was often considered to be politically oriented, and many of their performances addressed controversial political issues. However, these political moments were counter-balanced by public pronouncements in which the members of the group denied that their music was motivated by politics. I interrogate this seeming contradiction by analysing the Art Ensemble's ‘Get in Line’, a musical-theatrical piece from their 1969 album A Jackson in Your House. ‘Get in Line’ critiques Vietnam-era militarism and racism, and simultaneously proposes that African Americans respond to these issues in politically unconventional, oppositional, even playful ways. In so doing, ‘Get in Line’ challenges essentialist views of black experimental music and shows how the Art Ensemble – like their colleagues in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) – prioritized pluralism and individual agency over orthodoxy, whether in politics or in aesthetics.

Type
Articles
Information
Twentieth-Century Music , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 3 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

Discography

Art Ensemble of Chicago. A Jackson in Your House. LP, BYG/Actuel 529302, 1969.Google Scholar
Art Ensemble of Chicago. Bap-tizum. LP, Atlantic SD 1639, 1973.Google Scholar
Art Ensemble of Chicago. Fanfare for the Warriors. LP, Atlantic SD 1651, 1974.Google Scholar
Bowie, Lester. Serious Fun. LP, DIW 834, 1989.Google Scholar

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