Welcome Back to Music and Global Politics. Please like, rate subscribe, share with a friend and support us on Patreon at musicandpoliticspod.com

Today we explore with nuance ravin in Hong Kong. Amongst the 5th most densely populated cities in the world, along with falling 5 straight years on the World Happiness Index, high stress and some classic grump infuse the Special Administrative Region's image. Its no shock that the psychic abandonment of ravin' and euphoric release would hold special appeal. Home to no Pattaya Beach Trance party or Beatforest Festivals as in Thailand or World DJ in Seoul, ravin' in Hong Kong is about finding well enshrouded GPS coordinates, on small islands buried in the trees.

Stanford researcher Pauline Mornet gathers a number of different cases of ravin' in Hong Kong deftly marshaling thought provoking theory to explain the politics of its performance. Pauline explains given the territory's recent traditions its all about hybrid/ambivalent performance and the complicated oritentation to the music and dance movements of the former British colonial overlord. Further complicating matters are state attempts to coopt dance music alongside grassroots collectives.

We frame this discussion by listening to a news story about the "last saturday night out in British HK," the so-called handover rave that featured Grace Jones in 1997. Stay tuned until the end for an excerpt of Faye Wong's "Chanel," a Hong Kong pop icon heavily influenced by jungle, on this Drum and Bass track from the year 2000.

And check out these links for a collective and festival we discuss in the episode:

https://www.instagram.com/ba___oi___ba/ bà queer collective mentioned and https://www.shifumiz.com/ Shi Fu Miz festival with next event March 21 2026

Merry Listening ahead.

Welcome back to Music and Global Politics. Please like, rate and subscribe and support on Patreon at musicandpoliticspod.com

As a thank you and gift to listeners, please enjoy Slava'a "Wagner in Drinks": https://viacheslavv.substack.com/p/richard-wagners-favorite-drinks-announcement

Russia is a font of alternative perspectives usually unavailable in the West. With its strong Byzantine past, Russia, arguably now still, and forever remains an exemplar of Caesaorpapism - the subordination of the church and matters sacred inside the state, a strong symphony or church and state lending the country's overall arc an air of the messianic. This background greatly shaped what is distinct about the Russian reception of the ever popular, if controversial German composer and father of the "total work of art," Richard Wagner.

If in the West Wagner is seen as a problematic arch-reactionary, even a proto-Nazi, however looking out from Russia westward, if anything, Wagner has had a progressive role in musical aesthetics. His works challenged the old regime of the Tsars, and even the Soviet Union championed his work during and after the Nazi invasion. Our guest, Slava Vlasov, a passionate Wagnerian and author of much creative fiction based on Wagner, highlights how in his early career, at least in terms of his contacts and circles, Wagner can be seen as much a Russian composer as one German. This is a very personal journey, a special Russian journey into the world of Wagner.

In this episode we discuss Wagner's Russian side:

• the controversy over his semi-sacred, mostly heretical Parisfal
• Wagner's breaking open of the possibilities on the Russian stage.
• How Wagner was viewed by the Soviet Union and in Post-Soviet Russia.

Our conversation is enclosed by two lovely piano renditions of Wagner :

1. The Quintet from Mastersingers of Nuremberg
2. Album Leaf for Dutchess Metternich

Can Pop be a cure for the melancholy and pain of our age? Has it always been? Today we bring a practicing NYC-based psychiatrist to probe the music of Taylor Swift and Lana Del Ray for pain, therapy and mental health. Given the resounding dominance of their prolonged success, sustained depth-analysis is more than called for. The hopes, fears and travails of generations and millions is now projected onto the mental screen provided by these artists that have captured the age.

For rights reasons, musical selections this time are limited to an innocuous cover.. We are featuring a brief excerpt of Sara Bareilles cover of "Clean," as well as a snippet of "Dark Paradise," by Lana Del Ray, which could well be taken as the actual Heartbroken National Anthem.

Please don't forget to like, rate and subscribe, and buy us a coffee on patreon @ musicandpoliticspod.com In our world one coffee=one episode we gladly dedicate to you for your cherished support.

In this episode we explore:

1. Pop as a symptom of America's ailments.
2. How we can and should think of pop intellectually/psychoanalytically:
3. What is the role of eros, drive theory and repression in pop?
4. How has pop inherited and activated the language of mental health, crises, narcissism etc?
5. Is pop about converting depression erotically?
6. How does pop surveil our emotions especially those that are potentially pre-political?
7. How does Taylor Swift enact a balance of power of the two americas and two worlds of : red state/blue state; girl/woman, adult/child, sex/love, etc.

Stay tuned for alot more coming up this season and thanks so kindly to Dr. Zimmerman for his participation!