Description: This book studies the working efficacy of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah in the context of today's network culture. Especially as recorded on YouTube, k.d. lang's interpretation(s) of Cohen's Hallelujah embody, acoustically and visually/viscerally, what Nietzsche named the 'spirit of music'. Today, the working of music is magnified and transformed by recording dynamics and mediated via Facebook exchanges, blog postings and video sites. Given the sexual/religious core of Cohen's Hallelujah, this study poses a phenomenological reading of the objectification of both men and women, raising the question of desire, including gender issues and both homosexual and heterosexual desire.
Review Quotes: '... her primary focus is the meaning of dissonance, whether in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Wagner's Tristan lind Isolde, or Cohen's broken chords. The message of all three works is that harmony is an illusion, while tragedy and pain lead to truth.' The Beethoven Journal 'Babette Babich practices philosophical inquiry in the classroom. With The Hallelujah Effect she has brought her musings on philosophy and music to the world. If the role of a philosopher is to give us much to think about, Babich certainly accomplishes this in her book. From its first pages, The Hallelujah Effect is filled with ideas'. Rock Music Studies '... in The Hallelujah Effect Babich presents a wealth of thoughts on the engagement between philosophy and music, and it is in her appraisals of Adorno and Nietzsche that the strengths of the book become apparent'. Musicology Australia '... this is a thought-provoking book that seeks to understand our current media culture within a philosophical context. Babich's observations and conclusions are compelling ...' Canadian Association of Music Libraries Review