033-Singer-Songwriters of the 1970s and the Problem of the Self

This episode investigates the move from the communitarian spirit of the 1960s to the "Me Decade" of the 1970s. I explore some historical and cultural reasons for this shift, employing ideas from Tom Wolfe and Immanuel Kant. I then look at the dialectic between an intentionally inauthentic notion of the self (personae) and an authentic self as it unfolded in the music of the 1970s, particularly among the singer-songwriters. The last segment addresses the style of that music--caught between folk music (and its implicit authenticity, speaking with the voice of the authentic We) and light-jazz/lounge music (and its implicit inauthenticity).