This week, our session was centred around the idea of “camp”, specifically the “notes of camp” by Susan Sontag. (https://monoskop.org/images/5/59/Sontag_Susan_1964_Notes_on_Camp.pdf).
Before we began the main part of the session, we were asked what our “guilty pleasures” were in regards to music. As I mainly consider myself to be a jazz inspired musician, my personal musical “guilty pleasure” would be classical music, specifically from the romantic era of classical music. Here’s an example of one of my favourites:
As I mentioned before, the main part of the session was based around the idea of “camp”, and what it is. From my own basic understanding, camp is a style that is meant to stand out, to be extravagant, to challenge norms. In doing so, it also helps someone to express themselves in great artistic detail, without caring too much about how others may feel about it.
Admittedly, I am not a connoisseur of camp. The only musicians who “fit” this style that come to mind are more mainstream (yet famed) artists such as Freddie Mercury or David Bowie. Bowie in particular was on my mind throughout this session, which of course was thanks to his famed alter ego, Ziggy Stardust. Bowie himself was no stranger to standing out, with one example being in the “Life on Mars?” music video:
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