The paradox of music transgressions: Noise as a libidinal energy

Abstract

This paper is part of a broader research project that considers noise as an agent of musical transformation. From this perspective, I reflect on the psychoanalytic concepts of repression and death drive. In this context, these concepts are linked to the process of rejection, acceptance and transgression of some elements that constitute the basis of artistic creation. The relationship between transgression and acceptance of noise can be understood as a dialectical and dynamic process. On the one hand, noise can be understood as a disturbing, undesirable, suppressed and repressed event; on the other hand, it can become something acceptable and desirable when incorporated as an aesthetic element. This oscillatory process of acceptance and rejection may be related to two concepts of Freudian psychoanalytic theory: repression and the death drive. These concepts may help to understand the return of what was repressed, what is to be avoided, and what is perceived as noise, connecting this "return" to the idea of remembering something that has been repressed. By pursuing this parallel between noise and psychoanalysis, I intend to understand the mechanism from which an uncomfortable, noisy and sometimes destructive element becomes crucial to overcome a conservative inertia and thus set in motion a spring that propels the cultural dynamics. Although denoting a paradox, this dynamic allows the incorporation of what is considered to be undesirable and it is an essential operation in the transformative processes of music.