Nieuw Jacxz Swinjge (2002)

• 76%
• 2002
• Documentary
• Seth Price

Excerpted from Price's 2001 video-lecture "New York Woman," which explored the ways in which music production techniques change over time, NJS Map uses animated diagrams to lay out the historical development of one period in pop music, the briefly-lived but influential genre often called "New Jack Swing." While the video now stands alone, it must be seen as an intentional fragment, a piece of supplemental material activated by other elements of Price's "redistribution" work. For example, a 2003 essay, part of his ongoing project "Title Variable" (2001-), also investigates the New Jack Swing genre, and is itself linked to a musical album (both are available on-line; see below). Written in the style of popular music journalism, Price's essay states that "the entire New Jack Swing venture can be seen as a producer's grab for market share, a way to assimilate an obstreperous but commercially successful youngster into the secure, decades-old structures of popular black music.