Plato, Nietzsche and the Genius of Malcolm Young. Gifted Songwriter and Guitarist

Essay from the year 2019 in the subject Musicology - Popular music, The University of Western Australia, course: Philosophy, language: English, abstract: The essay discusses the importance of the popular musicians Malcolm Young and Angus Young for the rock group AC/DC. It makes particular reference to Malcolm as the leader and guiding force behind the group and analyses Angus's work while making reference to Malcolm's abilities. As part of this, it discusses the group's history and the importance of the musical interplay of the two brothers Malcolm Young and Angus Young. The essay is an elaboration on an earlier work done at the University of Western Australia which was revisited in my lectures in Rome in 2019. For the ancient but important Greek philosopher Plato, music had been something which both touches and conditions the psyche. In fact, Plato had been able to see that music is a "philosophically oriented formation and education of the psyche" which contributes "to the philosophical cure of the soul as a very efficient manner of treating a vast array of psychic responses ranging from perception, emotion and desire to rational content."

Autorentext

Cyrus Manasseh is a guitarist, philosopher and musicologist. He teaches in universities and privately as a higher education consultant. Prof. Cyrus Manasseh PhD is also a Freelance Researcher and author of the books 'The Lead Guitarist'; 'The Island Library'; and 'The Problematic of Video Art in the Museum 1968-90'. He is an international scholar and has presented his ideas in a number of countries. He is author of numerous essays and scientific articles in the field of art history, film, music. architecture, video, museums, evolving media and theatre-drama. His published essays and articles include: 'The Words of Gandhi and How the Libertarian Collectivist Anti-individualistic Post-Modern Turn has Shaped our World,' 'Against Roland Barthes. Why Ibsen's "A Doll's House" is Not a Feminist Text, but a Humanist one,' 'Revising Animation Genres: Jan Svankmajer, Tim Burton and James Cameron and the Study of Myth,' 'Cinema and Mass Media in Modernity. Walter Benjamin and the Reproducible Image,' 'The Problem with the Influence of the Moving Image in Society Today, the Alter-Modern and the Disappearance of a Focus on the Internal', The Art Museum in the 19th Century J. J. Winckelmann's Influence on the Establishing of the Classical Paradigm of the Art Museum; Art without the Aesthetic? Defining Conceptual & Post-Conceptual Practices'; 'Art, Language & Machines: Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia & Raymond Roussel' and many others. He has presented his research at international academic forums in London, Sydney, Perth, Venice, Prague and Harvard where he was session chair and has lectured and has taught extensively in Italian, Irish and Australian Universities and Colleges. He was a finalist for the International Award for Excellence in the Constructed Environment Journal Writers Award Annual Prize for the academic essay 'An Inquiry into the Design and the Aesthetics of the Venice Biennale Pavilions and Film'. He is particularly focused on the problematic of post-modernism for culture and society. His novels 'The Lead Guitarist' and 'The Island Library' are currently available.