Advanced Theory (also called Advancement Theory) is a theory of pop culture invented by Jason Hartley and Britt Bergman in 1990 and popularized by Chuck Klosterman. Hartley and Bergman formulated it as an "optimistic" antidote to overly rigid taste trends among rock hipsters. According to Klosterman:

Core concepts

An artist is Advanced when they do something that is neither expected of them nor the opposite of what is expected of them. Most Advanced Artists go through an Overt period, during which their work is overtly weird. For instance, the Velvet Underground's introduction of the viola to rock 'n' roll was Overt. True Advancement stems from an artist's following his (or in Cher's case, her) own idiosyncratic genius, which results in a kind of weird that makes even the artist's biggest fans uncomfortable. For example, Lou Reed's haircut in the late 1980s. Ultimately, the artist's fans catch up with him and grow to appreciate the work they rejected. Lou Reed's album Berlin is such a work.

The Flaming Lips, The Killers and The Darkness are given as examples of Overt artists (the later two for being anachronistic). Klosterman called the 1993 collaboration between Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and author William S. Burroughs the definition of overtness [1569]

There are subgroups of Advancement, most notable of which are the Advanced Irritants. The prime example of this is Lou Reed's 1975 record Metal Machine Music, which consists entirely of guitar feedback.

Advanced artists

According to proponents of Advanced Theory, a partial list of Advanced artists (and examples of their Advanced works) would include:

David Bowie - forming Tin Machine; his cover of "Dancin' In The Streets" with Mick Jagger [1570]

Garth Brooks - The entire Chris Gaines debacle [1571]

David Byrne - for his cover of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" [1572]

C-Murder - for actually murdering someone [1573]

R. Kelly - for making "Trapped in the Closet" [1574]

Kiss - for creating the soundtrack to a nonexistent movie. [1575]

Korn - for making a radio friendly version of their anti-corporate single "Y'All Want a Single". [1576]

Non-musical advanced works and artists include:

Val Kilmer - for virtually every career move he has made, since he injects none of his personality whatsoever in his works. [1577]

Advanced films:

the motion picture Stranger Than Fiction - because " every aspect of the film is meticulously orientated towards exploration of the concept of narrative film itself" [1578]

The musical We Will Rock You - because the "The idea that rock 'n' roll could save a civilization is extremely Advanced" [1579]

References

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External links

Klosterman's original article for Esquire on Advancement