While no one questions contemplating the aesthetic value of a Bach Fugue or a Beethoven Sonata, there is clearly more skepticism when modern, popular music is put under the aesthetic microscope of a prominent thinker like Hegel or Heidegger. Somehow it just doesn't seem appropriate to apply philosophical consideration to modern music, for it appears a self-evident fact that such music has little value to a society in which important scientific and political developments are so common. Yet even setting this aside, it just seems unnecessary to use the formidable sledgehammer of aesthetic philosophy to crack open the relatively hollow egg of popular music.After all, how much can there really be to Michael Jackson or Mariah Carey?
Yet, while this broad criticism of popular music's philosophical merit is undoubtedly valid for the majority of modern pop music, it is not, as Heidegger himself would expect, completely true for all of it. In fact, what one finds is that at least one band--Pearl Jam--has actually been wrestling with many of the same philosophical issues that Hegel's and Heidegger's own aesthetics take up.
Specifically, one can look at Pearl Jam's first three CDs as illustrative of a somewhat reluctant Hegelian evolution by which its early, emotional style of music gradually gave way to a more intellectual style of music. However, in their latest CD titled No Code, Pearl Jam makes the theHeideggerian realization that their move towards the purely rational has led them towards an inadequate and unfulfilling notion of truth, and this in turn leads Pearl Jam to recognize the importance of a Heideggerian balance between the rational and irrational (the unconcealed and concealed).No Code thus becomes Pearl Jam's attempt to reclaim the irrationality that it possessed in its first albums, and to thereby try to find a balance between rational thought and irrational feeling.
 
Pearl Jam's first album, Ten, came out in 1991 and was very much the expression of youthful passion that Hegel attributes to artists who have not yet been matured by age and experience.While the opening of "Once" (the first song on the album) starts out with an eerie uncertainty that does not immediately commit to being either emotional or intellectual, the music soon gives way to the edginess of the guitar and the emotionally agitated voice of Eddie Vedder.The lyrics make clear that Vedder is unable to restrain his emotion, for it was only "once upon a time [that he] could control [himself]" and rise above his passions in the manner demanded by Hegel. With "a bomb in his temple [that] is gonna explode" it is quite clear that Vedder's mind, the home of reason and intellect, is on the verge of completely giving way to emotion and forsaking rational thought altogether.
 
The next album Pearl Jam put out, Vs., came in 1993 and only magnified the emotional outburst that Ten began. Indeed, the title of the album alone (an abbreviation of the word "versus") is enough to suggest the confrontational nature of the album's music, which includes such explosive songs as "Blood" and "Leash." While "Blood" is essentially nothing more than an expression of uncontrolled rage, "Leash" (the second to last song on the CD) shows Pearl Jam beginning to make the important realization that the pure emotionality of their first two CDs has not brought them any closer to finding truth. Indeed, not only is such pure emotion the very antithesis of what Hegel claims to be the essence of Spirit and truth, but it also runs counter to Heidegger's notion that a balance must be struck between the rational and irrational in order for truth to be made possible.
As Pearl Jam begins to acknowledge this for itself, one can see that the unrest expressed in "Leash" is no longer directed outward like the anger in of "Blood," but is instead an inwardly-directed frustration resulting from the realization that, "I [Pearl Jam] am lost."
 
Vitalogy, which came out in 1994, manifested Pearl Jam's rather begrudging acceptance of the disillusioning self-discoveries that it made after completing the search for its own identity.
What Pearl Jam suddenly became aware of was the fact that it had lost the youth and naïve innocence that had once shielded it from the purely rational and ordered world of adulthood.
With this in mind, Vitalogy even came with a thirty-four page booklet that covered such adult topicsas determining "Whom To Marry Or Not Marry" and "How to Manage Infants." In similar fashion, the song "Not For You" contains Vedder's advice to those who, unlike himself, still possess their youth despite the unrest that inevitably creeps up on one who is about to lose it (i.e. Pearl Jam's own state in "Leash").  He sings:
 
Restless soul, enjoy your youth...
Like Muhammed, hits the truth...
All that's sacred comes from youth...
Dedications, naïve and true...
With no power, nothing to do...
I still remember, why don't you?
 
Yet, as Vedder looks back with the nostalgia and frustration that is characteristic of one who has only recently lost something valuable, the new identity that Pearl Jam has found for itself does not become clear until the last song on Vitalogy. This song, named "Immortality," is a mixture of extremely subdued guitar-playing with the mellow and almost apathetic singing of Vedder, and it thus stands in stark contrast to the many fiercely emotional songs on Pearl Jam's first two albums. If the song can be considered emotional at all, "Immortality" is a sorrowful and reluctant acceptance of adulthood and intellectualism, as evidencedin the subject of the song itself (i.e. immortality. a philosophical idea that is generally contemplated more as one gets older) and Vedder's particularly apathetic singing of the word "immortality" in the song itself.
 
 
"Immortality" thus highlights the evolution that Pearl Jam had undergone in the previous four years after exchanging the fiery emotionality and innocence of youth for the more contemplative intellectualism and rationalism of adulthood. By accepting this path, Pearl Jam had taken large steps in the Hegelian direction that calls for the transcending of emotion and irrationality by the reasoned thought of a scientifically-and philosophically-based society.At the same time, however, the band had once again overstepped the balance between the rational and irrational (the concealed and unconcealed) that Heidegger claims must exist for truth to appear most clearly.To the philosophically-minded listener then, it could become a source of philosophical interest to see how Pearl Jam would ultimately react to their new-found and begrudgingly-accepted Hegelian identity would the band come to accept it, or would it instead reject it along with Heidegger?
 
The answer to this question was not manifested until two years later when Pearl Jam released their latest CD, No Code.What No Code made perfectly clear was that Pearl Jam was finding the primarily intellectual, Hegelian realm of pure thought to be just as unsatisfactory as the realm of pure emotion that had characterized its earlier albums.Indeed, as the album title "No Code" itself suggests, Pearl Jam had come to realize that the world was in large part codeless and could thus not be fully understood or mastered within the rigid rationalism advocated by Hegel.In making this realization, Pearl Jam inevitably found itself sidingwith Heidegger in favor of a balance between the two extremes of emotion and intellectualism, in the hopes that such a balance would lead the band to find a more satisfying notion of truth.No Code can thus be seen both as a critique of Hegel and as an attempt by Pearl Jam to step past Heidegger's metaphoric "darkness of midnight" and reclaim a more Heideggerian world that balances world with earth, and the rational with the irrational.
 
The No Code song, "I'm Open" is Pearl Jam's first such attempt to reclaim this Heideggerian balance, illustrating the band's first steps away from the intellectualism that began in Vitalogy.While the music (if it can even be called such) begins with little more than an incessant droning in the background, it is eventually supplemented by a faint and simple note progression played by the guitar. Similarly, Vedder's "singing" is at first nothing more than his serious and emotionally- subdued voice speaking the song's lyrics, though this too eventually gives way to a more plaintive beckoning consisting of the two simple phrases: "I'm open" and "Come on in." In this manner, "I'm Open" can be seen as an extreme continuation of the intellectual abstraction of music that began with "Immortality," for Pearl Jam's music had progressed so far in the Hegelian direction in its two year interim that it was almost completely stripped of its musical qualities. After all, "I'm Open" is certainly not an adequate presentation of what Heidegger would consider to be music as music and singing as singing. Yet, as Vedder's voice wells up out of this abstraction in the middle of the song, one gets the feeling that the band is once again beginning to get back into touch with its own emotionality and take the first steps away from the suffocating, rational control of Hegelian philosophy.
 
Lyrically, "I'm Open" expresses this same yearning for emotionality and illustrates the band's first steps towards reclaiming it. The initial image created is of a man lying on his bed, "hoping for a presence; something, anything to enter"--that is, something like Heidegger's "thing" that is too general to be described by the rigid concepts of language. While this man has tried following both the irrational path (i.e. magic) and the rational path (i.e. science) towards knowledge and truth, both have left him "as blank / As the ceiling at which he [stares]," and yearning for something more.
 
Of course, this man is a symbol for Pearl Jam itself, and the question becomes how the band will resolve their emptiness through their music. "I'm Open" begins to make the realization that an at least partial return to the irrationality of youth may be required to fill the void left by over- intellectualism, for Vedder suggests that the man's feeling "absolutely nothing" (i.e. his lack of emotion) may be the cause of his emptiness.
While this blatantly contradicts Hegel, Vedder then also goes on to challenge the cliché-ed notion that the greater rational knowledge one obtains with age is more valuable than the irrational "knowledge" one possesses in youth, stating, "If he only knew now what he knew then..."Thus, like Heidegger, Vedder questions the conventional wisdom of his own time and begins to appreciate that some sort of balance must be struck between the rational and irrational in order for the band to come to terms with truth. At this point the man (in Heideggerian fashion) chooses to pursue a path that will achieve this balance, deciding "to dream.../Dream up a new self for himself"--a self that will properly respect the unconcealed of the rational as well as the concealed of the irrational and uncontrollable.
This last line also highlights the fact that finding such a balance will necessarily require
dreaming--or at least an escape from the world of some sort--for the scientifically-guided world in which both Pearl Jam and the man live allows for only scientific truth to originate from it.
 
This sets the stage for "Hail, Hail," a much harder-edged song that begins to resemble the music from Pearl Jam's earlier albums. However, while it is a very driven and determined song, its emotional quality is for the most part only a reflection of the band's frustration at realizing its loss of emotion and its inability to even partially reclaim it. As the following lines show, Pearl Jam is highly aware of the fact that it can no longer feel:
 
I get the words, and then I get to thinkin'
I don't wanna think, I wanna feel!
How do I feel? And how do I?
 
While the band understands the intellectual concepts that words constitute, it no longer wants to be a complete slave to language and the rational thoughts that language controls (a fact which Heidegger himself notes).Yet at the same time, Pearl Jam is faced with the frustrating realization that it has not only lost touch with its feelings at the moment, but it has lost touch with the knowledge of how to feel altogether.Thus, in the blackness of Heidegger's midnight, Pearl Jam hasfallen prey to pure intellectualism and has thereby lost all ties with the irrational "earth" (in Heidegger's terms) of emotion.
 
The remainder of the song is largely an endorsement of Heideggerian philosophy as well as a
determined declaration to reclaim the balance between emotionality and intellectualism.For example, in the line for which the song is named "Hail, hail, to the lucky ones, I refer to those in love..”. Vedder makes highly complimentary reference to those who are still in touch with their emotional side and who can thus experience the feeling of love.
While love may be one of those things that would be surpassed and inevitably destroyed by an
Hegelian attainment of truth, Pearl Jam holds love up as something that is worthy of high praise - even authority and worship - and suggests that love elevates people who feel it above those who can no longer experience it (e.g. Hegelians). At the same time Vedder also makes reference to the role of luck, another anti-Hegelian idea that is completely outside the control and understanding of mankind. Indeed, Vedder goes on to make the definitive criticism of Hegel in the line, "I find I'm on the run in a race that can't be won", pointing to the fact thatno matter how far you go in the direction of pure intellect, you will never find an adequate notion of truth. Rather, Vedder is determined to "be new" (albeit "bandaged" and imperfect) and reclaim the emotion that is necessary for a Heideggerian notion of truth.
 
The next song on No Code, "Who You Are," makes a distinct leap away from the rigid control and intellectualism that "Hail, Hail" was so determined to fight against, and it shows Pearl Jam's conscious decision to accept Heideggerian philosophy. Probably the most striking characteristic of "Who You Are" is the originality of its music, for it sounds nothing like the emotionally-charged songs on Vs. or the apathetically intellectual songs on Vitalogy--indeed, "Who You Are" sounds much more like a middle ground between the two. This is partly the result of Pearl Jam's own emotional development, but is also thanks to the influence of Indian singer, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, whose own music served as inspiration for the song. As Khan is himself a very soulful Indian singer whose music (reminiscent of African Hutu music) would itself be considered beautiful by Heidegger, it is likely that was a very helpful guide for Pearl Jam as it slowly moved away from the suffocating control and intellectualism of Hegelian philosophy.
 
Lyrically, "Who You Are" is also an embracing of Heideggerian ideals and a stepping away from the perfectionism and control that characterizes Hegelian music. Almost all of the lines in the song, for example, are incomplete phrases that trail off in mid-sentence and in the middle of a thought, as though they only reveal that part of truth that has been wrested from the earth while still respecting that which remains unconcealed. In this way, these sentence fragments both defy the rigidity and structure of language and maintain the Heideggerian balance between the concealed and unconcealed. One can even sense Pearl Jam poking fun at language itself in the following lines:
 
Come to send, not condescend...
Transcendental consequences to transcend...
Who we are...Who are we? Who we are...
 
The awkward combination of the words not only gives them the appearance of being pedantic and pseudo-intellectual, but also makes their meaning almost indecipherable--almost as if to say, "I dare you, Hegel, to make logical, rational sense out of this." In the same lines, Pearl Jam also asks the very Heideggerian question, "Who are we?"--a question much like "what is a thing?" with which one really can't do anything except respond as Pearl Jam does: "You are who, who you are." No amount of intellectualization, no matter how pure how it may become,can ever answer such a question any better than this.
 
The lyrics of "Who You Are" also capture Heidegger's notion that man is imperfect in his
understanding of the world and in his ability to control the earth. In the case of the former,
Vedder makes the point quite clear in the line, "Seen it all, not at all" which stands as a
definitive rebuke of Hegel's notion that pure intellect can ever reveal all that the earth conceals.
As for the notion of man's complete control over himself and his surroundings that is supported by Hegel, Vedder uses the image of "trampled moss on your souls" to highlight the fact that such control is at best imperfect. After all, as Vedder says, all it takes is one "driving wind" and a little chance ("happenstance") to push man off the track he's so determined to follow (perhaps the Hegelian path towards pure intellect?) and thereby send him crashing into some mud. If you then try to ask why these sudden failings happen or how they might change your course in life, the best answer you'll find will follow the Heideggerian circle that is provided by Vedder's own lyrics: "What's your part? Who you are / You are who, who you are...".
 
Pearl Jam's seven-year journey for truth at last comes to some sort of conclusion in the song titled "In My Tree," as Pearl Jam finally reclaims the youthful emotion that it lost. Vedder's subdued yet determined voice begins the song backed by the tribal rhythm of the drums (that continue to undulate throughout the entire song) and a faint guitar part.The first two verses open with a subtle undercutting of the conventional world that Vedder has escaped from by climbing to the top of a tree.In so doing, he no longer needs to bother himself with the insignificant, worldly events that newspapers contain, nor does he need to worry about his own head being cracked open by worldly crowbars and then filled with intellectualism and rational thought. The second verse, marked by an increase in Vedder's volume and the greater prominence of the now spirited guitar part, goes on to highlight the fact that Vedder's ascension above the world has set him completely apart from his friends, who have been "trained" by a science-based society to keep their eyes solely upon the world and those things (e.g. "the street...sidewalk, cigarettes, and scenes") that are immediately apparent and discoverable by science (i.e. the completely unconcealed). These "friends" never question that there may be something beyond their world (like Vedder watching them from the trees
above) in much the same way that most people do not question the fact that science and rational thought are the only sources of truth.
 
The intensity of the song continues to increase in the third verse as Vedder describes the vantage point of the tree he has escaped to. He makes clear that it has necessarily been an extreme height to which he has had to climb in order to completely escape the world below him--a height at which the branches are so thin that they sway under his weight.Yet, Vedder also makes clear that even at this height he has not yet reclaimed the emotion, irrationality, and youthful innocence that characterizes the concealedness of the earth, for what he holds within his chest at this point is only "like" innocence--it is not innocence itself.
 
The emotion that has been swelling up in these first three verses now gives way to chanting—the epitome of the uncontrolled freedom that earthiness allows the voice to express. Vedder thus brings the partially concealed sentence fragments of "Who You Are" to the extreme by totally denying the structure and rigidity that language imposes upon man's verbal expression. It is clear that Pearl Jam has finally rediscovered its emotions, and the question now becomes whether the band will be able to put them in a proper balance with its intellect. 
The fourth verse does in fact take up the issue of this worldly intellect and knowledge, but
continues the complete undercutting of world that began in the first two verses. Vedder at first strangely describes himself in the third person ("I remember him"), giving the distinct impression that this totally rational self who once "swore he knew everything" is now completely foreign to Vedder.At the root of this is not only the fact that Vedder has given up the Hegelian trust in intellect's infinite power to grasp the world, but Vedder himself has now moved towards a more emotional self-identity.
 
The final two verses are the most emotionally-powerful in the song and make it obvious that Pearl Jam has not stopped at the balance between intellect and emotion, but has rather moved to the opposite extreme of complete irrationality. As the bass guitar begins to pound in the background, Vedder makes five different references to his extreme height and thus makes evident the fact that he has completely broken away from the world.Now sleeping alone in his tree, Vedder makes it absolutely clear that he will no longer participate in the daily trivialities and worldly affairs that constantly buzz below him. While Pearl Jam had once abstracted too much in the intellectual direction, it now makes the same extreme abstraction in the emotional direction, and it is this emotion that climaxes in the last two lines as Vedder officially reclaims his youthful, irrational innocence. The emotion contained within him is so powerful that Vedder even loses control of his
voice which cracks as he resolutely pronounces that he's, "Still got it...still got it..."
(i.e. his innocence).
 
"In My Tree" thus shows Pearl Jam's ultimate response to its own over-intellectualization, a
response which is nonetheless motivated by Heideggerian philosophy despite its extreme emotionality.
What Pearl Jam came to realize is that society is so dominated by science-biased thought that it cannot produce anything else. As a result, Pearl Jam was forced to escape into the lofty recesses of a tree in order to distance itself as much as possible from this science-dominated world, and it was only then that the band is fortunate enough to finally get a "glimpse...of [its] innocence."
Consequently, it is apparent that Pearl Jam's return to its innocent irrationality was only possible (and even then, just barely so) by completely negating the science-based world of rational thought.
 
Indeed, I am very much a fan of Pearl Jam, and this fondness is without question motivated
by the fact that its music struggles with many of the same philosophical issues that I often do in today's science-based society.Like Pearl Jam, I have often wondered whether I myself have overstepped the bounds of rational thought and become too Hegelian in my reliance upon intellectualism to find truth. As a result, song lyrics like "Hail, Hail"'s "I don't wanna think, I wanna feel" have rung true enough in my ears to make me stop and question my almost complete reliance upon the primarily rational when making decisions in my life.
 
Yet if Pearl Jam has anything to teach as I think it does, it seems to be that the only way to free one's self from this over-intellectualized world is to escape from it entirely by metaphorically climbing into the tiptop of a tree.In Heideggerian terms, this means completely escaping from the disclosed world and moving towards the opposite extreme that the earth symbolizes.However, this may seem an immediate contradiction to Heidegger's notion that there must be a balance between earth and world for truth to show itself--unless, of course, the world-earth pendulum has already swung so far in the direction of world that it now requires an equal, if not greater, earthy force in order just to set the pendulum bob swinging back in the earthy direction of equilibrium.This is the position adopted by Pearl Jam, whose struggle to find an adequate notion of truth has led them to accept Heidegger's aesthetic philosophy and to thus try to make possible the balance between the rational and irrational (and thus to make possible truth itself) in today's our overly-intellectualized society.
 
kevin O' Connor