3 Facts from Sonic Outlaws

There were many different situations that were pointed out in this film about Negativland that could be seen as interventions. Even just the notion of what the band had been doing for years with experimentation of remixing found content and using interesting and strange sounds could be thrown in to the idea that maybe the band itself is an intervention in to the music world. I would venture to use this as one of my three points of this post. Negativland themselves are an intervention in to the popular music culture.

In a more specific sense, I would say that the release of the U2 album that got them sued was a very clear intervention. Many people could have went in to a store to grab a record of their friend's favorite band, and not even known that this album was not actually the real work from U2, but a remixed version made by another musical group. I also wonder what the reaction of actual U2 fans was when they were browsing the stores and came across this album. It seems that the idea would spark some interest in these listeners to buy the album and check it out.

The last thing from Sonic Outlaws that I will point out as an intervention is the part where the man known in the band as the "weatherman" is playing around with the machine that he's using to pick up cellular signals. At first when i saw him trying to do this I almost had to stop from laughing, but then I realized what year this film was from and remembered they didn't have as strict of control over these signals at the time. when he did pick up a signal I didn't know whether to think that it was creepy or cool. This situation would not really be seen as an intervention until you have seen the film yourself. Obviously the 2 parties talking on the phone have no idea that they are being listened to, so their ways of thinking about the call aren't being changed at all, but if you are watching this man do what he's doing to listen in, the idea that people might still be able to do this may make you think twice about what you say over the phone.