Line #8 Music/Negativland


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dispepsi_6.PNG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The Four Floptops. Left to right: The Weatherman (David Wills), Mark Hosler, Don Joyce, and Richard Lyons]]
3
4	Negativland is an AvantGardeMusic group from Concord, California. Formed in 1979 by high school students Ian Allen, Mark Hosler and Richard Lyons, later joined by David Wills, Chris Grigg, Peter Conheim, Jon Leidecker and [[https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/remembering-don-joyce-dada-humanist-in-negativland/Content?oid=4434129 sound collage master Don Joyce]], the group's work runs the gamut from abstract sound collages to almost normal pop-rock songs, all with a biting satirical edge.
5
6	The ''New York Times'' says the band uses "improvisation and scavenged audio detritus as raw materials. It is an evolving experiment in which the notion of a band is a framing device to explore issues, including media, religion and global capitalism; in an interview this week, Mr. Hosler called it 'a giant conceptual art project about intellectual property and the privatization of culture.' [[https://www.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/negativlands-mark-hosler-embraces-uncertainty/Content?oid=23236389 Hosler detracts the right-wing use of culture jamming]] to confuse and manipulate viewers/listeners: rather, Negativland is "trying to get people to look at things in a different way, trying to create a more educated, thoughtful, compassionate, kinder, better world. In our own weird-ass way."
7
8	Joyce's KPFA program ''[[https://www.negativlandtruefalse.com/ote Over the Edge]]'' was (and is) devoted to themed mixes of sampled sound, commentary, and the all-important call-ins from listeners ("receptacle programming"), with snappy satire, crazed humor and a Firesign Theater-like cast of lunatic characters. Originally airing Sunday nights right after [[https://www.hos.com Music from the Hearts of Space]], it could be so jarring that Hearts of Space announcers used to remind listeners in their concluding remarks that "the next show is very different." You may still [[https://kpfa.org/program/over-the-edge/ hear Over the Edge at kpfa.org]] on Thursday/Friday nights at midnight Pacific time, hosted by Leidecker or by Rob "Krob" Cole of the ''Puzzling Evidence'' show which usually follows ''Over the Edge''. Past episodes, including nearly all of Joyce's shows, are at the [[https://archive.org/details/ote Over the Edge Radio Archive]] (as of June 24, 2020, [[https://archive.org/details/ote?and%5B%5D=addeddate%3A2020 150 of the very earliest episodes have been uploaded]], and on July 24, 2020, 201 more were added!!) Keep checking back at [[https://archive.org/details/ote?tab=collection the Over the Edge radio collection at archive.org]] as more episodes are added. Not only are people donating their personal recordings, but as of 2024, nine years after Don Joyce's death, volunteers are ''still'' going through his immense cassette archive to digitize and upload them [[note]]Mark sez, "While the early Negativland live mixes on ''Over The Edge'' were truly freeform examples of media collage, they also show Don Joyce's penchant for labyrinthine, slowly evolving and densely scripted radio narratives from the outset. Every second of media collage featured on this program is in fact broadcast backwards in time, a memorial made out of audio artifacts left behind by Earth culture - artfully combined and recombined by humans and the machines that succeeded them, for the entertainment of [[HomeworldEvacuation those surviving remnants of humanity, circling our dead planet in a manmade orbital cube]]. That is to say: the Universal Media Netweb provides Receptacle Programming for [[TheArk The Star]]. Just enough of a thread for you to find your own way through these early episodes, all of which pioneered improvised culture jamming for a select group of early Monday morning maniacs - the likes of which many of us never thought we'd get to actually remember for ourselves. But don't trust your memory."[[/note]] and post-Joyce episodes are listenable/downloadable on the KPFA website. Some of the best episodes were issued on tape and CD, and the band continues to make them along with the occasional in-studio album. [[https://littlevillagemag.com/the-pioneers-of-disruption-negativland-members-open-up-about-deceased-member-don-joyce-future-projects/ Here's a 2015 article with more details about Joyce, the history and origins of the show, and the archived episodes.]]
9
10	No description of Negativland is really complete without mention of the "Super Booper" circuit bending electronic oscillator. Invented by David "The Weatherman" Wills, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtqm4cu7TsQ explained by him here]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahdTFZqjWD8 here]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXY5v9nD5dg more detail by him and Mark Hosler here]], it's an inherent part of the Negativland ''oeuvre''. Don Joyce, David Wills and others use it quite often on ''Over the Edge'' and in live shows (especially by Mark Hosler, to [[https://folioweekly.com/stories/beeps-boops,21039 create musical soundscapes]]); it's "an electronic noise-making device that creates unstable feedback using multiple transistors and an FM radio receiver. The resulting sounds are different each time they are played but are sure to excite the ears and engage the mind."
11
12	Ian Allen died January 17, 2015 of complications post-heart surgery. [[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/don-joyce-negativland-sound-collagist-and-radio-dj-dead-at-71-61791/ Don Joyce died July 22, 2015]] of heart failure (he was a lifelong heavy smoker). [[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/arts/music/richard-lyons-a-founding-member-of-negativland-dies-at-57.html Richard Lyons died April 19, 2016]] of melanoma. Following their wishes, the rest of the band has kept Negativland alive.[[note]]"Negativland is a large enough 'collective,' that, until a few more of us die off, we continue to exist!"[[/note]]
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14
15	!!Studio Album Discography
16
17	* 1980 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativland_(album) Negativland]]''
18	* 1981 - ''Points''
19	* 1983 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Big_10-8_Place A Big 10-8 Place]]''[[note]]the first album to involve Don Joyce[[/note]]
20	* 1987 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_Noise Escape From Noise]]''
21	* 1989 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helter_Stupid Helter Stupid]]''[[note]]split into ''Helter Stupid'' and ''The Perfect Cut''[[/note]]
22	* 1993 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_(Negativland_album) Free]]''
23	* 1995 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Use:_The_Story_of_the_Letter_U_and_the_Numeral_2 Dead Dog Records]]''[[note]]bundled with the book ''[[https://archive.org/details/NegativlandFairUseTheStoryOfTheLetterUTheNumeral2/page/n1/mode/2up Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2]]'' (free download at archive.org), features the Crosley Bendix bonus track "Copyright Infringement Is Your Best Entertainment Value" from ''Fair Use'''s first edition[[/note]]
24	* 1997 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispepsi Dispepsi]]''
25	* 2002 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathsentences_of_the_Polished_and_Structurally_Weak Deathsentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak]]''
26	* 2005 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Business No Business]]''
27	* 2008 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thigmotactic_(album) Thigmotactic]]''
28	* 2014 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_All_in_Your_Head_(Negativland_album) It's All in Your Head]]''
29	* 2019 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_False True False]]''
30	* 2020 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Will_Decide The World Will Decide]]''
31	* 2022 - ''Speech Free: Recorded Music for Film, Radio, Internet and Television''[[note]]instrumentals of every song from ''True False'' and ''The World Will Decide''[[/note]]
32
33	[[http://www.sothismedias.com/home/four-decades-of-negativland Justin Moore has an extensive review of these albums at his SothisMedias blog.]]
34
35	!!''Over The Edge'' series (originally on cassette, then re-released on CD):
36
37	* 1985 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge_Vol._1:_JAMCON%2784 Jamcon '84]]'' This contains the original Crosley Bendix Arts Review with an explanation of "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_jamming culture jamming]]", a term Joyce himself invented.
38	* 1985 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge_Vol._1%C2%BD:_The_Starting_Line_with_Dick_Goodbody The Starting Line]]''
39	* 1989 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge_Vol._2:_Pastor_Dick:_Muriel%27s_Purse_Fund Pastor Dick]]'' (somewhat expanded edition with material left out of the cassette version)
40	* 1990 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge_Vol._3:_The_Weatherman%27s_Dumb_Stupid_Come-Out_Line The Weatherman]]''
41	* 1990 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge_Vol._4:_Dick_Vaughn%27s_Moribund_Music_of_the_%2770s Dick Vaughn's Moribund Music of the 70s]]''
42	* 1993 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge_Vol._5:_Crosley_Bendix:_The_Radio_Reviews Crosley Bendix]]''
43	* 1993 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge,_Volume_6:_The_Willsaphone_Stupid_Show The Willsaphone Stupid Show]]''
44	* 1994 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge_Vol._7:_Time_Zones_Exchange_Project Time Zones Exchange Project]]''
45	* 1995 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge_Vol._8:_Sex_Dirt Sex Dirt]]''
46	* 2016 - ''The Chopping Channel'' (has some of Joyce's last work and included a small bag of his ashes)
47
48	!!Film:
49	* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zI1PtnNXOs Sonic Outlaws]]'' is a documentary of sampling artists in which Negativland members are prominently featured. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFWeclhFoig Don and Mark are interviewed here]], on the ''Circuit'' show, episode 7.
50	* Ryan Worsley has created several short films with Negativland-produced soundtracks, plus an affectionate documentary about Don Joyce's life and art, ''How Radio Isn't Done''. You can see all of these on Platform/{{Vimeo}}.
51	* Coming in November 2022 - ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM20UEek7IY Stand By For Failure]]''
52
53	* There is much more Negativland -- film, outtakes, ephemera, master tapes -- at [[https://archive.org/search.php?query=negativland Negativland on archive.org]].
54
55	!!Special designer tropes follow in 5 4 3 2 1:
56
57	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: This was Pepsi's reaction to ''Dispepsi'', the group's album-length TakeThat against celebrity endorsement in general and Pepsi in particular. It came as a relief to the group, who had thought Pepsi might try to sue them. See WritingAroundTrademarks for how it came to be.
58	* AIIsACrapshoot: Discussed (and mostly PlayedForHorror) throughout ''The World Will Decide''.
59	* AlphabetNewsNetwork: The Universal Media Netweb, often referred to as UMN. All of Joyce's creations including ''Over the Edge'' were presented under the aegis of UMN and its mind-breaking or mind-controlling (or mind-liberating) agenda.[[note]]Joyce said, "In 1981 [i.e., before the World Wide Web existed], I made up "Universal Media Netweb" as the name of the fictional, appropriating radio network that presents our ''Over the Edge'' program. Now I have an actual email address that ends with the made-up word, @webbnet.com, and sometimes I just have to smile at the way art and life play their echo game, imagination turning into reality in no time."[[/note]] UMN was founded by C. Elliot Friday, the wealthiest man in the solar sphere, who lives on [[UsefulNotes/AmeliaEarhart Howland Island]], runs Fridatronics Industries and still (despite Joyce's death) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-DGA7xBfSs runs for President of the United States]] every four years on the Universal Party ticket. Casual listeners are probably most familiar with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evrht0Q46lQ Crosley Bendix]], UMN's Director of Stylistic Premonitions and Cultural/Arts Reviewer.
60	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: ''U2'' infamously samples an outtake of Creator/CaseyKasem introducing a record by the Irish group U2 (in a longer version of the clip, he even mentions them being from Dublin) and exclaiming "These guys are from England, and who gives a shit?". Ireland is not even part of the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom, let alone part of England.
61	* AshesToCrashes: Don Joyce died in July 2015. After his cremation, the band packaged the first 1,000 copies of ''The Chopping Channel'' with two grams of his ashes per CD.
62	* BlackComedy: Practically their trademark once they brought Don Joyce on. Compare for example, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-VMcRh165g the studio cut of "Four Fingers"]] from ''A Big 10-8 Place'' to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAs96NzuSO0 live versions from the 1990s.]] Founding member Richard Lyons was no slouch in this department, either: he was the one responsible for the media hoax which alleged axe murderer David Brom had been listening to Negativland's "Christianity is Stupid" song.
63	* BrokenRecord: As expected from sound collagists. One particularly obvious example is "The Gun and the Bible" that repeats and echoes the word "wilderness" for a good minute - taken from the song's namesake:[[note]]The tape Joyce took this clip from was later used in 2017 by Jay Rosenblatt in his short film ''[[https://www.moderntimes.review/fear-as-entertainment/ Scared Very Scared]]''[[/note]]
64	--> The gun and the Bible carved this nation out of the wilderness.
65	--> America was built / built / built on a gun / gun / gun.
66	* BookEnds:
67	** ''Dispepsi'' starts with the sound of a Pepsi can being opened, and it ends with the sound of a Pepsi can being crushed and thrown on the ground.
68	** Its' companion EP, ''Happy Heroes'', begins and ends with commercial jingles for Mertz, (fictional) brain-stimulating pills from (also fictional) Fridol Labs.
69	** ''No Business'' '''almost''' ends on the "reversed" edit of its' title song, "New is Old", appropriately titled "Old is New" - but then its' followed by the real final track of the album, "No Business Again".
70	* BuccaneerBroadcaster: At least once, Lyons played "Jack Diekobisc" (pronounced Dick-o-bitch), in a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropower_radio micropower radio]] culture jam featuring [[http://www.dreamshore.net/bluejay/soundclips/2002-09-12-RichardLyonsDickingClearChannel.mp3 an extremely nasty takedown]] of Clear Channel, KJR-FM Seattle, and its program director Bob Case. KJR advertised itself as playing ''only'' music from the '60s and '70s, but even a casual listener could hear plenty of tunes from the '80s as well, in an attempt to [[http://diymedia.net/old/graphics/kjrcd.jpg attract a younger money demographic]]. [[https://www.diymedia.net/mosquito-fleet-stings-nab/2395/ Explanations about Richard and his 'Mosquito Fleet' microradio pals here]], and [[https://wrfu.net/ucimc-archive/dadaimc/feature/display/7653/index.html more here]]. KJR ''did'' get the message, and changed its playlist accordingly.
71	* CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDfrrgqy_Eo Christianity Is Stupid]]" takes the piss out of [[Film/IfFootmenTireYouWhatWillHorsesDo an excessively violent Christian propaganda film]] ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o_LwqX77I see it here]]) by {{Sampling}} a sermon by Rev. Estus Pirkle. The preacher describes what he thinks the U.S. would be like under totalitarian Communist rule, with loudspeakers constantly blaring "Christianity is stupid! Communism is good! Give up!". The track repeats these words obsessively and completely out of context over a musical backing of insistently pounding drum machines and ominous HeavyMetal guitars.
72	* CelebrityEndorsement: Among other quotes on its' cover, ''Our Favorite Things'' has:
73	--> "It's goofy."
74	--->-- ''Goofy, Cartoon Character''
75	* CensoredForComedy:
76	** "Happy Hero" censors the F-word for comedic effect - or, rather, splices a long beep into the middle of the word "fucking".
77	** ''These Guys Are From England And Who Gives A Shit'' ends with a painstaking re-edit of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" in which every swear word is replaced by a SoundEffectBleep.
78	* CloudCuckooLander: The many eccentricities David Wills attributes to his Weatherman persona are almost all ''completely'' genuine.
79	* ConceptAlbum: Pretty much all of their albums. Among them...
80	** ''A Big 10-8 Place'' is about their home county, Contra Costa County in California. (10-8 is CB radio slang for "en route" or "on my way").
81	** ''Escape From Noise'', their biggest hit on CollegeRadio stations, is about noise incursion and noise pollution of all kinds. "Christianity Is Stupid" is found on this album. (And yes, some campus & community stations got in trouble for playing it.)
82	** ''Helter Stupid'' is about the ineptitude of media reporters, citing as its case study a prank from Richard Lyons that local news affiliates took at face value.
83	** ''Guns'' is about the role of guns in the American culture - both past and (at the time) present.
84	** ''Free'' is about the United States of America and various concepts of freedom.
85	** ''Dispepsi'' is about Pepsi, corporate advertising, Pepsi, celebrity endorsement and Pepsi again.
86	** ''No Business'' is about copyright, sampling and stealing music - if not in the lyrics of the songs on that album, then in the way they're stitched up.
87	** ''Thigmotactic'' has a musical concept rather than a thematic one: unlike their other albums, it's just a collection of straightforward humorous songs.
88	** ''True False'' is about disinformation and personal echo chambers. This is one of their most successful live shows as well and has gone through many permutations and incarnations over the years.
89	** ''The World Will Decide'' is about humanity's relationship with technology, its' role in the themes explored by ''True False'', and the narrowing boundary between human and machine.
90	* ContinuityNod: ''Escape From Noise'' comes with a "Car Bomb" bumper sticker. The song "Car Bomb" ends with the only surviving car driving away - with a different sticker on its' bumper that reads "No Other Possibility". That sticker was real, and included with some copies of ''A 10-8 Place''.
91	* ContinuityPorn: Pretty much everything related to ''[=U2=]'' post-''[=U2=]'', namely the music video for "Special Edit Radio Mix" and the extended ''These Guys are From England and Who Gives a Shit'', have many things thrown into it regarding the [=U2=] plane incident, the single itself, lawsuits from both Island Records and [=SST Records=][[note]]as well as the "Kill Bono" T-shirt [=SST=] have sold shortly after ''Negativland'' parted way with them - without the latter's involvement[[/note]], Casey Kasem's radio outtakes and the dog named Snuggles[[note]]portrayed by a Basset Hound; what breed the actual Snuggles was remains unknown[[/note]]. Snuggles's death may have also been the inspiration for "Dead Dog Records", the album ''Negativland'' bundled with the newer edition of "The Story of The Letter U and The Numeral 2".
92	* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning:
93	** Track 10 on ''Negativland'' is essentially a cover of of the sentimental ballad "Cara Mia", but the eerie background noises and half-whispered delivery turn it into a rather creepy ObsessionSong.
94	** ''U2'' starts with The Weatherman dramatically and awkwardly reading the lyrics to "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for" giving the song a weird and funny vibe.
95	** "No Business" is basically a [[Main/YouTubePoop YTPMV]] that takes "There's No Business Like Show Business" from [[Theatre/AnnieGetYourGun Annie Get Your Gun]] - in two different flavours, in fact, - and reframes the song to be about how liberating it is to steal music.
96	* DerangedAnimation: When their music videos aren't clip shows or sped-up, they usually fall into these. Special mention goes to Tim Maloney's videos for "Gimme the Mermaid" and "Aluminum or Glass (The Memo)" which, much like Negativland's cut-and-paste music, use plastic-looking CGI models[[note]]that constantly bend and warp like they're in a [[VideoGame/GarrysMod Garry's Mod]] [[{{Machinima}} videos]], even though "Gimme The Mermaid" predates those by a decade[[/note]], cutouts of The Weatherman and scenes from Indian mythology, badly-drawn cartoons and [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ariel]], all in one video. That last one's not surprising, as the man '''used''' to work for Disney.
97	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:The bunny]] in the music video for "Over the Hiccups". Also lowkey qualifies as TheCoverChangesTheMeaning.
98	* {{Eagleland}}: ''Guns'' and ''Free'' are '''very''' extensively themed around the United States - both the glorious and the noticeably less glorious elements of its' culture.
99	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Their first three albums are mostly just minimal ''musique concrete'' without the social commentary and dense montage of their later work.
100	* EnhancedOnDVD: ''Our Favorite Things'', despite being named after a song featured in ''No Business'', is made up of ''Dispepsi'' material for at least a third of it. Aside from several back-to-back music videos, the ''Dispepsi'' block also features a lot of things not featured on the album proper, including The Weatherman narrating One World Advertising's proposal to Coca-Cola and Pepsico to pace out their ad campaigns[[note]]already featured in full, in text form, in the album's liner notes[[/note]], interludes taken from Coca-Cola's promotional movie filmed in the TheFifties, the "Try It, Buy It" prelude to "Why is This Commercial?" and a remix of "Humanitarian Effort".
101	* EpicRocking:
102	** ''Helter Stupid'' has an 18 minute title song that focuses on the media and their obsession with sensationalistic stories -- in this case, about the supposed connection between rock and roll and murder (see GoneHorriblyWrong for details, below). This is the longest song they've got to date.
103	** ''The ABC's of Anarchism'' is a collab with Music/{{Chumbawamba}}. The title track on this EP is 13 minutes long.
104	** The title track of ''True False'' is 10 minutes long. Conversely, the title track of its' companion album, ''The World Will Decide'' is only 7:30.
105	* GunPorn: The entirety of ''Guns''. May contain [[{{Squick}} traces of people getting shot.]]
106	* FakeRadioShowAlbum: While the ''Over the Edge'' albums were all culled from actual broadcasts, they still had a few works along these lines. ''Helter Stupid'''s b-side "The Perfect Cut" was treated as a broadcast, whereas ''It's All In Your Head'' recorded the band acting out a phony radio broadcast on stage.
107	* FictionalColour: Cultural reviewer Crosley Bendix (one of Joyce's many characters) once reported the discovery of a "fourth primary color" called ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt8biSTQ7wk Squant]]''. It is one of his best known monologues.[[note]]It's also one of his most convincing, with people occasionally still apparently believing it's a real thing due to Bendix's straight-ahead explanation of color and hue. Don Joyce started out as a visual artist and had a master's degree in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design.[[/note]]
108	* GenreRoulette: Negativland has done many different genres including Pop, Country, Metal, Disco, and even just straight up noise.
109	* GoneHorriblyWrong: Richard Lyons' "axe murderer" prank. Lyons, with typical macabre humor, had created a fake press release saying that the band could not go on a planned tour because they'd been warned by the FBI not to leave the state while the investigation of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brom David Brom]] axe murders in Rochester, Minnesota was going on, as their music might have inspired his sickening deed. Brom really had argued with his family about religion and music; Lyons claimed that the song they'd argued about was "Christianity Is Stupid". The real reason the band couldn't tour is they couldn't afford it, but local Bay Area news outlets picked up on the story and ran it, as Lyons knew they would, [[https://magazine.plazm.com/art-and-commodity-capitalism-8a37be64e9d8 without fact-checking or verifying the sources]]. It got as far as the San Francisco ''Chronicle'' and Creator/{{NPR}} before Lyons revealed the prank. To this day, there are people who believe "Christianity is Stupid" really was the song. Mark Hosler, who had not wanted to do it and felt it was exploitation of a human tragedy, later wrote that a classmate of Brom's had confronted him at a party talking about the fallout from the prank. "Our prank fueled the town and the parents' fears that [[TheNewRockAndRoll MUSIC was making their kids crazy and violent]]. This led to weird kids being kicked out of school (including the guy who was confronting me), being persecuted, beat up, etc."
110	* GratuitousPanning: Tons.
111	* HarshNoise: ''Negativland'' is about making weird noises and collaging it all together.
112	* HiddenTrack:
113	** Some editions of ''Escape From Noise'' (mostly the vinyl ones) have one, a minute after "Endscape". Negativland themselves, whenever they perform it live, call it "Fire Song".
114	** ''Our Favorite Things'' features a post-credit sequence with a beat and numerous news anchors spliced in, all of them hard-panned.
115	* HurricaneOfPuns: The verses of "Drink It Up" are mostly puns on the names of commercial soft drinks.
116	* LastNoteNightmare: ''Speech Free'' ends with a track present neither on ''True False'' nor on ''The World Will Decide'': as radio noise slowly clears up to reveal birds chirping, both get rudely interrupted by aggressive (and loud) dog barks.
117	* {{Instrumentals}}:
118	** After Casey Kasem's death, Negativland made the stems from both ''[=U2=]'' songs available on their website, for free. They've since pulled them off, but naturally, [[https://archive.org/details/NegativlandU2MultitrackMaster someone'd make a copy sooner or later]].
119	** ''Speech Free'' is unique in Negativland's discography in that it consists mostly of instrumentals (some of them edited) of their previous songs - all of them from their early 2020s lineup: ''True False'', ''The World Will Decide'' and ''No Brain''.
120	* MinisculeRocking: Negativland has made a handful of short songs.
121	** "Hyper Real" is barely under a minute.
122	** "Humanitarian Effort", being a clean interview segment, clocks in at 32 seconds. The remix featured on ''Our Favorite Things'' is only slightly longer, at 36 seconds.
123	** "No Business Again", being a blooper reel of ''[[Theatre/AnnieGetYourGun Annie Get Your Gun]]'', is 36 seconds long up until it fades out.
124	** "Either Or" and "Secret Win" on ''True False'' are both under a minute.
125	** "Unlawful Assembly", "Why Are We Waiting" and "I Didn't Know I Was Dead" all clock under a minute and a half.
126	* MundaneMadeAwesome: Lyons' "Nesbitt's Lime Soda Song" is an overwrought mournful ballad about having to throw a drink away because a bee landed in it. On the day of Lyons' death, one of the hospice workers brought a guitar and gently sang the song with him. (They also sang "[[https://soundcloud.com/bart-conway/negativland-friends-happy-birthday-to-richard Happy Birthday]]", not only because it really was Richard's birthday but because the song had recently been freed of copyright restrictions.)
127	* NeatFreak: The Weatherman is, in real life as in his media persona, very concerned with cleanliness. He's a big fan of Formula 409 and other cleaning products. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3em56fLKIg4 Here he is showing you how to get gunk off your shoes]] before you come inside.
128	* {{Retraux}}: "Visit Howland Island", featured as an extra on ''Our Favorite Things'', despite being obviously sentence mixed, with stock footage that '''very''' vaguely relates to what the narrator is saying, looks convincingly like it came from the sixties - even the title cards look like they're from that specific era. Granted, the overlay of the Howland Island map, in the first scene, doesn't, but that's probably on [[{{Kayfabe}} the people who re-edited it]].
129	* TheNewRockAndRoll:
130	** "Michael Jackson" features a snippet from the "Invocation for Judgement Against and Destruction of Rock Music" sermon hosted by Church Universal and Thriumphant. It's worth mentioning that most artists listed by the priest are '''not''', in fact, rock musicians.
131	** Mocked even more deliberately in "Christianity is Stupid", which samples Estus Pirkle yelling "Christianity is stupid! Communism is good! Give up!" over a piece of straightforward IndustrialMetal. Naturally, that was carried over into "Helter Stupid".
132	* TitleDrop: "Hyper Real" briefly mentions a "Dispepsi marketing ploy by Coke" - pretty much the only time ''Dispepsi'' does a direct title drop.
133	* TradeSnark: Part of Negativland's branding circa early nineties[[note]]after they parted ways with Greg Ginn and [=SST=] records, fittingly enough[[/note]], particularly the "N©!" design.
134	* NoTitle: None of the tracks on their self-titled debut have titles. The 180 Gs tribute album to Negativland does title a couple of them, however.
135	* ParodyProductPlacement: ''Dispepsi'' constantly repeats the brand name Pepsi as a way to satirize product placement in media; Coke is also featured, but not as extensively. Mark Hosler said he wanted people to be sick of hearing the word "Pepsi" by the time the album is over.
136	* PackagedAsOtherMedium:
137	** Both the front and the back covers of ''Escape From Noise'' are sandwiched between columns of black text on white background - not unlike musical publications of its' time. In fact, it has several paragraphs' worth of an elaborately-worded "review" right in front. The rereleased CD version un-boxes those, bringing you the full artwork in its' full glory.
138	** ''Dispepsi'' has its' boxart fashioned like a genuine Pepsi product, complete with the nutritional facts table for its' track listing and the CD label resembling the top of an aluminium can, revealing a pool of cola underneath. ''Happy Heroes'' does something similar, but uses a tin of brain-stimulating pills instead - this time not based on any real branding.
139	** Both discs of ''It's All in Your Head'' are packaged into paper envelopes, themselves packaged into real copies of [[Literature/TheBible ''King James's Bible'']] or, in rarer cases, [[Literature/TheQuran The Qur'an]] - plastered with Negativland stickers. That album was released in very limited quantities - and it wasn't until 2023(-ish) when Negativland decided to reissue it in the '''exact''' same packaging.
140	* PublicityStunt: The hoax behind ''Helter Stupid'' could arguably be seen as a publicity stunt.
141	* RecurringRiff:
142	** The title track of ''Escape From Noise'' bleeds into other songs on the album a few times: once as an intro for "Michael Jackson" and then twice as... basically the same song with a different arrangement on "Stress in Marriage" and "The Way of It".
143	** The words "guns" and "wilderness", sparsely used in at least a few of their America-themed collages.
144	** ''Dead Dog Records'' has a guitar hit spliced throughout the whole album for at least several dozen times. "Gimme the Mermaid" starts off with eight of those.
145	** "Hello, this is Ricardo Montalbán" is present on "A Most Successful Formula" about 27 times. The man really wants you to know who he is.
146	** "Don't fuck with me, fellas!", taken from the movie adaptation of [[Literature/MommieDearest Mommie Dearest]][[note]]which has Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford being on Pepsi's board of directors - the song is from a Pepsi-themed album, after all[[/note]] and spliced into "Bite Back" either as the whole thing or just as "don't".
147	* RedHerring: Mark Hosler himself said that Negativland loves to put irrelevant lines into a song so that things don't make too much sense. This is done to make the listener think about the music to know what it's really about.
148	* RedScare: Three examples, all courtesy of ''Escape from Noise'':
149	** "Christianity is Stupid" turns the reverend Estus Pirkle's description of an imagined Communist invasion of the US into a VoiceClipSong.
150	** The song that follows, "Time Zones", takes a [=KABC=] radio broadcast hosted by Ray Breim - specifically a segment in which he was assuring the caller that the United States is nowhere near as powerful as the Soviet Union.
151	** "Yellow, Black and Rectangular" samples a badly-acted therapy session with a psychiatrist and a woman who keeps seeing fallout shelter symbols everywhere and [[AbsurdPhobia feels very uneasy about it]]. Naturally, those were introduced in the wake of Cold War, which is when this [=PSA=] came out.
152	* {{Sampling}}: It's not ''all'' they do, but they're particularly known for producing sample montages often with a satirical intent.
153	* ScrewTheRulesImFamous: "Happy Hero" is a song about celebrities and how they get away with doing terrible things because of their status.
154	* SensoryAbuse: Negativland are arguably the first people to ever do ear-rape. ''A Big 10-8 Place'' and 'The ABC's of Anarchism'' both have loud distorted ear-rape-esque effects.
155	* SoundEffectBleep: ''These Guys are From England and Who Gives a Shit,'' a retrospective based on the ''U2'' EP, ended with a painstaking edit of the notorious "Special Edit Radio Mix" in which every single obscenity (and there were a lot of them) was replaced by the sounds of, among other things, breaking glass, dogs barking, and horns.
156	* StuffBlowingUp: The premise of "Car Bomb", which replicates this trope in glorious detail.
157	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: ''Guns'' took the place of ''U2'' after the latter was pulled off the shelves - while both [=EPs=] don't have much in common, they both have similar cover art. Funnily enough, [=Negativland=] music video DVD, ''Our Favorite Things'', features music videos for tracks off of '''both''' records.
158	* TakeThat:
159	** ''Dead Dog Records'' is a big one to the corporate music industry - and specifically to [=SST Records=] that published Negativland's albums up until ''U2'' and ''Guns''. Negativland had since fallen out with the record's owner, Greg Ginn, since he knowingly published lawsuit bait (even though his lawyer apparently advised him not to) and used that to attempt to drive the band into paying him up. Made even more obvious with "Gimme the Mermaid" and The Weatherman singing the chorus to [[Music/BlackFlag Black Flag's]] "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie" for a good minute - no prizes for guessing who sung that originally.
160	** "Happy Hero" on ''Dispepsi'' may or may not feature one specifically towards [[Music/MichaelJackson Michael Jackson]], who was accused of child molestation for a long while - that's the one bit Negativland "bleeped out" on that song.
161	* TitledAfterTheSong: They took the name Negativland, and that of their record label Seeland, from songs by the {{Krautrock}} group Music/{{Neu}}.
162	* VoiceClipSong: Another of their specialisms. Most of their albums from ''A Big 10-8 Place'' onward are packed with them.
163	* WordSaladLyrics: ''Thigmotactic'' is a good example of this trope sometimes. "Lying on the Grass" uses this trope the most.
164	* WritingAroundTrademarks: Not risking to have another lawsuit bomb on the scale of ''[=U2=]'', Negativland decided to not explicitly feature Pepsi's name anywhere on ''Dispepsi''[='s=] packaging - it's only there in anagrams. The album's actual title could either be unscrambled by reading the front cover letter-by-letter, from biggest to smallest, or by calling Word-of-the-Mouth hotline set up specifically to give you the name outright. It's worth mentioning that Pepsico did previously sue Tad Doyle for his song "Jack Pepsi" for allegedly denigrating the brand - which is kind of what Negativland were doing with their album, and why they resorted to anagrams in the first place. Even after Pepsico appreciated the parody and allowed the band to call the album what it was called, the ''Dispepsi'' block on ''Our Favorite Things'' flip-flops between this for the genuine Pepsi branding, and outright showing the word "[=DisPepsi=]" on the bum [=CEO=]'s T-shirt.
165
166	----
167	[-''To create is divine. To reproduce is human. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Ray Man Ray]].''-]

Context Music / Negativland