Metamodernity in Music and Beyond

What comes after irony? Music has known the answer for a long time.

A melody moves us, even though it consists entirely of familiar phrases. A meme takes what it mocks seriously. An endless musical repetition makes us feel both melancholic and euphoric at the same time. Nastasia Khrushcheva recognizes in this a new cultural sensibility: metamodernism. In it, the longing for sincerity, beauty, and a shared sense of meaning returns—along with an awareness of irony that can no longer be shaken off.

In *Metamodernism in Music and Beyond*, Khrushcheva brings the concert hall into dialogue with everyday digital culture. Erik Satie’s peculiar simplicity, Arvo Pärt’s sacred intensity, internet memes, and the intimate whispers of ASMR share surprising commonalities. How does our experience of art change when melancholy and euphoria merge? What happens to authorship when anyone can produce and share images, texts, and music at any time? And why do seemingly banal forms of expression gain a new emotional power?

Khrushchev’s central thesis: Music anticipated this transformation long before “metamodernism” was even named. As early as the “New Simplicity” of the 1970s, tonality, melody, and direct expression returned in a transformed form. The experiences of the avant-garde remained just as present in this movement as the doubts of postmodernism.

Through Valentin Silvestrov’s *Quiet Songs*, Leonid Desyatnikov’s score for the film *Moscow*, and Simeon ten Holt’s *Canto Ostinato*, Khrushcheva demonstrates how entire emotional worlds can emerge from seemingly unremarkable material. Repetition alters our perception of time, familiar melodies evoke memories without a clear origin, and musical simplicity proves to be surprisingly multifaceted.

The book combines precise musical observation with philosophy, media criticism, and essayistic wit. It offers a unique Russian and post-Soviet perspective on an international debate—and invites readers to listen to music and contemporary culture with fresh ears.

English-language edition. The book will be released on October 16 and is available for pre-order now!