Chart Mythos: The JAMs' and The KLF's Invocation of Mu

Fitzgerald, J; Hayward, P

Chart Mythos: The JAMs' and The KLF's Invocation of Mu

Fitzgerald, J Hayward, P

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Publisher:: Macquarie University
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Shima: the international journal of research into island cultures, 2016, 10 (2), pp. 50 - 67 (18)
Issue Date:: 2016-10

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Fitzgerald, J	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Hayward, P https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0018-0174	en_US
dc.date.available	2016-09-22	en_US
dc.date.issued	2016-10	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Shima: the international journal of research into island cultures, 2016, 10 (2), pp. 50 - 67 (18)	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1834-6057	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/118514
dc.description.abstract	The JAMs and The KLF, two overlapping popular music ensembles led by British multi-media performers Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, were notable for both the success they had with a batch of singles in the late 1980s and early 1990s and the complex mythology they constructed and celebrated in song lyrics, music videos, press releases and short films. Key to their mythological project was their association with the fictional lost island-continent of Mu (with the band name JAMs being an abbreviation for ‘Justified Ancients of Mu Mu’). The latter identity was derived from Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus trilogy of novels in which the aforementioned “ancients” were a secret brotherhood involved in combatting the rival Illuminati, who originated in Atlantis. As the JAMS’ and KLF’s oeuvres progressed, aspects of Mu and Atlantis were synthesised by Cauty and Drummond with elements of other actual and fictional islands. The article traces the initial imagination and representation of Mu in esoteric crypto-historical literature, its rearticulation in Shea and Wilson’s counter-cultural novels and its invocation and function in Cauty and Drummond’s work with The JAMs and The KLF.	en_US
dc.publisher	Macquarie University	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Shima: the international journal of research into island cultures	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.21463/shima.10.2.07	en_US
dc.title	Chart Mythos: The JAMs' and The KLF's Invocation of Mu	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	2	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	10	en_US
utslib.for	190406 Music Composition	en_US
utslib.for	2002 Cultural Studies	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/School of Communication
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.issue	2	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	10	en_US

Abstract:

The JAMs and The KLF, two overlapping popular music ensembles led by British multi-media performers Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, were notable for both the success they had with a batch of singles in the late 1980s and early 1990s and the complex mythology they constructed and celebrated in song lyrics, music videos, press releases and short films. Key to their mythological project was their association with the fictional lost island-continent of Mu (with the band name JAMs being an abbreviation for ‘Justified Ancients of Mu Mu’). The latter identity was derived from Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus trilogy of novels in which the aforementioned “ancients” were a secret brotherhood involved in combatting the rival Illuminati, who originated in Atlantis. As the JAMS’ and KLF’s oeuvres progressed, aspects of Mu and Atlantis were synthesised by Cauty and Drummond with elements of other actual and fictional islands. The article traces the initial imagination and representation of Mu in esoteric crypto-historical literature, its rearticulation in Shea and Wilson’s counter-cultural novels and its invocation and function in Cauty and Drummond’s work with The JAMs and The KLF.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/118514