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Visual Culture part XIV: 1981

Just stick a Porsche next to pretty much anything

In Hartley Peavey’s imaginarium, everything is made of Peaveys.  Kinda like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, but with amps.

‘Hey Jim, how about Denim for the background?’  ‘Sounds good Mike.’

Is she intended as *a simile for the speakers?  *a metaphor for the musical signal that will ‘exite’ these speakers?  *a metonym for the community of all nightclub-speaker users?  *a form of ‘impossible representation’ given that she seems quite unlikely to be a purchaser of this product, and the speakers are equally unlikely to be a ‘client’ of hers?   Please use the COMMENTS section to offer your own analysis of the precise ‘non-literal meaning’ being used here. 

Top to bottom: Toa, Peavey, Mesa-Boogie, Cerwin Vega, all circa 1981. 

chris

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  • Is she intended as *a simile for the speakers? *a metaphor for the musical signal that will ‘exite’ these speakers? *a metonym for the community of all nightclub-speaker users? *a form of ‘impossible representation’ given that she seems quite unlikely to be a purchaser of this product, and the speakers are equally unlikely to be a ‘client’ of hers?

    Probably none of the above. In the guitar mags of the 80s, the idea was to get as close to porn as possible without actually showing possible. It was just a convenient thing to shoot and would "epater les bourgeois" without actual obscenity, and under budget. No one read more into it than there was, which was not much.

    The exception was Mike Matthews of Electro-Harmonix. The other ads were just bored midline ad people trying to be edgy on a low budget. Mike was authentic, a real first class lecher of Al Goldstein proportions whose raunchy shoots were a chance for him to really lech out.

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