ABSTRACT
Frank Zappa's music and lyrics, far from committing themselves to simple notions of unmediated self-expression, rely on complex strategies of manipulation and disfigurement which include use of various forms of collage, close-miking, bruitism, sped-up cartoon-like voices, found spoken material, rehearsal and backstage conversations. Such techniques of disfigurement are bound to make Zappa's songs sound foreign and, to extend Bernstein's metaphor, 'impermeable' not only to mainstream audiences but also to his most devoted fans. The latter's eagerness to follow the meanders of Zappa's cultural and intertextual labyrinths are often defeated by the sheer complexity and elusiveness of the composer's dense allusiveness and his private system of references. Zappa's post-Mothers of Invention career could accused of departing from the radical aesthetics of the radical avant-garde and of veering away towards anti-modernist tonality and postmodern eclecticism while remaining ferociously rebellious and oppositional in his social commentary on variety of issues, ranging from conservative politics, censorship and feminism to drug abuse, fashion and political correctness.
