Pulp, pornography and spectatorship: Subject matter and subject position in Pulp's album 'This is hardcore'

Sheffield pop band Pulp's album 'This is hardcore' (1998) problematizes med ia constructions of fame, masculinity, youth and sexuality as self-aggrandi zing fantasies. Pornography and glamour function in the album as cyphers fo r the disparity between fantasy and reality - a disparity fuelled by the me dia and their highly alienated cultural forms. The album's critique of thes e fantasies is made both in its subject position and through the alienated subject position it solicits - a subject position at odds with construction s of macho masculinity as the protagonist in sexual encounters, and with co nstructions of fame and stardom. Drawing on media theory, I situate the alb um as part of a more general critique of spectatorship and voyeurism, and o f the forms of cultural consumption (including music) which encourage passi vity and disengagement.