Don Joyce | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Donald S. Joyce |
| Born | February 9, 1944 Keene, New Hampshire, United States |
| Died | July 22, 2015 (aged 71) Oakland, California |
| Genres | Experimental Sound collage Plunderphonics |
| Occupation | Culture jamming |
| Instrument(s) | Fidelipac Turntable Tape recorder Booper |
| Website | https://archive.org/details/ote |
Donald S. Joyce (February 9, 1944 – July 22, 2015) was an American musician who was a member of the experimental music group Negativland. He also hosted a weekly radio program called Over the Edge on the Berkeley, California, radio station KPFA, for more than 30 years.[1]
Joyce was born in Keene, New Hampshire. Originally a visual artist, he earned a master's degree in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design before moving to the Bay Area, where he lived most of his life. Joyce began his Bay Area radio career in the 1970s at KALX, where he worked as an on-air programmer, and produced station IDs, promotional spots and other continuity. At KALX, he produced a weekly summer replacement program for the news called The Alternative News, featuring fictional news stories. The last episode of The Alternative News included the eco-revolutionary character Thunderman, which led to his producing a multipart serial called Thunderteam for KPFA.[citation needed]
While working at KPFA hosting a more mainstream type music show, he encountered Ian Allen and other members of Negativland. Don was a master at tape editing and he began developing his sound collage techniques using radio and television broadcasts captured on tape and blending them into layered mixes, each with a unique theme.[2][3] Heavily influenced by Bob and Ray and the Firesign Theater, Joyce developed a number of continuing characters whom he would portray in the more theatrical episodes of Over The Edge.[3][4]
In 1984, he coined the phrase culture jamming.[2] Using his alter ego, cultural reviewer Crosley Bendix, he presented an explanation of culture jamming and its importance on the 1984 album Over the Edge Vol. 1: JAMCON'84:
As awareness of how the media environment we occupy affects and directs our inner life grows, some resist. The skillfully reworked billboard . . . directs the public viewer to a consideration of the original corporate strategy. The studio for the cultural jammer is the world at large.[5][6]