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Murder Ballads: Nick Cave in Song, Soundscape, and Image

With a career stretching back to the late 70s, Nick Cave stands as one of the most enduring - and perhaps unlikely - figures in the landscape of popular culture, with a continuously evolving profile as a songwriter and bandleader, poet and novelist, screenwriter, composer, and actor. At the heart of Cave’s artistic persona lies the drama of religious belief: the interplay between conviction and doubt, sin, retribution, and forgiveness, vividly staged in the struggles of the characters populating his ‘Gothic Blues.’ But how are we to understand the image of fraught devotion presented in Cave’s work: as a straightforward expression of religious commitment, or as something more indirect and complex - a kind of make-belief rather than belief? In tackling this question, I’ll also consider some more general theoretical issues prompted by Cave’s career and oeuvre, including the collaborative nature of songwriting and filmmaking, and the intrinsically social character of the appreciation of music, film, and art.

Murray Smith is Professor of Philosophy, Art, and Film and Director of the at the University of Kent. He was President of the from 2014–17, and a Laurance S. Rockefeller Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Human Values for 2017–18. He has published widely on film, art, and aesthetics. His publications include (Oxford University Press, 2017; revised paperback 2020), (BFI, revised edition 2021), and (Oxford University Press, revised edition 2022). Currently he is working on two Templeton-funded projects – ‘Art Opening Minds’ (2022-3) and ‘Character Engagement and Moral Understanding’ (2022-5) – as well as a new collection, Observing Film Art, devoted to the work of David Bordwell.

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