Don Joyce (musician)

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. 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]

Death: Joyce died of heart failure in Oakland, California on July 22, 2015 at the age of 71.[7][2] He was cremated, and the band packaged two grams of his remains with the first 1000 CD copies of Negativland's 2016 album Over the Edge Vol. 9: The Chopping Channel.[8] 750 of his O.T.E. and live show Fidelipac audio carts were also sent along with those ashes. Don's remains became a viral story on the internet.