Tuesday, August 05, 2003
He's a fat man...
I feel so much better...
Enjoy Bowling For Columbine.
So Carly Simon is auctioning off the right to know who "You're So Vain" is about, but if you buy the right to know you don't get the right to tell anybody else, so you must carry the secret with you to the grave. I'd like to raise two points about this;
1; I thought everybody knew it was about Warren Beatty anyway?
and
2; Who gives one? I mean, really?
Drive that taxi. Drive that taxi to your daughter's wedding. I bet you think this post is about you, don't you, don't you, don't you?
I reviewed the !!! album last night for Stylus (the eponymous one, not the new one) because it's only been out on this side of the pond for a few months. It didn't take long; an opening of the valve and a swift outpouring of tangential consciousness which lasted probably only half an hour and resulted in 600-odd words which I was very pleased with. Said review is now posted here, up above this. I always get my shit backwards. Oh well.
Anyway... It just struck me this morning on the train that in the !!! review I mention each of the "eleven-year cycle" revolutions, the musical/cultural fulcrum's which are popularly accepted (in some circles) as being massively important moments of zeitgesit serendipity which irrevocably alter the playing field from then on in. Roughly speaking these are;
1955: Rock n Roll
1966: Psychedelia
1977: Punk
1988: Acid House
Nothing unusual about that. It's common music-journalist practice to bring up these 'events'/'fulcrums'/'movements' every so often and bemoan the fact that we haven't had one for ages, that we were due one in 1999, man, and it didn't happen, it's all over, we're fucked, we've stalled, everything's been done already... Which is bullshit, first and foremost because it's not over yet and if you think it is you can fuck off and die. But mainly because those four movements and their associated years of impact and the whole meme of the "eleven-year cycle" are all completely arbitrary, just as all history is arbitrary (history existing only as recollection, collective OR individual, and never as actual past events because past events are past therefore how can they exist?- they cannot). But that's not the concerning thing, that I should fall prey to perpetuating a meme about moments of historical significance; we all do it. The thing that concerns me is the fact that these movements seem to bear some claim towards being all-encompassing, that these four movements are the only ones of true significance and development, that all other movements/genres/moments/events in popular musical history are merely incidental at best. And what really concerns me about this (clearly false) meme is that these four moments of significance are all white, with the possible exception of Rock n Roll (if only we [and by 'we' I don't actually mean we as in us; I mean them as in everybody else of course] were to fully accept the influence of Chuck Berry as being greater than Elvis Presley then we'd be getting somewhere with understanding it). I make the briefest mention of funk in the penultimate paragraph, but nowhere do I mention hiphop or soul or reggae or gospel or or or or all of which are probably as important to the development of !!!'s sound as psychedelia or acid house (what's with the capitalisation of genre names?- I shall remain inconsistent) if not more so.
I've recognised this insidious little twist within the meme, and probably lots of other people have as well. Which is good. But it's still unsettling how it can slip into a review or article that isn't specifcally anything to do with it otherwise. The casual and unnoticed dismissal of whole tracts of popular culture, not because they're worthless or irrelevent, but because... well, why?
In related news, Pitchfork have resurrected their We Are The World column, with devastatingly nobular (or even crapulent) results. "Pop, r'n'b, hiphop..." blah blahblah blahblah... Scott Plagenhoef started writing for them for this? In which Ryan says "this hiphop/pop/dancehall/garage tune is good! it's good because it's like indie music! hooray me!" Scott wants to try and fix what he perceives as being wrong with the site? You'd have to destroy it and start again from scratch, I'm afraid, Scott. I don't really hate gays/blacks/jews/opticians/traffic wardens anymore; in fact they're alright, some of them. the ones that are like me, anyway... It's the same thing, kids. And what's more the readers fucking hate it. You think I'd want anything to do with such nasty, small-minded little culture-fascists? Not a chance.
Just heard "Love Shack" by The B-52s playing in the campus shop. Already the day is bright and clear and hot as you can imagine (tarmac melts, office workers loosen ties, Nick wears shorts in the library), but it has been intensified by that song. Forza.
8/05/2003 09:53:00 am
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