mnml ssgs
typically unbearable RA thread
NYT follows tha ca$h
Which do you prefer? Mindless hedonism or the tedious connoisseurship of a rapidly-ossifying "underground"? I don't think there is an ethical answer to this question, just a preference for a certain self-image. I'm starting to think the former, if only because the girls are cuter, though, really, I guess I can't be a mindless hedonist if I continue to think "they look a bit young, don't they?". You think Guetta cares? Ugh. Let me hop back on Discogs and see if the new Convextion remix has shipped from the Netherlands yet. Only three hundred copies pressed. Grey marbled vinyl. I know one percent of the people worldwide who own it. Sadness, again.
Seriously though, I think the "underground" has always had two relationships with the "mainstream". At best, the underground is way ahead, at worst, though, in many cases, necessarily, the underground is purely reactive, defining itself negatively, by what it doesn't do in comparison. The most pernicious effect of the popularity of Guetta, et al, may be, as mnml writes, the de-legitimizing of the more underground strains of the music in the eyes of those disinterested folks on whom the scene's continued existence depends, but my greatest concern is that, in reacting to the overground success of certain artists, will retreat further into the polite, non-transcendent and non-transgressive, but still anti-intellectual, well-behaved hedonism that was the hallmark of virtually every event I went to in New York, a retreat now seemingly justified not only by "taste" but also by the negation of "newer" popular forms.
(also funny that one of the promoters interviewed in the Times article is worried about co-option by corporate money - as if he hadn't already done that himself - underground is really a nice mantle to claim for oneself - now that it doesn't stand for something oppositional, or anything at all really, anyone can claim themselves as being part of it - after all, there is always someone with more money! which brings me to "we are the 99%" - very nice of the middle class to express solidarity with the working class only when all of the strenuous and sycophantic effort they have expended to ensure they are never mistaken for anything else isn't paying off...)
typically unbearable RA thread
NYT follows tha ca$h
Which do you prefer? Mindless hedonism or the tedious connoisseurship of a rapidly-ossifying "underground"? I don't think there is an ethical answer to this question, just a preference for a certain self-image. I'm starting to think the former, if only because the girls are cuter, though, really, I guess I can't be a mindless hedonist if I continue to think "they look a bit young, don't they?". You think Guetta cares? Ugh. Let me hop back on Discogs and see if the new Convextion remix has shipped from the Netherlands yet. Only three hundred copies pressed. Grey marbled vinyl. I know one percent of the people worldwide who own it. Sadness, again.
Seriously though, I think the "underground" has always had two relationships with the "mainstream". At best, the underground is way ahead, at worst, though, in many cases, necessarily, the underground is purely reactive, defining itself negatively, by what it doesn't do in comparison. The most pernicious effect of the popularity of Guetta, et al, may be, as mnml writes, the de-legitimizing of the more underground strains of the music in the eyes of those disinterested folks on whom the scene's continued existence depends, but my greatest concern is that, in reacting to the overground success of certain artists, will retreat further into the polite, non-transcendent and non-transgressive, but still anti-intellectual, well-behaved hedonism that was the hallmark of virtually every event I went to in New York, a retreat now seemingly justified not only by "taste" but also by the negation of "newer" popular forms.
(also funny that one of the promoters interviewed in the Times article is worried about co-option by corporate money - as if he hadn't already done that himself - underground is really a nice mantle to claim for oneself - now that it doesn't stand for something oppositional, or anything at all really, anyone can claim themselves as being part of it - after all, there is always someone with more money! which brings me to "we are the 99%" - very nice of the middle class to express solidarity with the working class only when all of the strenuous and sycophantic effort they have expended to ensure they are never mistaken for anything else isn't paying off...)
3 comments:
Hard to argue with that final paragraph!
Hope the move went well.
Thanks. The move has gone well so far... I had to do nothing for a while and now I am trying to transition back to action... we'll see how that goes... it's just so pleasant to spend all day in bed reading!
Take it from me - it gets depressing after a whole year!
Post a Comment