mark s: rockwrite conference to be broadcast on resonance FM

has anyone banging on about the good old days actually READ pre-digital age rock criticism in the harsh light of today, because i have read a lot of it for school purposes and there is a lot of awfulness. not like there isn't crap now but good lord, the clueless dude hegemony all over the place is a sight to behold.

quality of writing generally much higher now imo but the internet echo chamber results in long and very good pieces who publication could not have been conceived by the old guard, careful and very good pieces, which repeat and cosign one another infinitely and interest mainly the people to whom they are responding. which may have been the case anyway idk

Just now started listening: Jefferson Airplane suggested as punk spirits, Grace Slick in particular. Female commentator says Slick is now fat and grey-haired and makes bad art and no bones about it, so still punk. Male says he interviewed Abbie Hoffman, also punk in spirit, and "punk was the revenge of the hippies."

Presentations from Underground/Overground: The Changing Politics of UK Music-Writing 1968 - 85, programmed by Mark Sinker at Birkbeck, University of London, 15 and 16 May 2015. The first panel dicussion in entitled The trades meet the underground and features Charles Shaar Murray, Richard Willams and Mark Williams. It is followed by How well did the mainstream press deal with rock music in the 60s? What alternatives did the undergrounds offer? with Tony Palmer, Jonathon Green, and Mark Pringle, chaired by Esther Leslie. Then bringing us up to lunchtime is Handling rhetorics of outsider style in a commercial context — the implicit politics of critical stance with Barney Hoskyns and Jonh Ingham, chaired by Toby Litt. More follows throughout Bank Holiday Monday till 8pm. [Does not repeat.] BST 7 hrs ahead of EST

Paul Gilroy talking about early influence of Leroi Jones, Ralph Ellison ("People are still plagiarizing him"), hard to get into "tired of same old arguments about what you can say or not say about black culture in this country," mentions MC5 and Funkadelic on same bill, racial complexity of rock etc history and its relation to rock writing not sufficiently addressed often enough, difficulties he encountered in finding UK music editors interested (I gotta read his Black Atlantic).

Several writers from different backgrounds talking about influence of Charlie Gillet, DJ, TV presenter, reviewer, editor, author of the illuminating Sound of the City

"hard to get into" misplaced and meant to be deleted, initial attempt at what became "difficulties encountered"

Simon Frith dance music central to history of popular music in Britain, but often under-represented in histories, he and other panelists mention Davit Sigerson as rock writer with unusual emphasis on dance music, before Simon Reynolds (Vince Aletti was another, in the early 70s)

Frith: UK editors didn't care, just published what he sent 'em, unless an extra ad, they'd cut last graf, so had to make sure it was always inessential. Then started writing for the Voice, would get "these terrfying Transatlanctic calls from Robert Christgau for 21/2 hours, asking 'What does this part mean, why do you say it like that?' " Various writers on learning to be aware of "the conventions you had in your head."

Frith says a lot of writing about dance is your basic compulsive insider baseball, no sense of what the music sounds like or what the dancing is like; mentions Simon Reynolds as one who does try to describe those things.

Had to switch players, came back to long discussion of working for "exposure" taking a turn: guy indignantly mentions Pitchfork ad looking for new writers, fine print re no pay, disputed by someone who works for Pitchfork (gotta find podcasts, captures of this whole thing)

That is, I believe, the Mark Pringle-Laura Snapes spat referred to upthread.

Hazel Robinson's response to Laura Snapes: http://piratemoggy.tumblr.com/post/119350594961/enough-or-my-experiences-with-the-middle-aged

Resonance in their wisdom omitted my killer incomprehensible question to the punk panel! I wrote it up and tweeted it anyway - turns out nobody on my timeline understands the final para either, OH WELL...

hi, it's laura. i double checked after getting home from the panel and i was definitely right, mark was 100% wrong. and no such advert ever existed.

― snake, Tuesday, May 19, 2015 2:40 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
ended at 7:10 BST, not xpost 8. Cool, listening to dynamic Asian music on there now.

I listened to this whole thing today, too hungover to get out of bed. drifted in and out but I can safely say that I too have had ENOUGH of the first and last conference about the history of uk rock journalism from the 60s to the 80s

also it really sounded to me like that one woman said "I'm not from manchester, I'm from tumblr"

haha i think hazel did say exactly that :)

and then plan a six-day follow-up next year

there's also a discussion of it on the freaky trigger comments thread: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2015/05/a-great-big-clipper-ship/

Ha, assumed I had misheard it in my addled state but couldn't think of where she might actually mean

i keep seeing the TT as:

Mark S. Rockwrite!

which is a great name. and reminds me of the time that i wrote a review for a magazine that shall remain nameless and they made me re-do it over and over and finally i told them to use the name Rick Rockrite instead of my own name on the review. they didn't think that was funny.

https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/

^^^for the time being at least, the broadcast elements are up on the resonance mixcloud

mark's followup post: http://dubdobdee.co.uk/2015/06/02/whalers-on-the-moon-curious-despatches-from-an-old-dream/

it good writing

mark is kickstarting a book of related stuff.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/253164519/a-hidden-landscape-once-a-week-an-anthology

ppl should back it.

He also started a separate thread for it.

A HIDDEN LANDSCAPE ONCE A WEEK: the kickstarter for the book of the politics of rockwriting conference

is this online somewhere?

"Frith says a lot of writing about dance is your basic compulsive insider baseball, no sense of what the music sounds like or what the dancing is like; mentions Simon Reynolds as one who does try to describe those things."

i have a lot of time for SR but am honestly tired of him being seen as the token only person who can write well about dance music in the 21st century. though perhaps frith meant SR is the only person who can explain it to old rock critics.

the purpose of the kickstarter -- linked above -- is to get transcripts of the panels published (alongside a bunch of other excellent stuff): this is my primary focus right now :)

I knew you couldn't keep away :)

obviously for maximum impact i should have structured my appeal as some kind of POLL :D

(actual ilm & ile structures below)
A HIDDEN LANDSCAPE ONCE A WEEK: the kickstarter for the book of the politics of rockwriting conference
running a kickstarter in a time of plague and panic

Especially as you only came back to partake in the metal poll thread though you forgot dj martian this time YOU PLANK!