Worst "genre" created by a journalist part 4534547668686 : 'Hypnagogic Pop' by David Keenan.

hauntology = the study of making moanwave?

I don't mind the stuff they mean when they talk about hauntology, but they make it such HARD WORK. I remember actually thinking Tender Buttons was kindof a fun record. TURNS OUT I WAS WRONG U GUYZ

http://www.xlr8r.com/mp3/2009/07/a1

Reynolds' post was a little, erm, academic, but I thought it was pretty interesting. Especially for looking at the new age element.

Basically just weighing in so I can make a promise to the world: I will never be one of those music critics who goes around making up genre names. (Oh god I hope I haven't already done this at some point.)

marchism

I'd think that making up genre names would be one of the fun things about being a music critic ... it's just that the ones Keenan's come up with are kinda lame.

Who coined "moan wave" anyway?

Yeah, what good are critics if not for coining new genres? Aren't those like clowns who don't make anyone laugh?

"who've realized that noise is a bit of a dead end (better late than never eh?)"

"The New Age thing (one of the main imprints, run by the Skaters, is actually called New Age Tapes) cracked me up initially, in a "hipsters! whatever will they think of next!" sort of way."

Really guys? Coining genre names sounds right about near "answering cell phone calls from publicists you don't remember giving your number" on my list of favorite things related to being a semi-pro music critic. But maybe I'm alone here.

Seems more like, I dunno, being a marketer or something. Which, fair play, but I mean, as a JOURNALIST, if people who listen to the music actually talk about it a certain way, debate whether it's moanwave or hauntology or punk or metal, then great, inform readers "hey there's this hypnagogic thing now." But I'd rather leave starting the next micro-trend to people who do that professionally. I'm just a dude who reviews those micro-trends. (I realize there's some give-and-take, I just don't want to come up with names that don't already have some meaning. There are too many awful genre names for the average music fan as it is.)

Who coined "moan wave" anyway?

― actually a decent question y'all fucked up with ironic bullshit answer (sarahel), Wednesday, July 22, 2009 5:37 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

pretty sure it started on sp0ckm0rgue, which is an SF/Oakland noiz3 dude email list

Why isnt Fuck Buttons included in Hypopnogaglic pop?

I think it would be more fun to make up genre names for music you think is crap, than stuff you respect.

xp Whiney - I'm on that list, and someone mentioned someone else coming up with it.

Why isnt Fuck Buttons included in Hypopnogaglic pop?

I would bet every last thing I own on David Keenan having nothing nice at all to say about Fuck Buttons

he doesnt have uk distribution for them?

A publicist or band coming up with the genre name themselves is like someone tapping themselves on the shoulder with a pvc pipe and giving themselves a knighthood.

i'm going to come out and say it - i started the term moan wave, or at least had a hand in it.

Is your name Luk3?

y

you were the one given credit on the morgue ...

you know the two of you should post on the rolling noise thread since nobody else does

I don't buy/listen to much in the way of noise records though ... just see a bunch of shows.

i post on brutalsfx for my noise needs. this list is just to read what the limey's are saying....

but :sigh: ok fine.

we could post highlights of b-sfx threads on the noise thread.

fine with me

At least this thread, and therefore this daft article and silly term, has got me listening to Emeralds. I'd dismissed them after hearing some of their older stuff - "Bullshit boring drone band" wasn't just a clever name - but really enjoying What Happened & Solar Bridge now.

not enough noise on ILM imo

i saw emeralds play with TG here in brooklyn. tuff crowd no doubt, and the sound man was giving them problems but i thought they were good. unfortunately, the new age/noise cliche of starting out *soft* and ending *loud* was there. i aint no fans of build ups. get up and get out, thats my motto! :)

Do they actually end loud though? On record I kinda think they build up to something that's more expansive than actually loud. They're not really noisy enough to be a noise band but I did like Solar Bridge a lot and I haven't really given What Happened a proper go.

This guy's a real turd. He's what, a decade late to the party? Noise + post-rock + hippie dippy crap = 2002-2006. Late to the party, man, so stop trying to make up for it by inventing funny soundin names

Bullshit Boring Drone Band is still good, i prefer their older stuff anyway. Allegory of Allergies still being the uh...masterpiece

Emeralds don't belong in that article really, he's trying too hard to lump in a bunch of stuff so it doesn;t seem as thin as it really is. Those guys aren't that dreamer/outer space surrealist type like The Skaters are

and James Ferraro makes up titles in his 'catalog' which people order to find out eventually they don't exist in real life, which Ferarro isn't about though....

Spectrum, what bands from 2002-2006 are you thinking of by the way?

This guy's a real turd. He's what, a decade late to the party? Noise + post-rock + hippie dippy crap = 2002-2006. Late to the party, man, so stop trying to make up for it by inventing funny soundin names

― Spectrum, Wednesday, July 22, 2009 11:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Jesus I fucking hate posts like this

lol @ b-sfx... i was a heavy poster there back in teh daze.

379 40th RIP

saw some great shows there. I remember how no one was supposed to stand outside and were supposed to walk around the block instead.

Reynolds: "These American acts I've never heard whose music has been described by one journalist as 'woozy, nostalgic for 80s childhood' are not nearly as good as these completely sonically and culturally unrelated UK acts whose music has been described by me as 'wonky, nostalgic for 80s childhood'"

Still, points for "hipstergogic", I guess

woozy over wonky any day

what a disaster for woozy! (being lumped in with wonky like that)

I think I must've got the wrong Ferraro stuff (there is, after all, a great deal of it, most of which disappears long before I know about it) because I haven't been reminded of 80s pop by what I've heard at all. Don't recall too many "bombastic 1980s power vocals" from Pocahaunted either but then I haven't listened in a while. I'm just going to imagine that everything else sounds like John Maus for the article to make sense to me.

i agree, i can see a band like Pocahaunted being inspired by that sorta stuff but they really don't sound like that at all

so er how about that british visionary jazz article eh?

That was interesting but the Wire just couldn't resist giving it a stupid tag like "Visionary Jazz". Only reason I bought this was because I was on my way up to Glasgow and needed something to read. Stopped buying it when it became a Goth metal rag for people who don't actually like rock music.

when was that?

Who gives a fuck?

But, basically, when Chris Bohn took over

Stopped buying it when it became a Goth metal rag for people who don't actually like rock music

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with a tag like "visionary jazz" either. "Hypnagogic pop" strikes me as rather silly, but in this case Rob Young is bang on target.

Stopped buying it when it became a Goth metal rag for people who don't actually like rock music

― Nuts, whole hazelnuts, HEEUUUUUUUURGGHHH! (Tom D.),

That is not actually anything like what the Wire is about at all.

― anagram,

well he wouldn't know, remember he stopped buying it!

just saw "hypnagogic pop" used on Pitchfork (alongside "glo-fi"). he treated it condescendingly, but i think the better approach is SEAL IT IN A BOX SO THAT IT CAN NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY