What Is Rockism ?

yeah what?

Pitchfork in taking down bland whiteboy cosplay rock band shockah

So when the Greta Van Fleet of your favorite artist finally lands on your morning playlist, spark up a bowl of nostalgia and enjoy the self-satisfied buzz of recognizing something you already know. It’s the cheapest high in music.

this turned out pretty well for me wrt silversun pickups

Is that the first hardcore high profile Fork takedown since Jet?

they reviewed ed sheeran last year iirc

Thing is, I’d be surprised if many actual Zep fans liked these guys... as opposed to folks with just a vague idea of ’70s hard rock as a concept. Maybe I’m wrong.

i have and will always find takedowns really boring but ymmv

like, not even specifically this one, just the entire concept, especially when applied to music crit

Is there evidence that their popularity is as algorithm-driven as this review suggests?

someone somewhere is raking in cash for creating an algorithm that figured out that people like Led Zeppelin

okay i'll listen to these guys...first song "Age of Man" sounds a lot more like early Rush than Led Zep

there are some really Zeppy elements that make it difficult not to laugh at these songs

the most objectionable thing about this band is that the rhythm section are complete stiffs

i feel like these band's fundamentally don't understand what made zeppelin great, like when they say "Zep" i feel like they basically mean a subset of songs on Led Zeppelin II

yup

this has all happened before and will happen again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DZfgzNc0QE

Courtesy of YouTube's comment section for 'Highway Tune': 'I'm a classical guitarist, so I don't keep up with the latest rock or metal, but these young guys are the first thing to catch my ear in a long time with high energy, well written and well played infectious licks. The Kiszka boys have got it going.'

i think maybe that was Esteban

The Greta Van Fleet album is bad. (I listened to it front to back this morning, so I know.) But the Pitchfork review is not about whether the album is good or bad. It's about social positioning. Greta Van Fleet are Not Our Kind, and their music is for Those Other People.

Oh, mama!

No stopping at the red light, girl
'Cause I want to get your signal
No going at the green light, girl
'Cause I want to be with you now
You are my special, you are my special
You are my midnight, midnight, yeah

So sweet, so fine, so nice
Oh my, my-my, my-my, oh

No stopping on the highway, girl
'Cause I want to burn my gas
There's one girl that I know
I'm never gonna pass
She is my special, she is my special
She is my midnight, midnight, yeah

So sweet, so fine, so nice
Oh my, my-my, my-my, oh

Guitar Solo

Oh, yeah!

So sweet, so fine, so nice
Oh my, my-my, my-my, oh

Sugar

The worst crime rockcrit ever committed was introducing the term “infectious” to the general public.

personally what i'd like to read is a review engaging with how good the new twenty one pilots album is

Currently listening to this and yes, it is pretty boring.

the Pitchfork review is not about whether the album is good or bad. It's about social positioning. Greta Van Fleet are Not Our Kind, and their music is for Those Other People.

v otm but this makes up a lot of high profile music crit, for various reasons

the most insightful thing about the review is pointing out that the incentives for being Retro are different in 2018. it's financially lucrative because of streaming algorithms.

"They are a new kind of vampiric band who’s there to catch the runoff of original classic rock using streaming services’ data-driven business model. Greta Van Fleet exist to be swallowed into the algorithm’s churn and rack up plays, of which they already have hundreds of millions."

"But for as retro as Anthem of the Peaceful Army may seem, in actuality, it is the future. It’s proof of concept that in the streaming and algorithm economy, a band doesn’t need to really capture the past, it just needs to come close enough so that a computer can assign it to its definite article. The more unique it sounds, the less chance it has to be placed alongside what you already love."

that may already be clear to the forward thinking listeners on ILM, but it's worth stating bluntly and is probably something that many pitchfork readers haven't considered. i think it also raises interesting questions about what kinds of previous pop music are easily emulated by modern musicians and identifiable by algorithms, and which aren't

no stopping on the highway, girl
cause i wanna burn my gas

'I'm a classical guitarist, so I don't keep up with the latest rock or metal, but these young guys are the first thing to catch my ear in a long time with high energy, well written and well played infectious licks. The Kiszka boys have got it going.'

a mix between Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin with the swagger of Led Zeppelin

The p4k review doesn't seem to want to believe that there could be a corny derivative band that happens to be successful due to algorithms, it must be that they were designed with the algorithms in mind as a clever marketing strategy.

I mean, I feel like a lot of pop rock acts are probably focus grouped and meticulously groomed by marketing teams, but the narrative in this case seems much more conspiratorial. Plausible I guess?

xxxpost this algorithm thing is a bit of a weird read to me. There's tons of dance and electronic and metal, etc. that sounds almost exactly like a bunch of other music and fits nicely onto playlists alongside it. Maybe the crime is in emulating a sound that was never successfully copied, or that LZ was Original and therefore must not be copied.

Someone is eventually going to use the word "authenticity" and then ILM will get very upset

if anything the review doesn't take the algorithm thing to its conclusion which is that i'm guessing the industry is full-force behind these guys because it is something they can conceivably sell to boomers who are sick of buying reissues of neil young's catalog for the 15th time.

The Greta Van Fleet album is bad. (I listened to it front to back this morning, so I know.) But the Pitchfork review is not about whether the album is good or bad. It's about social positioning. Greta Van Fleet are Not Our Kind, and their music is for Those Other People.

― grawlix (unperson), Tuesday, October 23, 2018 11:59 AM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

100% otm

good to know that both of you are not like those other people who sneer at Those Other People

Someone is eventually going to use the word "authenticity" and then ILM will get very upset

Ha, I was thinking of posting "so I'm clear, the problem with this popular band is that they are commercial and inauthentic?".

I guess the idea is that blues rock itself places such great importance on authenticity, so it’s fair to judge them by those standards.

blues rock also places a lot of importance on sounding pretty much the same as your heroes

idk i just finished a listen-through and based on 'anthem' alone i think it's fair to conclude that, authenticity aside, these dudes are just fuckin corny

Fair enough, I’ve never heard GVF. Are they anything like this Joe Bonamassa dude that the Youtube algorithms insist on inserting in my feeds?

I honestly do not get why, in 2018, anyone would expect a self-styled retro classic rock band to be anything other than this. Nobody is coming to this group expecting any sort of exciting innovation.

The Pfork review is good (IMO) because it talks specifically about aspects of their music (and "presentation") that are bad, and details why they are bad. It's not hyperbolic and ad hominem like an early-2000s Pfork takedown (opening paragraph aside, maybe).

I also like how the writer spends a paragraph contrasting GVF w/The Darkness, because I have also been thinking about The Darkness as a reference point, and trying to pin down how/why they were different and "worked" (this writer nails it, I think).

the most objectionable thing about this band is that the rhythm section are complete stiffs

JFC yes

My perception of this band will forever be colored by the time an old friend tried to hype them up to me and used the fact that Matt Drudge is a superfan as ...a selling point?

Whoa

personally what i'd like to read is a review engaging with how good the new twenty one pilots album is

― princess of hell (BradNelson), Tuesday, October 23, 2018 12:01 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/review-twenty-one-pilots-still-stressed-more-cohesive-on-trench-733620/

thank you whiney that's exactly what i wanted <3

It just occurred to me that, in a strange twist, you could make a case that GVF hate is more rockist than GVF love

― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Sunday, October 21, 2018 10:02 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM! it absolutely is. Rockism = perceived authenticity. GVF are not only 'inauthentic' in a rockist's eyes, they flaunt it.

How do you figure? The band presents themselves as super "authentic."

Right, in quotes. The actual band may be that deluded, but they're not marketed that way. They are aimed squarely at older baby boomers, their kids, Midwest radio, and licensing for people that can't afford LZ.

So glad I feel no obligation to listen to this.

I'm with Brad re: takedowns. If something is so horrible, why are we wasting our precious time trying to engage?

There should be a Greta Van Fleet tribute band.