is an article written by biba kopf and published in the wire in 1995.
to wit: music can be broken into three camps stupid, smart, and stoopid.
stupid (a good thing): pop, dance, indie, punk, disco, etc.
smart (also good): john coltrane, some classical, etc.
stoopid (bad): cod minimalism, rockstars with a cause, rockstars who write operas, people who -try- to act "stupid."
it's not a perfect theory, and i hardly agree with all of it. (for instance it hardly takes into account that even the smartest of music has an element of stupidity to it. and vice versa of course. and i'd switch stupid and stoopid.) but it's an interesting one, nonetheless.
― jess, Monday, 7 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
"It's not that music's any worse now, it's just that Limp Bizkit is
popular because there's always been a lot of morons, and consequently
music for morons is always going to be popular." - Stuart
Braithwaite
Take sides - Mogwai's IQ vs. Durst's IQ
― dave q, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Also - US Festival 1983 (?), Clash colleague Kosmo Vinyl calls press
conference to denounce other bands on the bill, especially "Van
Halen's moron music." Odd, as consensus has shifted toward
considering David Lee Roth both 'smart' AND 'stoopid' while poor old
Joe Strummer is damned with faint praise, "He meant well and worked
hard" etc
― dave q, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Durst vs Braithaite? To me Stuart Braithwaite is where the extremes
of smart and stupid meet. I.e. the tiresome "Blur are shite" period.
What got my goat wasn't that he was attacking Blur or the fact that
they were such an easy and over-used target (I seem to recall about
ten other bands voicing that same sentiment), but the fact that as I
remember he claimed that due to having a music degree (or something),
he could objectively prove that point in a court of law. Reminds me
of those smug little wankers at middle school challenging people to
spell "antidisestablishmentarianism" and tittering when their target
failed miserably.
― Ben Squircle, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Last night I listened to as much of "Skyscraper" as I could handle. It is just god-awful; even "Livin in Paradise" sounds phoned-in. Vai does nothing for it. The title track is particularly humiliating for Diamond Dave. But then he turned around and did "California Girls" and "Coconut Grove" so what do I know? What's the question again?
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I would severely doubt a "band's (collective) IQ" would have anything
to do with the quality of the music. I wouldn't believe for a second
that Fred Durst has a low IQ. Nor would I necessarily take it as a
given that Mr. Braithwaite has a high one. I couldn't give a fuck if
he was a dribbling dipshit if the tunes were good.
― electric sound of jim, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link