OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

Jason Guriel is a writer based in Toronto. His work has appeared in Elle, The Atlantic, and Slate.

the works of jason guriel

musta took a wrong turn at albuquerque

lol what a dink

that Anthony Lane paragraph he quotes is awful. "it's fine to write about pop-culture as long as you are sneering and dismissive" - can't understand how anyone can think that this would lead to good writing?

there's probably something to be said about how everyone who derides carly rae jepsen assumes her to be much younger than she is. it reflects an arms length engagement *and* an unwillingness to dig in and think about why they're so bothered. have any of the anti crj broadsides discussed her, you know, music?

Anyone who admires Anthony Lane (as a writer or a thinker) can get fucked.

I liked him for about five months in 1998.

like most people, he's gotten dumber and glibber with age

None of this, I should point out, is meant to advance some silly value system pitting high art against pop culture; I’ll take the John Travolta vehicle Blow Out over Antonioni’s Blow Up any day.

haha this sets up exactly the dichotomy it says it won't, which is weird seeing as blow up might as well have been directed by austin powers. prob still otm tho

Phillip J. Pierpont Kennicott VII looks down his lorgnette at the Kennedy Center Honors.

KenCen, apparently, is straight dissing ballet and opera to give awards to rock bands and even, gasp, rappers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/the-kennedy-center-honors-abandon-the-arts-for-pop-culture/2017/08/02/0287e65c-77a0-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_kennicott-1115am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.e1e19c23539f

tbf opera is horrible

KenCen, apparently, is straight dissing ballet and opera to give awards to rock bands and even, gasp, rappers.

I read the tone pretty differently from this.

Yeah. I mean, I disagree with the thesis but it's not unsound; I think he wants to sway things too far in the opposite direction. The Kennedy Center Honors should be open across the spectrum and I would hope for a diverse group of honorees from disciplines popular and esoteric.

That said, LL as the first rapper to get an honor is both fitting and kind of weird. I guess Chuck D's sweet spot was too short for him to be a serious candidate and Will Smith was way too bubblegum to have credibility.

http://static.oprah.com/2016/02/ep516-own-watn-8-949x534.jpg

:(

(Thanks, DJP.)

I guess I feel like the distinction that Kennicott (and many commenters) are drawing between traditional/classic art forms, on the one hand, and popular/commercial art forms, on the other, is not being given much scrutiny.

Also if, indeed, the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of LL Cool J / Eagles / Lionel, it may be worth remembering how long popular music was kept _out_ of consideration as Serious Art(TM). I am not the right person to unpack how much elitism or class/race/gender stuff has been involved, but surely that's at least worth mentioning as a factor in what gets taken seriously as art?

I don't have a problem with any of them getting a Kennedy Center Honor! I do think it's reasonable to make an argument that Sam Shepard dying without one is a shame. It's also reasonable to make the argument that it is a little weird to give one to Gloria Estefan before giving one to Renee Fleming.

That distinction is a couple of centuries old, with a plethora of literature scrutinizing it. Kennicott clearly has an opinion on it that is different from yours, and somewhat different from mine, but I don't think it's exceptionally extreme or poorly grounded, in terms of being a candidate for "worst piece of music writing ever".

(Also, going by Wikipedia, Fred Astaire and Richard Rodgers received KCHs in the first year they were awarded.)

xp

KCH has always been a mix of high- and low-brow since its inception, which is the best thing about it. It should remain a mix. It's valid to be concerned if either side gains primary focus.

Or sund4r OTM, if you prefer

tbf opera is horrible

tbf lol @ u

hey JLCL, I just listened to a 70yo sing the shit out of Glitter and Be Gay; want the youtube link?

it's not the _worst_ piece of music writing ever, but i'm impressed that bill wyman has the clout and social skills to presumably get paid for this piece of sub-dave marsh hackwork. at least when marsh came up with a zinger, he was brief.

http://www.vulture.com/2017/08/all-165-pink-floyd-songs-ranked-from-worst-to-best.html

oh I don't know -- there's some sharp writing

it reminded me of the discussion we had earlier this week about negative criticism and its flaws.

Do you like prog rock, the extravagantly conceptual and wildly technical post-psychedelic subgenre that ruled the world for about 30 seconds in the early 1970s before being torn to pieces by the starving street dogs of punk rock? Do you like the proggers, with their terrible pampered proficiency, their priestly robes, and their air—once they get behind their instruments—of an inverted, almost abscessed Englishness? I don’t.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/the-whitest-music-ever/534174

got a new d/n out of it at least

he talks about their priestly robes like that's a drawback to OTT rock music

'abcessed'?

I take that to mean, "so full of Englishness that if you prick them with a needle, out would come Devonshire clotted cream."

inverted tho

If Weigel were David Foster Wallace, he would have written his entire book from inside that cruise ship, possibly never leaving his cabin, eavesdropping on snatches of music and chitchat and sending out his imagination in heavy spirals of paranoia and insight. But Weigel is a political reporter for The Washington Post, so he climbs off that wiggy, proggy boat and treads onto the dry land of chronology.

jesus christ

I take that to mean, "so full of Englishness that if you prick them with a needle, out would come Devonshire clotted cream."

― okapi paste (Ye Mad Puffin),

sounds tasty tbh

Now you come to mention it, Jon Anderson was a milkman for a while.

This article seems to be creating a stramash on fb, tom

I think "pampered proficiency" deserves more attention. I haven't brought myself to read the whole article yet, though.

Before reading or looking up anything about the author, I'm going to guess that the writer i) is white and ii) grew up wealthier than Geddy Lee.

And has never worked as a milkman.

I just read it out of masochism and don't really know where to start.

if weigel were david foster wallace, he would have killed himself by now. maybe james parker should try to be more like david foster wallace.

ok that's enough

the same guy did this article
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/10/donald-trump-sex-pistol/497528/

Haha so the prog thing's not even the worst thing he's written

Parker's Rollins biog from the 90s was good. Not read/won't read these two pieces.

guys is everett true okay

Look at the way he looks. Not so much a rock star as an exercise in hair conditioner. Dave Grohl is shit. How many times do I need to say this before you start listening? Hey, why not start listening? Just cos you’ve only heard a handful of songs in your life does not mean that no alternatives exist. Dave Grohl is shit. Do not be scared of the crowd. Has it not occurred to you that the crowd can be wrong sometimes? Dave Grohl is shit. The idea of listening to his music drives me to extremes of nothing. Dave Grohl is shit. Shout it from the tops of buses and shout it from street corners. He is dreary, whiny, derivative, needless, grey. Dave Grohl is shit. He makes Chris Martin sound like Beyoncé. Flaunt the bump/don’t flaunt the bump/FLAUNT THE BUMP! He makes Ed Sheeran shine with an inner fire. He puts Theresa May into perspective.

Everett True has not been ok for a long time but he's not wrong about Dave Grohl, he's just right for the usual tediously wrong aging POONK reasons

it's just... deeply not good, even by the rock-bottom expectation that has long come from seeing his byline on anything

say what you like about the tenets of Trueism, dude, at least it's an ethos

sort of

a bathos mebbes

no but he's a terrible man, the kind of terrible man who's trying really hard to be the worst kind of 17 year-old, which is a terrible, terrible look