imo the discourse is missing the point, but largely because it's tough to describe the nuances of music-consumption..
There are people who are whole and feel comfortable with themselves, and do not know oppression firsthand, and these people feel OK with music that is nothing more than the fruits of the training and rehearsing of individuals who, like them, exist entirely within their own selfhood (that is, they don’t feel any conflict in their life), and are completely content to simply enter a studio or walk on a stage and demonstrate the fruits of their labour without any concern as to, say, “who they’re borrowing from”, “what they’re saying”, “who they are”, or “the potentially detrimental effects that their complacent ‘craftsmanship’ might have on individual listeners who do not have the same access to the methods with which this music was created.”
Those people are “rockists”, broadly, but also essentially include any Steely Dan or Fleetwood Mac fan who would never consider themselves a “rockist”— in fact, they may simply have, sometimes, “rockist” tastes, sometimes, and wouldn’t think it beneath them to rate their favourite Beatles when it came down to it. (What I mean is: everyone is a rockist, sometimes.)
And there are other people, who think that whole process is full of shit, and doesn’t take into account intersectional politics, or current or past politics, and have other approaches to music listening.
There are those who think that everybody is entitled to a career in music and actively stan music made by neophytes (because of the originality and interest created in every individual’s approach to music-making)— but also because it reflects a far more societally ecumenical approach to culture-creation— that we are all music-makers. It reflects our own amateurism with regards to music-making, and makes us feel good about ourselves that our content creators are also prone to accident and amateurism and moments of greatness.
There are those who think that music (or culture in general) is an effective venue for corrective measures for socio-economic oppression, and prioritize the genius of black people, poor people, trans people, and see the previously-described “canon” as being, as stated earlier, the product of privilege, and thus, one that should be subverted, if not destroyed.
And there are those who wish for a completely consumerist attitude toward pop music, because we are in a culture war, after all, and because a consumerist attitude un-ironically reflects the true intentions of a culture-industry, and so their unabashed adoration for (say) Ariana Grande not only unites the listener with the “working class” but also commodifies the intention and the body of the artist/performer/creative group as being, essentially, what they are, as the culture industry would dictate: expendable. It makes people feel OK with themselves to turn humans into cultural objects to be used and destroyed.
In short, to try and reduce things to a dichotomy of rockism-popism is frustrating (for me) to see people do. People listen to different musics at different times for different reasons. I am “rockist” because I adore extremely talented and privileged classical musicians making wonderful music in expensive concert halls. (I don’t actually care for “rock music” made by men except for Jon Spencer and Black Sabbath, don’t ask me why, maybe because it’s a caricature of white maleness.) I am “neophyte-ilic” because I enjoy the music of young people picking up their guitars for the first time. I have “intersectional tastes” because the music industry has generally left women and black people with lower salaries, despite their greater achievements. And I enjoy the experience of “consumerism”, because I’m a human, and I experience schadenfreude when a pop star fails, and enjoy a redemption narrative when same pop star (or a different one) makes a comeback— I, too, enjoy turning human musicians into objects of cultural consumption.
Oh there’s also that weird strain of “obscurantism” or something? maybe the wrong word, but it’s that human psychological tendency to prefer music that is less popular, or undiscovered. I don’t really go for that, personally, because it smacks of Bad Thoughts (i.e. colonialism), but I recognize that sometimes as a curator you have to surprise people to be of value, rather than playing them shit they’ve already heard.
But anyway, all these different approaches to music listening are inherently contradictory, and result in various contradictory statements that I’m myself inclined to accept and embrace, and have repeatedly stated, such as:
Beyonce’s “Lemonade” is the greatest album of all time
Electrelane is the greatest rock band of all time
Big Thief is the only good band in the world right now
“Thank You, Next” is the greatest song of all time
“Escapade” is the greatest song of all time
“Uptown Top Ranking” is the greatest song of all time
Xiu Xiu is my favourite band
When I’m cooking at home I only listen to Low on repeat off of Tidal
When I’m at my boyfriend’s house (by myself) I only listen to Stockhausen on vinyl while cleaning up his shit
When I’m at my boyfriend’s house (with him) I might sneak in some early Stereolab or Young Marble Giants in between his insistence that we only listen to New Order and Lionel Richie on repeat
Foxy Brown’s “Ill Na Na” is the greatest album of all time
Music listening is a present-tense act and so things shift and are malleable and I will totally cop to being an enormous stan for the execrable “Love Yourself” (Bieber/Sheeran) because it always plays at 7am when I have woken up to early and am shopping for raspberries at the supermarket to make morning smoothies and am consumed with thoughts of my abusive ex from my anxious dreams the night previous, and sing the song to myself while thinking of his abusive ass.
I hate Madonna, because 90% of her music is ass, but I also love Madonna, because I like seeing a 60-year old white woman continue to be a pop star, it is beautiful.
Functional listening, present-tense listening, you see? It shifts and changes.
― flamboyant goon tie included, Thursday, 20 December 2018 03:06 (five years ago) link
three weeks pass...
one month passes...
one month passes...