Post a controversial music opinion

It Takes a Nation of Hongroes to Hold Us Back

Hongroe - "Talking to a Computer" is a bop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U31JW3YQHI

Not a controversial opinion.

Can't help but feel like 'talking to you is like talking to a computer' is his valedictory message to ILX.

Africans and muslims, you hate them all
I might as well bang my head against the wall

Great couplet.

RHYTHM

and MELODY

total package imo

geir was odd though, it's not accurate to say he was merely a "rockist" even though he definitely thad that chauvinism towards traditional western capital-S "Songwriting" traditions, but he didn't have that sort of macho, luddite thing that's usually a part of rockism, the idea that manly men playing guitars and drums is the ideal of music

he even uses autotune which is generally one of the lame-o normie complaints about modern music on facebook

_I would even go further and defend dismissing certain cultures as "fucking garbage" without that being compared to doing the same for an ethnic group. Difference in my mind being that a culture is something a person chooses to be a part of._

Not saying you're necessarily doing this, but this argument is used to support some really nasty stuff. (Unless you're talking about "toxic gaming culture" or something like that.)

I always thought of Geir as more of a poptimist tbh. Based on your description, ums, he in fact straddles the line and undermines that binary opposition in its entirety, forever redeeming ILM in the process.

Yes, I would never call Geir a rockist. He was more difficult to characterize than his reputation suggests, also he spent a lot of time trolling people in a completely cockeyed manner that might have made more sense if you were Norwegian (Land of the Trolls).

We come from the land of the ice and snow
Into your threads we will extensively troll

Still the most ''holy shit'' post i've seen on ilx so far

I've really wanted to get the hell into metal since at least my early 20's, but it never quite took :(

I don't mind people not liking metal. I just mind people who (fortunately nobody here) say it's for transgressive little shits who are trying to piss their parents off.

no, it's for big fucking nerds who just like loud guitars as well as some alpha male fucks on steroids. the nerds try to kick the alphas in the nuts in the pit.

I would probably love a lot of metal if i made just a little bit more of an effort. Not even a lot.

I've tried a bunch of times, but not very hard.

The single most astonishing thing about that Geir Hongro post is just that he took the trouble to write it.

Whenever I try listening to heavy music (of any kind), it ends up feeling… I dunno, silly, I guess. It’s my bad! Wish I could enjoy metal, it’s a cool thing to be into.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ7y-MYIgKs

i guess that's me turning up the volume in my car

I love the idea of that post being rockist.

That being said, Robert Johnson wrote only one song in his entire life (the 12 bar one that goes C / / / F / C / G F C /), but at least he is not to blame for the fact that thousands of rock and soul acts have later plagiarized this one song.

anti-CCR rhetoric should never be tolerated

Tbf to normies on FB, Autotune does sound like shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZJVcPlx39s

I can't believe anyone thought it was worth arguing with him tbh, there's a vehement refusal to engage with any of this music on its own terms.

The brilliant/maddening thing about that post, though, is that his take is OTM every 6-7 entries or so.

Most startling bit of that breakdown is him saying that Bitches Brew is 'also interesting in parts'. I thought he'd dismiss it wholesale.

I also hadn't realized just how much he loathes the blues.

almost as much as compilations!

72. Purple Rain, Prince

His best album. Not too many of those repetitive funk number, instead lots of nice melodies. "Darling Nikki" may be his best song ever. The title track is overrated tho.

^i love the little random bonkers opinions like thinking Darling Nikki is the best Prince song

every compilation that shows up seems to make him madder

yeah I get why calling him a rockist isn't right, but he exemplifies aspects of rockism more completely than any other rando on the internet I've encountered, e.g., the holiness of The Album form

then there are opinions like this that are some kind of special Geir-ism:

Nothing of interest happened in "rock" before The Beatles and the following British invasion.

Why don't you guys just realised that hip-hop will never be even remotely as important as rock. Hip-hop is just as passing fad - completely forgotten in 20 years - while rock will live forever.

This HAS to be a joke.

Actually, I think I'm 100% in favour of 'rockism' being exemplified by an Autotuned synthpop musician who hates Robert Johnson and noisy guitars.

yeah I get why calling him a rockist isn't right, but he exemplifies aspects of rockism more completely than any other rando on the internet I've encountered, e.g., the holiness of The Album form

then there are opinions like this that are some kind of special Geir-ism:

Nothing of interest happened in "rock" before The Beatles and the following British invasion.

― rob, Wednesday, July 28, 2021 8:11 AM (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah for sure, he's just quirky in ways that don't line up with strict Rolling Stone/boomer rock rockism

he's really dumb and shitty about blues, rap, soul, jazz, and...um...hmm...i'm detecting a pattern here

seriously tho - i keep coming back to the darling nikki thing, so weird! and the odd thing is there are so many prince songs that fit his ideal of "songwriting" in the classic 60s sense

Actually, I think I'm 100% in favour of 'rockism' being exemplified by an Autotuned synthpop musician who hates Robert Johnson and noisy guitars.

cosign

I think why it smells so much like rockism is that it shares the problem of extrapolating from one's own personal taste to a grand theory of what makes music Good (n.b. *I* would never do this).

Also, there are similar undercurrents of white supremacy and classism in Geir's theory that resonate with critiques of rockism, even if his idiosyncratic rationales (every time I read a Geir post I wonder if I actually know what melody is) are different

he's really dumb and shitty about blues, rap, soul, jazz, and...um...hmm...i'm detecting a pattern here

But then how are we meant to parse the lyrics to 'Talking to a Computer'? Verily the plot thickens.

I think why it smells so much like rockism is that it shares the problem of extrapolating from one's own personal taste to a grand theory of what makes music Good

For sure, but the fact that Geir isn't a rock fan first and foremost turns 'rockism' into a bit of a misnomer here imo.

📹

xp
oh for sure, it's just unsettling to see an ostensibly real person argue that, yes Sgt Peppers really is the #1 album of all time

It's funny too because when I think of quintessential rock music, Sgt. Pepper is hardly the first title that springs to mind, what with its expanded instrumentation and good-natured melodies and echoes of music hall and Indian classical music. Isn't it kind of odd that the ultimate rockist album (according to one dominant narrative, at least) is a pluralist pop LP above all?

Uh this might be the most troublesome line in that entire post.

Besides, the entire 50s were overrated. Nothing of interest happened in "rock" before The Beatles and the following British invasion.

I think why it smells so much like rockism is that it shares the problem of extrapolating from one's own personal taste to a grand theory of what makes music Good (n.b. *I* would never do this).

Also, there are similar undercurrents of white supremacy and classism in Geir's theory that resonate with critiques of rockism, even if his idiosyncratic rationales (every time I read a Geir post I wonder if I actually know what melody is) are different

Tbh, I think it's because rockism is mostly a strawman onto which people project any bias they dislike. Prescriptivism, racism, and classism are not uniquely associated with rock or rock criticism.

Pom, you are insane. Sgt Pepper is Luddite machismo.

Sgt Hongroe's Rockist Challops Thread

It’s all just stuff that that one older, audiophile goofball from your local record store says. The loud one that peers over his glasses with one bulging eyeball as he inspects matrices.

xp to Sund4r

True, though I think "mostly" is important: there's definitely something about the music crit canon as it stood in the 80s and into the 90s—roughly I guess? this isn't my area of expertise tbh—that is relatively aptly captured by "rockism," though the term is too broad. As ums said it's more like Boomerism-Rockism, maybe call it Wennerism in its most totalitarian form idk. I think that would make Poptimism the Maoism of this dialectic lol

I guess Steve Hoffman Forums is the closest thing to honest-to-God rockism that I can think of in 2021 AD, and it almost exclusively consists of moribund boomers.

xp

True, though I think "mostly" is important: there's definitely something about the music crit canon as it stood in the 80s and into the 90s—roughly I guess? this isn't my area of expertise tbh—that is relatively aptly captured by "rockism," though the term is too broad.

There absolutely were widespread biases in 80s and 90s rock crit but my memory is that they favoured Tracy Chapman and Arrested Development more than Rush and AC/DC.

Tracy Chapman and Arrested Development more than Rush and AC/DC.

― Sequel to Sadness (Sund4r), Wednesday, July 28, 2021 9:06 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Tracy Chapman and Arrested Development were both in their own ways calling back to older scenes of Rolling Stone music (early 70s singer songwriter/folkies and Sly and the Family Stone)...it's not a coincidence