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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | DanAbnrml9@aol.com |
| Subject | Pollen |
| Date | Fri, 20 Jun 2003 14:49:56 EDT |
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In a message dated 6/20/03 2:01:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
audities-owner@smoe.org writes:
> I think arguments can be
> made for both sides, that the openness of the Information Age could be
> seen either as facilitating greater cross-pollinization of genres or
> stifling cross-pollinization
Actually I think I experienced this firsthand myself. For awhile I think I
had my head up my proverbial ass while I deeply explored pop, buying up the
entire Nick Lowe catalog, for example, and perhaps granting unequal weight to the
influence of our 'lil genre's forbears. Then I got a job in a record store,
and saw how much the tastes of many of my peers--people who are very educated
and passionate about music, too--differed from mine. The time since then (and
this has been awhile, now...) has been spent largely exploring THEIR tastes. The
fact is that most of them, though, have compartmentalized, too--into hip/hop,
electronic music (I use broad terms because electro, house, trance, etc. are
actually quite different genres from one another), jazz, a trillion different
genres of indie rock (emo, punk, punk/pop, nu-garage/hipster stuff, power-pop,
etc). Learning from people who took a different route is pretty fun, and its
surprising how much of this stuff fits in nicely with what we love, too. But
the fact is that if I hadn't made the leap to a more old-fashioned way of
exploring music--via word of mouth with a random group of people who all are united
in their love of "music"--then I would miss out on all that, even though I
would certainly have kept exploring and loving new music on my own.
Also, back to the whole "tastes are formed when you're younger" argument--I
grew up on Billy Joel and Elton John. I don't listen to much of either now, and
I find much of the catalogs of each to be somewhat embarrassing (each has
some pretty classic LPs, but a ton of dreck, too). But I can hear their influence
in tons of things (maybe even MOST things) that I love now.
And also while we're "fessing up" about embarassing acts we do listen to/have
listened to, here's mine: Roxette. I'm 22, so that would've made me 8 when
they broke through, and 14 when they began to fade away stateside, but I've
bought up all their albums over the years and still listen to them regularly.
Their lyrics are frequently awful, but Per and Marie know how to put together
immensely catchy pop singles, and they mingle two wildly disparate voices with two
wildly disparate musical styles (smooth, slick, ballady pop and driving,
arena-friendly hard rock) in ways not frequently seen. A guilty pleasure? Yes. But
do I love them anyway? Oh yes. --Jason
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