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| From | Stewart Mason <flamingo@theworld.com> |
| Subject | Re: Borack Thought |
| Date | Fri, 27 Aug 2004 16:01:58 -0400 |
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At 11:53 AM 8/27/2004 -0600, Not Lame wrote:
>This applies to all genres, one can argue...but simple rock 'n roll in all
>its forms and sub-genres(power pop included, naturally) had explosive,
>exponential growth in its first 25 years on earth(start 1954 w/ Elvis
>arriving at Sun Studios or Bill Haley).
(stuff deleted)
>But ,arguably....rock 'n roll as an healthy, growing, evolving rock 'n roll
>form *is* in crisis and been in 'stasis', a slowdown phase for over 20
>years.
I don't know if it's quite so either/or as this. I mean, think of rock and
roll in terms of human development: a person goes through enormous changes
in the first 21 years of his or her life, and after that, things level off
and then eventually there's a long, slow decline. If we don't expect
people to continue to grow explosively after they reach maturity, why
should we expect the same of, as Broadcast put it a few years ago, The
Noise Made By People?
I think I speak for most of us folks beyond our early 20s -- a demographic
that makes up damn near everybody on this list except for Jason Demas, as
far as I know -- when I say that it's a big mistake to confuse maturity
with stasis, or to call maturity unhealthy, in crisis, and a slowdown phase.
Similarly, I truly don't believe that pop music is in any form of crisis,
or for that matter, that it's EVER been in crisis. As I've said here many
times, there is *always* good music out there. It's simply that sometimes
you have to look harder for it.
>Why not just enjoy a really, really cool CD like this one for what is, let
>it's simple but inspired *and* wholly un-original glow wash over you-put it
>on and smile---for me, Edwards' CD is a great example of what making music
>in this genre 2004 is (partially) all about.
For me, comments like "derivative" and "unoriginal" don't aplly to specific
elements in a record, but to the overall sound. (I should point out that
I'm NOT talking about the Eugene Edwards disc here, because I haven't heard
it yet.) Except in cases where someone pulls a Harry Partch and goes out
and invents an entirely new set of instruments tuned to their own scales,
there's very little new under the sun. Speaking as someone who *does* like
to be surprised and loves to hear new things, I don't expect -- or for that
matter, want -- to hear something entirely new and unexpected every time.
What I really DO expect from a new album is that it uses its influences in
a new and interesting way. I hate records where you can hear the first ten
seconds of every song and fill in the rest on your own, down to where the
key change is and what pedals the guitarist is going to use for his solo,
because it sounds just like a hundred records you've already heard. At the
very least, I expect that if an artist is going to be completely
derivative, that they at least be really good at what they're ripping off.
For some reason, I'm thinking now of Boston's current Big Thing, the
Dresden Dolls. I can tell you exactly where every element of the Dresden
Dolls sound comes from (basically, imagine what the White Stripes would
sound like if Jack was a female classically-trained pianist with a hardcore
Kurt Weill fetish who had been a Goth Princess in high school, and Meg was
a guy who worshiped Elvin Jones and John Bonham about equally), but even
though I can spot the influences, the Dolls don't sound like anybody else.
Or, just because I saw them again last week, take the Polyphonic Spree.
The songs they were playing over the house system before the set were like
a greatest hits of Great Big Sixties/Seventies AM Pop: "Wichita Lineman,"
"What Is Life," "Jealous Guy," "Mr. Blue Sky" (naturally -- all of the
seeds of the Polyphonic Spree are embedded in that song), that sort of
thing. Hearing those songs, their relation to the Polyphonic Spree is
obvious (in fact, Tim Delaughter himself says that his early exposure to
70s AM radio is what shaped his musical worldview), but the group doesn't
*sound* like any of those songs. And that's the difference.
S
Now Playing: TOUCH MY HEART/BURNING MEMORIES -- Ray Price
Now Downloading: TRAVELS IN THE SOUTH -- Chris Stamey (there's suddenly a
ton of new Yep Roc albums on eMusic)
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