Music

[rivkat]

I was going to call this entry "not political," then "not (directly) political," then ... I just gave up. So, (a), GIP, and (b), very interesting article in the NYT about the phenomenon of "rockism," the celebration of the singer-songwriter who's worked his way up through the bars of the nation -- "his" being very definitely part of it -- as opposed to the latest pop princess. Neat bit about the rock section of the record store as the "unmarked" section, the default, and people like cesperanza and cathexys might be interested in the relationship between performance and authenticity found in rockism. Valorizing the singer/songwriter because of the songwriter part and denigrating the boys and girls who just sing what they're given (and, okay, sometimes not even that) might be thought to be as odd as valorizing the actress who sews her own costumes and denigrating the model who wears clothes designed for her by someone else, but it's not. Why is that? (At the same time, the article suggests, "rockism" fetishizes the live performance and disparages the music video, so the relationship between performance and fixed text is not simple.)

Comments

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

Hive Mind - I just five minutes ago finished reading that very article and was sitting here thinking about typing an entry.

I didn't download the Ashlee Simpson 60 second clip from the internet yet. Am I a rockist or not?

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

The clip didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, and it hit my embarrassment squick, so overall it was not a plus as far as I'm concerned.

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

oh, cool! thanks for the link!!! how perfectly fitting considering that i'm just about to head back to my paper on that very topic...btw, have you ever read I want it that way (http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html)? it covers a lot of similar ground in the opposition of "authentic" street bands and "artificial" mall bands :-)

and i'm not sure where to go with the vido, but there is sth about the authenticity of the concert, something very benjamin mechanical art of reproduction thingy...videos are reproducible...concert appearance aren't... (just thinking out loud)

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

No, but I will read it now -- thanks!

Yet isn't the concert also about the fetishization of small differences? At least the video is honest that it's a commodity.

Yummy icon!

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

oh, do. it's a very smart essay and has ben pretty crucial to my thoughts on the issue...it pretty much builds upon the ehrenreich essay that ces loves so much...

love the idea of concerts as fetishization of small differences...there's a great justin/lance body swap story where lance has to sing all of justin's solo parts...and does so by *exactly* replicating the last recording they had done...the audience, of course, won't notice...yet it's our strong belief that it's an *original*, that the performance is *just for us*!!!

*trying to track down the SNL footage...might be a good entry into my essay???*

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Interesting, because in the early 1980s in Britain "rockist" was used in absolutely the opposite fashion - as a negative remark by New Pop people who felt that guitar music was dated and macho and unintelligent.

As far as the songwriting-based thing goes, I blame Bob Dylan and Lennon/McCartney for the valorisation of the singer-songwriter over everything else.