[idm] you might like this post if you listen to dj spooky and henry rollins
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quoted 11 lines Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 00:45:32 -0000> Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 00:45:32 -0000
> From: "nobo jackson" <iamnobojackson@hotmail.com>
> Subject: [idm]Laptop Punks and Powerbook Pop
>
> ...Similar frustration arises when journalists try to read something into a
> piece of music that just isn't there.
>
> So, bottom line: Thank you journalists who read (and help produce) this list
> for doing what you do. You save me a great deal of time. But please just
> try to be a bit more straightforward. The phrase "you might like this if
> you like X, Y, or Z" oftentimes is more than sufficient.
Doesn't anyone, writer or not, get frustrated at comments like these?
Isn't is possible that a writer can correctly read a piece of music,
and even extend its appreciation by pointing out other meanings it
might hold, that might not be evident to a casual listener?
The fun of art is that it doesn't have to fit into cut-and-dried
consumerist descriptions, i.e. "it sounds like X + Y + Z + a little
Autechre on the side, therefore go out and buy it."
If you have to be instructed by your music magazine on what to buy,
then you're reading the wrong magazine. Or perhaps you're reading
whatever you deserve to read.
Writers get paid (well, frankly, most don't) by the music industry to
use their imaginations and, I think, most try to take what they
believe to be interesting and legitimately creative pieces of work
and put it into words, to raise or change the perception of something
that the general public might not even give a second glance.
It is fucking hard to translate X minutes of music into a
two-paragraph piece. Creative writing of any kind is hard work (as it
should be).
Anyone who can do this without resorting to glib, easy, and often
inaccurate comparisions with other groups -- which is usually just a
disguised form of namedropping, when the names get obscure -- anyone
who can use the power of words to make a deserving work of art sound
fresh and inventive, has earned my respect.
Even more so are you deserving if you are lucky enough to manage to
somehow make a living off of this business. It is a lot harder than
you think.
Some writers aspire to be the equivalent of rock stars, but others go
for respect, and it is insulting to throw everyone into the same
pigeonhole.
Yeesh,
Alex
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