What's the best bit of music writing you've read this year?

DIEEEEEEEEE

-- DMB (DM...), July 15th, 2003 11:13 PM.

Or "It wouldn't be wildly inappropriate to identify American Life as an early 21st-century update of Love's Forever Changes, effecting as it does a similarly eerie ambivalence with its fusion of mind-altering sonics and mellow acoustics." UNCUT JUST COMPARED AMERICAN LIFE TO FOREVER FUCKING CHANGES!!! Grrr. Twats! Twats!

(I have just realised that the opposite of an arsehole is a mouth. Oh well, I like the phrase.)

I can't think of anything to link to which I've really, really loved this year. I've been happy with the things I've written (tATu, Colleen, Alasdair Roberts, Barbara Morgenstern) and I really like Spizzazzz (still) and Tim Finney's Coloma article. Apart from that, the absence of FT or any spine of magazines is noticable felt. (Frank Kogan's Contortions article was great too, though.)

once

I'm getting quite fond of hipsters these days. I blame ARE Weapons. And antitheses are good! I like reading a blog where I think "well he'd disagree with me a lot but at least he wouldn't think I'm a cunt."

Now the relaunch is all sorted out I can hopefully get on with writing some of the things I've been trying to goad myself into.

Spizzazzz is just a real, real joy.

I look forward to reading Tom Ewing again.

Maybe I can get around to writing for FT again eventually if I'm welcome / I can write better than I have in the past.

Yanc3y on Mono in City Pages:
http://citypages.com/databank/24/1172/article11268.asp

Matthew Wilder on Madonna in CP:
http://www.citypages.com/databank/24/1174/article11297.asp

Joe Gross on Malkmus in the Village Voice:
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0313/gross.php

Sasha on The New Pornographers in Slate:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2083366/

I think what I enjoyed lots was j0hn's thread abt R kelly's remix single and why it was so great. that was a lot of fun for me as i posted a bit on that but I enjoyed his reasoning in the early part of the thread and made my appreciation of the song increase 100 fold (I think when i first heard it I ddin't like it and then it turned to yes I like it to now I love this).

As far as interviews: as I only read the wire the most I've enjoyed was the interviews with Mauricio Kagel and Alan Silva.

Chuck's take on the Stripes was also very, very good.

From there, it's tough to say -- criticism in general sucks now. Between the Blenderizing of the industry and the sheer volume of music crimping the time for style, tis not a good time for serious criticism.

But a couple others I've enjoyed:
Phil Freeman on Metallica for the Cleveland Scene:
http://www.clevescene.com/issues/2003-05-28/music.html/1/index.html

Joe Gross' little one on the Drive-By Truckers/Kings of Leon for Spin.

Then, and I'm not shy or non-shameless about this at all, there've been some really nice ones my writers for the Phoenix New Times have completed. We have the best alt-weekly reviews section in the country (not counting the Voice, which is a Bible). Demos:

Joy Hepp on Fiction Plane: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2003-03-27/recordings2.html/1/index.html

Mikael Wood on that terrible Madonna record (He likes it!! And makes a good case!!):
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2003-05-08/moltenwax.html/1/index.html

Piotr Orlov on Madlib:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2003-08-07/moltenwax2.html/1/index.html

O'C on Cat Power:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2003-02-20/moltenwax2.html/1/index.html

I like J0hn's posts.

blogs are an utter waste of time right now. i find most of them (especially spizzazzz which has taken the whole faux-naif thing out the otherside until I'm not actually convinced it's not real-naif...which I guess in context is some sort of achievement. but not one i really want to subject myself to on a daily basis. e crunk is the only one who can pull it off because he occasionally allows a sliver of his adult voice to come through.)

i don't think anything i've published this year has been particularly great either, mind you.

i have really high hope for the FT re-launch. and nylpm is hopping again, nominally, but still a little too dry as compared with the old days.

(i'm trying to be tactful and not say which)

Summer Madness is
My favorite Kool & the
Gang song Julio

if I can vote for stuff I edited: http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0330/music-animal.php -- Rod Smith on the Animal Collective inna A.A. Milne stylee.

Poor Mod(erator), too trusting of quiet technologies.

It's easy to ignore "Tumblr" as a thing. It's also easy to ignore "Facebook" and "Twitter" and "Social media" in general, as things.

But, partly because things like Tumblr are safe from the prying parental eyes of "old dudes that don't get it" means, I think, that expressions of identity there are likely to be safer and freer - and resultantly, perhaps more genuine?

And also, while it is possible to ignore "Tumblr" as a thing, I think it's increasingly impossible to ignore the effects of social media - like Tumblr - on political discourse. Be that social justice, UK Uncut, the Arab Spring or Gamergate. His ISIS quip is just him being a cnut, but he's really kind of displaying his ignorance of how people use tools whose existence he's blissfully unaware of.

people used to listen to music. now they just listen to computers

70 year old man in not understanding or appreciating the modern world shocker.

there's some answer in here that relates to the "youthing" of modern society as a whole i guess but nobody needs to read what a grumpy 45 year-old dude has to say about that

― The Falun Gong Show (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 29 October 2014 11:44 (1 hour ago) Permalink

I was thinking recently that a key change is that we no longer necessarily conceive of the adult in culture as a parent. This has contributed more than anything else to the "youthing of modern society", and also the disintegration of strong generational divides w/r/t "the kids".

"kidult"

Here we are with the world in the state it is in, and we’ve got Roger Daltrey. Where are the authority figures with any real sense of outrage and purpose? There are no parents at the moment: we had Lee De Forest and then there was Mary Whitehouse, but it’s so hard to start a fight now.

Is Tumblr really a youth movement? Strikes me more as a platform rather than a specific movement. And surely blogging about counter-culture, social justice etc is more in line with the 25-45 y/o demographic? Not that young people don't blog, but a bunch of kids sitting behind their laptops doesn't really feel like an active 'shaking-up' of society (assuming that's what Daltrey is banging on about in his quote which has now been reduced and extrapolated way beyond what he probably meant to say in the first place).

It's true that the generational gap has been bridged a fair bit and now parents are happy to pay for tattoos on their kids' 18th birthdays while middle-managers listening to black metal isn't anything particularly strange. But surely there is a common enemy out there still? I figure that really it's because rebellion was turned into money a long time ago and now the idea of rebellion is greeted with derision. One of the main criticisms of the ongoing Brand saga is that his message is an empty recap of sixties counter-culture or 6th form politics - Che Guevara t-shirt wearing nonsense which proved ultimately impotent in the long run. People 'who march' are seen as timewasters and nuisances - exercisers of pointlessness. Counter-cultures are assimilated by the corporate mainstream until they make little sense at all. But is that really true? IF there had been no rock'n'roll counter-culture in the 60s, 70s and 80s, would all these doors be open; would the generational gap still be so narrow? Is it possible that *gasp* both sides of the youth vs adult cultural war won?

people used to listen to music. now they just listen to computers

― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin)

^^ sung in the voice of Don Henley

Is Tumblr really a youth movement? Strikes me more as a platform rather than a specific movement.

It is a platform that is FULL of youth movements, or rather, of youths performing identity and tribal aspects of identity in a way that I think even a (20-something version of Daltry) would recognise as movements.

And it slants *young*. Like, I get really freaked out too many times, when I mutually follow someone because of some mutual interest, and then in one of their posts, they start talking about "exams" and I think "college" but then another post reveals, no, they're in high school. That freaks me out a bit because I feel like *I'm* encroaching on their territory, like, I do believe that young people deserve a safe space away from their parents in which to form their identity.

It's also a good reminder that although for many people, the "generational gap" has been bridged, and blah blah parents paying for tattoos and listening to black metal together, that there are still many, many issues that young people face that are *not* bridged yet - e.g. young people being thrown out of family homes for being gay or being trans etc. It's a very blunt reminder that "there is no generation gap" is a highly privileged position to be able to take.

Capitalism is doing its damndest to bridge the generation gap but it's not there yet.

xpost I agree - the gap is narrower in many aspects that well, parents aren't worried their children are going to become satanists because they listen to Kiss or what have you, but there's still a lot to be fighting for and standing up to. Maybe the main difference is that this isn't being reflected in music so much as it is on Tumblr, social media etc?

Perhaps the question isn't whether 'youth culture'/'counter culture' exists, but whether music is still the most valid platform for this to centre around? Music in the 20th century always seemed so central to so many forms of rebellion, it could almost be seen as the platform and catalyser of so many counter-cultural movements. Where would the Rastafari movement be without music for example? It probably wouldn't exist beyond a small hilltop community. And the number of people who were inspired by scenes like punk, riot grrrl, hip hop as a force for change. These are undeniable. But does music do this any more? Do people congregate around a music scene in order to evoke political and social change in the same way they did?

Music didn't seem central to rebellion, or youth culture, in the 20th century; it seemed central to some youth cultures between 1956 and... I dunno, pick a date. 2002. 2008. 1999. A period of about 50 years. Now there's other stuff that young people are into 9there always was, but there might be more now, as driven by technology). Snapchat. Tumblr. Computer games. Whatever.

there's some answer in here that relates to the "youthing" of modern society as a whole i guess but nobody needs to read what a grumpy 45 year-old dude has to say about that

― The Falun Gong Show (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 29 October 2014 11:44 (1 hour ago) Permalink

I was thinking recently that a key change is that we no longer necessarily conceive of the adult in culture as a parent. This has contributed more than anything else to the "youthing of modern society", and also the disintegration of strong generational divides w/r/t "the kids".

― Tim F, Wednesday, October 29, 2014 12:57 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think there are a lot of ways in which social expectations have changed that have lessened the sense of tribal allegiance based on age esp wrt culture. the 60s&70s sorts are myopic if they don't realize that they themselves (with their apparently life-long expertise on adolescence) are what's different in the landscape. lots of those teenhood values are more universalized, being ~a teenager~ doesn't have so much cultural import

Rereading a Raymond Carver story this a.m. I noticed a 61-year-old character referred to as "an old man."

it all leads back to normcore

i mean, if you frame it in the terms in my last post, that's kind of where the journalist's argument falls a bit flat and daltrey's argument starts to make more sense. How exactly did Amy Winehouse, Pulp, Prince and St Vincent (much as I enjoy these) inspire movements in the societal or youth-culture sense on the scale of mod or punk? By comparison, Mod culture was a genuine movement - it excited working class teenagers and frightened authority figures. It catalysed and civil unrest. And while you might get a soundsystem playing dance music or dancehall at a protest, this acts more like background music for the action rather than the central reasoning behind it. it's very likely that computer games and blogging platforms have taken over from music; and for good reason - but daltrey isn't really talking about blogs and computer games, is he? he's talking about music as a force for cultural and societal change.

Music didn't seem central to rebellion, or youth culture, in the 20th century; it seemed central to some youth cultures between 1956 and... I dunno, pick a date. 2002. 2008. 1999. A period of about 50 years. Now there's other stuff that young people are into 9there always was, but there might be more now, as driven by technology). Snapchat. Tumblr. Computer games. Whatever.

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, October 29, 2014 2:24 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

music as counter culture didn't begin in 1956.

he's talking about music as a force for cultural and societal change.

two words: Mackluh. More.

xpost but you're right, not all music in C20 = rebellion, which is the important thing to consider. One Direction are not a rebellious or counter-cultural band as far as I know, which is why Daltrey's argument seems so ridiculous and cloud-shouting on first read. That said, I find it harder and harder to think of an act that really is attempting to shake things up in the ways outlined upthread.

then again, I don't pay that much attention to pop and youth music, so i could be wrong. I know Macklemore is totally ridiculous, but I'm sure there are loads of pop and country icons currently singing about social issues in a more constructive way.

were 'punk' and 'mod' really more culturally influential than 'edm' or 'any other genre of music'? these things are all 'noise that annoys yr parents' + 'fashion', right? was punk really 'more' than that? is lady gaga really 'less' than that?

Punk yes, mod no.

punk was a bunch of white ppl slumming it

history of rock and roll in 9 words

except not really

hardly anybody saw those early punk shows but everybody who did wanked on and on and on and on and on about it

so Tom is correct in the kinda sense that Punk ruined popular music writing forever

'gen x vastly overstates the "importance" of punk rock' is not a challop it is a challtruth

hey i'm agreeing with you but without the iffy race/class bits

xpost to sleepingbag
It's a good point, and yes it's easy to boil down punk into 'noise that annoys', but I'd say there was reasoning behind punk (at least for a while) that accompanied and spurred along alternative political ideas for quite a few years after; and that would manifest itself later through things like Crass, riot grrrl movement etc and onto the left/anarchist/feminist movements. compare that to EDM which seems to be more about getting a load of brat middle-class kids drunk in a stadium. Not saying all punk was political or that it wasn't beyond marketing or corporatism, but I feel as though there's a difference. Same with Mod - it was a banner disenchanted working class kids grouped behind. It incited physical rebellion in the form of the seaside clashes - aimless as they were. But I don't see how EDM even comes close to the kind of anti-establishment ethic of those earlier movements.

challop = "challtruth" though iirc? it means "yes, very good, everybody knows that, congratulations on blowing so many minds"

that's one of the 2 definitions of challop, the useful one

(xxp) You don't know much, if anything, about Mods, do you?

your display name, dear god wins

yeah soz I've been meaning to change

no, it's all approval

Daltrey has proudly and repeatedly stated that he's never, ever used a computer. If someone mentioned Tumblr to him, he wouldn't know what you're talking about.

(also, he never trashed a hotel room; he always went to sleep right after shows)

(xxp) You don't know much, if anything, about Mods, do you?

― ... and a Martin Parr photo essay (Tom D.), Wednesday, October 29, 2014 3:11 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I wasn't alive in the sixties, if that's what you mean, but I've read up on a lot of what apparently and allegedly went on at the time. Obv, it's all stuff seen through the eyes of the day's media - Mods'n'rockers exhibitions in Margate displaying newspaper stories on hysterical par with the London riots, interviews with mods and rockers etc... So I know a wee bit, but no, I have no first hand experience of the mod movement.

Daltrey has proudly and repeatedly stated that he's never, ever used a computer

shame townshend didn't try this defense

All these things, of course, are blown out of proportion; old fuckers talking about their youth as if it was big and important, when in fact it was probably just a media constructed excuse for weasely little oiks to kick some bins over. But it's just as easy to look back on any youth movement as an adult and go 'well that's just a load of empty sloganeering and meaningless gestures; how did that change society?' as it is to disparage today's pop music as being 'worthless'.

If Daltrey doesn't use a computer at all in 2014 then how the fuck does he have any idea wtf is going on with youth culture? stfu old luddite.

he watches X Factor. that's all it is now these days isn't it? it's all Simon Cowell and Bros and all that

You're way off the mark if you think bros are into X Factor.

doglatin, why are you wasting time arguing with someone who thinks punk was nbd? It's depressing and ignorant to downplay the real significance of certain movements. Better to champion the significance of ones that don't get as much attention.

doglatin, why are you wasting time arguing with someone who thinks punk was nbd?

bored at work TBH.

Funny that mod was once an anti-retro movement. Continually trying to keep with the moment instead of looking at an ideal(ised) past.
&there hasn't been a single unifying youth movement since punk has there? Seemed to be something of a result of punk the amount of differing youth movements from then on, at least initially.

feel like one of the main legacies of punk is that the amount of subgroups that formed as a result of it, and more often than not violently hated each other, made plain that a "unifying youth movement" is all but impossible in practice