Rockism lives, Part 43

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

From the latest Rolling Stone, an article chronicling how kids are discovering classic-rock. Money graf:

Though classic rock is in no danger of edging out emo and hip-hop on most teenagers' playlists, a growing number of kids are also making room for Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles. At the same time, electric-guitar sales are soaring, with the cheapest models nearly doubling in sales from 2003 to 2004. "Kids go through hard rock, hip-hop and pop very quickly, and then they're hungry for something else," says E Street Band guitarist and garage-rock DJ Steven Van Zandt -- who gets hundreds of e-mails from teens thanking him for introducing them to bands like the Kinks. "They always end up coming to [classic] rock & roll."

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/9257498/teens_save_classic_rock

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:19 (nineteen years ago)

You seem to be making the classic mistake of assuming that anyone who likes rock music is a rockist. Now, it you had reprinted a piece of the article where the guy said something about how today's youth are tired of the cheap disposability of pop and hip-hop, and instead are yearning for music with real passion, then yes, you could say that rockism lives.

Given that every article in Rolling Stone talks about passion, I am sure this one must have too.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:24 (nineteen years ago)

Van Zandt is a fucking tool.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:24 (nineteen years ago)

are electric guitar sales really soaring?

― Dominique (dleone), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:24 (nineteen years ago)

xpost - Seconded.

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

Haven't we already had a r***ism thread about comments made by Van Zandt?

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:26 (nineteen years ago)

van zandt's radio show is kinda cool...he's on our local classic rock station, he plays some good nuggets type stuff.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:28 (nineteen years ago)

I like a lot of the music SVZ plays, but I think a lot of his comments are full of dickery.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

i saw him at katz's the other day

he really dresses like that

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

are electric guitar sales really soaring?

I think he meant electric guitar solos.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

Haven't we already had a r***ism thread about comments made by Van Zandt?
Once he said "I ain't gonna play Sun City," now he says "Disco Sucks!"

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

How is it that a 2006 article proving that guitars are coming back can't quote sales figures that aren't already 2 years old?

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:34 (nineteen years ago)

Shh, Sean, you're giving it away!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:34 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe the kids buying guitars like The Roots.

― erklie (erklie), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

From the same article:

"It's almost a cyclical thing -- as music ages, it can become cool again," says Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis, who covers the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care" on her new solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat. But Lewis also sees a simpler reason for the trend: "It's called classic rock for a reason -- it's classic. It's just really great music."

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:45 (nineteen years ago)

I'm just glad to see someone covering the Traveling Wilburys.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:46 (nineteen years ago)

You seem to be making the classic mistake of assuming that anyone who likes rock music is a rockist..

Hardly. I quoted Van Zandt to show how moronic his logic is. Hip-hop, hard rock, pop = instant pleasure; classic rock = lasting pleasure.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:47 (nineteen years ago)

It's not a bad cover either!

(xpost)

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:47 (nineteen years ago)

Once he said "I ain't gonna play Sun City," now he says "Disco Sucks!"

This whole article is hysterical for so many reasons.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:49 (nineteen years ago)

This is mindblowing:
Classic-rock mainstay George Thorogood, meanwhile, has had to change his set lists to accommodate the growing number of kids at his shows. "I've had to clean it up a little bit," he says. "It's like, 'Cocaine Blues'? Maybe not."

THAT'S WHAT THE KIDS WANT TO HEAR, THOUGH, GEORGIE!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 13 February 2006 20:07 (nineteen years ago)

are electric guitar sales really soaring?

Guitar sales are strong and have been moving up, particularly on the really cheap end. Slave labor guitars made in China/Indonesia/Vietnam are the movers. You see a lot of them in Wal-Mart and even now in BestBuy, where they sell pieces branded as Gibson (actually, look close at the box, they're Gibson-Baldwin) cheezo/dilettante-market copies of the Les Paul and the SG. So you can get a guitar for less than $100 for the First Act and under instruments, and get a "Gibson" piece of crap for about twice that.

Theoretically, every kid can easily afford a guitar or two and put his band on Myspace. Often it looks like they do.

― George the Animal Steele, Monday, 13 February 2006 20:10 (nineteen years ago)

It often sounds like it as well.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 13 February 2006 20:15 (nineteen years ago)

Van Zandt is a fucking tool.

Doesn't he have the only rock 'n' roll radio show in the country? Never have heard it but I read that a lot, particularly when people who couldn't give their records away are being profiled as to where they're getting airplay or special consideration.

― George the Animal Steele, Monday, 13 February 2006 20:17 (nineteen years ago)

The Gibson-Baldwin Les Pauls are actually amusing to hold. The body is quite obviously made of plywood. Looks like it, feels like it. Didn't plug it in. I don't need to play a plywood guitar, maybe some doof does.

Anyway, here's a slave labor market seventy dollar plywood Strat some guy professes to be crazy over. I don't believe him.

http://www.musicyo.com/news/cheap.asp

― George the Animal Steele, Monday, 13 February 2006 20:23 (nineteen years ago)

classic rock musician/classic rock dj privileging classic rock shocker!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 13 February 2006 20:27 (nineteen years ago)

several times a year, Rolling Stone will publish something along these lines implicitly to please Jann, if not to justify itself as the canon-keeper altogether.

and Van Zandt is the go-to guy for such quotes. as for Jenny Lewis, I know very little about her…does she say dopey shit like this alot?

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Monday, 13 February 2006 20:30 (nineteen years ago)

"as for Jenny Lewis, I know very little about her…does she say dopey shit like this alot?"

I have no idea. But I thought it was called "classic rock" because that was a term coined by radio programmers for a specific broadcasting format.

― James, Monday, 13 February 2006 20:36 (nineteen years ago)

Those new $100 and less guitars are awesome. I hope a ton of kids buy those cheapo guitars and make music ESPECIALLY if they don't know how to play. That can only lead to good, in my opinion.

― cooking and taking to long and zen and blues, Monday, 13 February 2006 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

Does Jenny Lewis say anything about new music being terrible? Because if she doesn't, I don't see what the big deal is. That music is classic. That doesn't mean that JL thinks new music sucks or is an ephemeral pleasure. Not really fair to conflate her with SVZ.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 13 February 2006 20:50 (nineteen years ago)

well, maybe I shouldn't be too hard on her, but still seems like she's seeking brownie points from RS for saying something completetely unnecessary (and perhaps she said other stuff not included in the article).

The point is, Jann Wenner needs everyone to know that HIS GENERATION WAS THE BESTEST EVAH!!!! Its virtues and its attendant culture are undying and immutable…

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:13 (nineteen years ago)

Those new $100 and less guitars are awesome.

Awesomely bad, yes, that's true. If people who don't know how to play play guitar, that's all right, but it's a lot easier to make a good recording of playing badly, with a guitar that's not such a rock bottom slave labor piece. If you're going to put your worst foot forward, use the right tools. Put another, really shitty guitars can make even shitty players not want to pick up the instrument.

― George the Animal Steele, Monday, 13 February 2006 21:31 (nineteen years ago)

Those new $100 and less guitars are awesome.
Notice in the musicyo article, the guy boasts about getting this cheap $69 guitar and then has to spend all this time fixing it just to stop the whammy bar from interfering with the knobs.

Jann Wenner needs everyone to know that HIS GENERATION WAS THE BESTEST EVAH!!!!
Hey, Jann...Have a nice mugful of STFU, you hippie burnout bastard. Why don't you go and bicker with Tom Brokaw about who the greatest generation is, eh?

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 00:34 (nineteen years ago)

Does Jenny Lewis say anything about new music being terrible? Because if she doesn't, I don't see what the big deal is. That music is classic.

- polyphonic (polyphonic@hotmail.com), February 13th, 2006.

The big deal is that these kids who are only listening to Pink Floyd are missing out on the Velvet Underground, Ramones and Stooges as well as old-school funk and bubble-gum pop, and contemporary pop and rap and more. They've convinced themselves that a radio marketing tool ("classic rock") is a way to define what should be listened to. As for Jenny, she has been touting Laura Nyro who is not exactly a classic-rock mainstay, but otherwise hasn't she mostly been giving interviews where she just touts the music her mom played.

― curmudgeon (Steve K), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 05:16 (nineteen years ago)

People need to try harder to work up indignation in this thread.

Also, upon further review, I have a strange desire to buy cheap guitars if only to feed the "slave labor" meme.

― subgenius (subgenius), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 05:35 (nineteen years ago)

Have a nice mug of STFU, moron. So how does one earn a living wage even in east Asia building a MSRP 100 buck guitar and still turn a profit where the price includes raw materials and shipping to all over the US?

― George the Animal Steele, Tuesday, 14 February 2006 06:32 (nineteen years ago)

Theoretically, every kid can easily afford a guitar or two and put his band on Myspace. Often it looks like they do.

-- George the Animal Steele (george_the_animal_steele...), February 13th, 2006.

It often sounds like it as well.
-- Ned Raggett (ne...), February 13th, 2006.

my POV is that the anti-rockism 'movement" is the epitome of moronic Oprah-esque me-too!-ism... But someone explain to me how the above conversation is not rockist, rockist fucking rockist. Or was I not paying attention when another round of irony came and went?

― Honestly Trying, Tuesday, 14 February 2006 06:47 (nineteen years ago)

Calling Ned and me rockists. Ha-ha, you funny. And, yes, you've not been paying attention.

― George the Animal Steele, Tuesday, 14 February 2006 06:50 (nineteen years ago)

Not feeling the explanation part.

― Honestly trying, Tuesday, 14 February 2006 06:52 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, you'll just have to read a lot more of threads. Can't help ya with that, though. I know, I know, your mind is tossing upon the ocean.

― George the Animal Steele, Tuesday, 14 February 2006 06:57 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, you'll just have to read a lot more of threads.

Amazingly enough, an even more rockist comment. appealing to others for explanation.

― Honestly trying, Tuesday, 14 February 2006 07:02 (nineteen years ago)

How about you explain why the conversation is rockist first. I don't see it myself.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 10:53 (nineteen years ago)

are electric guitar sales really soaring?

No but are electric guitar solos are really soaring

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 10:56 (nineteen years ago)

OK I'm the last person on earth who'd defend JSW and Rolling Stone and I gots no use for "Lil" Steven, but...there's a germ of truth in that article. My 15 year old nephew and his friends are totally into primo pre-punk classic rock. Their spare time is spent in my sisters basement, now adorned w/black-light posters, where they pick out riffs and leads on their knockoff Les Pauls. They even have the same haircuts as my posse ca. 1976. Three years ago, interestingly, it was all about Eminem.

The humorlessness of the rockism/popism debate is fucking tedious.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 10:57 (nineteen years ago)

where oh where is the exciting mind who will stand up and say 'hey gramps we're all listening to kelly clarkson now so get stuffed with your horrible plywood phalluses, mkay'?

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 11:10 (nineteen years ago)

Pop's for old people, rock's where it's at

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 11:11 (nineteen years ago)

GET OVER IT FOLX

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

As I recall Led Zeppelin was incredibly popular amongst my peer group when we were in year 9 and 10 - this in 97 and 98. I'm not sure if adolescents being into classic rock is a new thing.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 11:27 (nineteen years ago)

I would have thought adolescents NOT being into classic rock was more of a story

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 11:31 (nineteen years ago)

Just to weigh in in my semi-unique position as yer favorite anti-rockist music store owner:

Guitar sales last year: up 25%
Turntable sales last year: non-existent (literally)
Average guitar lesson students per month in 2004: 22
Average guitar lesson students per month in 2005: 65
Best selling sheet music book in 2005: Creedence fucking Clearwater Revival

Don't kill the messenger.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 11:48 (nineteen years ago)

Creedence fucking Clearwater Revival happen to be fucking great

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 11:50 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 60 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

slow news week for RS staff: it's back!

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 00:06 (nineteen years ago)

Blount you're not saying that Beefheart > Lothar and the Hand People in part because he was more innovative (i.e., IN THIS PARTICULAR INSTANCE being innovative makes a difference) is rockist though are you?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 00:09 (nineteen years ago)

Matos OTM. Half the records mentioned on Rolling Country and Rolling Metal this year and last have been classic rock rekkids. And as far as I can tell, about half of cd baby is classic rock vanity and small label pressings.

― George the Animal Steele, Wednesday, 15 February 2006 00:20 (nineteen years ago)

A rockist believes that a transitory pleasure is a lesser thing, on some grand scale, than a lasting pleasure. A popist disagrees. This argument is essentially Dionysus vs. Apollo, which has been going on for thousands of years of course.

As Mike Dixn says above, rockism isn't about duration but about realness. A rockist believes that some music is more real than other music. A popist disagrees. This argument is essentially Plato vs. Aristotle, which has been going on for thousands of years of course.

― Momus (Momus), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 00:25 (nineteen years ago)

atlanta's got a new classic rock station that's fairly listenable so far, it's not great - z93 which very very briefly was a true classic rock fm style 'deep cuts' station before it became 'altrock + a few classic rock standards' dave fm (leading to what will probably be my fave commercial station computer playlist segue this year: skynyrd's 'saturday night special' -> new order's 'blue monday') was alot better - but they did have an ALL STONES format the day before the stones came to town - 'parachute woman', 'too much blood', 'yesterday's papers' all on commercial radio, shit was TIGHT.

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 00:26 (nineteen years ago)

one thing that is changing with classic rock formats that i've never understood in the past is how the playlists are soooo tight though, with top 40 i understand the argument somewhat but with classic rock surely you're hardly gonna scare away the audience is you stray from the same five zep cuts. i've noticed too that (locally at least) generation shift has definitely impacted classic rock radio - i'd guess the bowie to who ratio has been completely reversed, i hear ramones songs where i might've heard deep purple, more talking heads, more sabbath, ac/dc less segar, foreigner.

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 00:32 (nineteen years ago)

real reason classic rock is back:

http://www.vmunix.com/mark/blog/wp-content/guitar_hero3.jpg

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 00:48 (nineteen years ago)

This argument is essentially Plato vs. Aristotle, which has been going on for thousands of years of course.

agreed, although to say "I side with Plato!" or "I side with Aristotle!" is to announce that one's missed the point of either Plato or Aristotle, and of both

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 01:41 (nineteen years ago)

Although that is utter bullshit, ("only rich kids have dedication!") I'll give you a pat on the back and let you dream a little dream.

There isn't some yawning gap between $99 plywood guitars and $3000 PRS's. You know this of course, but it helps to ignore it if you want to construct some pointless bullshit argument, doesn't it.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 09:36 (nineteen years ago)

Being a rockist isn't about liking "rock" music or "real instruments" or "songwriting" - it's about you're attitude to the things you DON'T like as much as those you DO like; it's about dismissal, about seeing the subjective as objective, about not approaching things outside of a set oeuvre at all blah blah blah shit shit wiffle wiffle piff piff.

This is getting VERY tedious now. This is not like the Sufragettes or Rosa Parks striking a blow against a dominant hegemony that enslves or demeans huge swathes of social groups. It's not social justice.

Or is it?

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 09:44 (nineteen years ago)

I don't give a rats ass about "rockism", really it's just a way of making talking about music into something very tedious.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 09:49 (nineteen years ago)

Duh, classic rock didn't go anywhere-its AUDIENCE did, at least the young-ish one. I'd like to see the Arbitron numbers over the past 10 years to see the change.

Why are people still getting bent out of shape about rockism or perceived rockism? Haven't we moved on to other things?
There are also a few traditional country sounding songs on the Jenny Lewis album.

― harf, Wednesday, 15 February 2006 09:52 (nineteen years ago)

Iow. ILM'ers dismissing white guys with guitars because they are white guys with guitars is indeed very rockist. :)

― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 15 February 2006 11:28 (nineteen years ago)

Geir, liking something more than something else because it rocks more (for example: I like the Rolling Stones more than Gerry and the Pacemakers, in part, because they rock more) or because it was more inventive (for example: I like Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band more than Lothar and the Hand People, in part, because they were more inventive) is not necessarily ROCKIST.

Not neccessarily, but the moment you dismiss something because it either doesn't rock or isn't inventive (doesn't "change history"), then you reasoning is rockist.

― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 15 February 2006 11:31 (nineteen years ago)

What about if you dismiss huge swaths of music because of their reliance on rhythms or a percieved lack of melody?

― js (honestengine), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 17:00 (nineteen years ago)

I don't give a rats ass about "rockism", really it's just a way of making talking about music into something very tedious.

OTM. I think we're done here.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 17:09 (nineteen years ago)

Geirism is the Nigger of World

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 17:26 (nineteen years ago)

I'm seriously always surprised that you guys are up for ANOTHER rockism thread. I cannot believe you guys have not had enough.

― the duder/broham paradox, Wednesday, 15 February 2006 17:29 (nineteen years ago)

So if you could travel back in time to the 1950s, would you accuse someone who liked Eddie Cochran more than Nat "King" Cole of being rockist?

― Terrible Cold (Terrible Cold), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

is it rockist to sing a duet with yr dead father?

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 18:00 (nineteen years ago)

Only if you add a kickass guitar solo.

― Terrible Cold (Terrible Cold), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 18:03 (nineteen years ago)

only if you wrote the song you sing

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 18:05 (nineteen years ago)

all my rockist friends have settled down.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 18:05 (nineteen years ago)

Half the records mentioned on Rolling Country and Rolling Metal this year and last have been classic rock rekkids. And as far as I can tell, about half of cd baby is classic rock vanity and small label pressings.
-- George the Animal Steele (george_the_animal_steele...), February 15th, 2006.

So you think half sound like Pink Floyd, the Eagles or Led Zep?

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 18:32 (nineteen years ago)

modern country is just mostly new john cougar records for people that wish rock groups still made john cougar records.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 18:34 (nineteen years ago)

A rockist believes that some music is more real than other music. A popist disagrees. This argument is essentially Plato vs. Aristotle, which has been going on for thousands of years of course.

-- Momus (nic...), February 15th, 2006

Really, the rockism/authenticity thing isn't a Plato vs Aristotle dispute, I don't think. It's really a romanticism (for which authenticity is key) vs. the Enlightenment (for which universality is key) dispute.

― Euler (Euler), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 19:04 (nineteen years ago)

So you think half sound like Pink Floyd, the Eagles or Led Zep?

Nice try, but not even close.

― George the Animal Steele, Wednesday, 15 February 2006 19:47 (nineteen years ago)

xpost: It's more dicks vs. assholes

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 19:49 (nineteen years ago)

fuck both sides

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 19:54 (nineteen years ago)

I’ve nothing to add to this umpteenth debate on rockism, but I just wanna say how hilariously great the handle “Kanye Twitty” is

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 20:01 (nineteen years ago)

What is "classic rock" anyway? I mean, according to the Classic Rock radio stations' point of view, Peter Frampton and The Eagles are more important names in the rock canon than The Beatles.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 21:22 (nineteen years ago)

It's a meta term used for sifting on digital music sales sites with recommending functions.

― George the Animal Steele, Wednesday, 15 February 2006 21:51 (nineteen years ago)

Heh. The "What philosophical distinctions does the rockism/popism divide most closely resemble" conversation is pretty funny. (If anything, I'd say the Naturalism vs. Mannerism argument, but the whole thing's hamstrung by a) not having clear definitions of rockism or popism, b) the fact that most prior movement divides have embraced elements of both, and c) that it should have its own thread to truly revel in the silliness. "You see, rockism is more like the writings of Trotsky, which stressed violent purity, than the popist Lenin, whose work was more about building stability by manipulating democracy... Or Rockism can be seen as Hegelian, with an emphasis on encompasing systems of metaphysics, versus the popism of Neitzsche's aphoristic take...")

― js (honestengine), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 22:07 (nineteen years ago)

I'm bored. When do we drink beer and get laid?

― jhg, Thursday, 16 February 2006 00:55 (nineteen years ago)

at this rate, never

― gear (gear), Thursday, 16 February 2006 01:01 (nineteen years ago)

rockism: all your base are belong to us you have no chance to survive make your time
popism: homestar runner

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Thursday, 16 February 2006 01:31 (nineteen years ago)

rockism: eudora welty
popism: edith wharton

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Thursday, 16 February 2006 01:31 (nineteen years ago)

haha, both sides wish that last one were the case

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Thursday, 16 February 2006 01:32 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1752580,00.html

― enrique, pseudonym, Thursday, 13 April 2006 10:47 (nineteen years ago)

i've read stuff by natalie hanman before. she is quite stupendously dense.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 13 April 2006 10:57 (nineteen years ago)

i'm with ip on this -- she's a manufactured "writer" who uses prefabricated phrases because corporations find this cheaper and more saleable than authentic writing.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 13 April 2006 10:58 (nineteen years ago)

wtf, is this the same broad who wrote that bullshit about arctic monkeys that penman blogged about n' shit?

― enrique's pseudonym, Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:05 (nineteen years ago)

yes.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:08 (nineteen years ago)

The thrust of her argument seems to be that once upon a time "being obsessed with a boy band took time and devotion" but now the "immediacy and availability" of other music renders such devotion a waste of time; does she really want to attribute the long-awaited triumph of Real Music to...a lack of commitment?!?

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:12 (nineteen years ago)

Plus the only reason I can why the Arctic Monkeys might be more challenging than Busted (speaking as someone who likes neither) is cuz the former's misogyny is smugger than the latter's.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:15 (nineteen years ago)

she's also assuming that since her tastes have changed since she was a teenager, clearly this represents a TREND in SOCIETY rather than, y'know, the fact that she got older.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

Boring article.

Sterling's post is great, though.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

Ultimately, naff clothes, dodgy haircuts and cringe-worthy choruses packaged up into a plastic CD case are a fad worth forgetting.

So many jpeg options, so little time

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

I was reading this on the train, and in between wanting to throw scalding hot coffee onto my face to alleviate the pain of her writing, the image of Menswe@r kept flashing into my head every four sentences.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:25 (nineteen years ago)

Is she taking the piss? I know she's not and is just either (a) an extremely gullible individual or (b) a cover for pure marketing speak masquerading as cutural comment... but still...
I hope she had to suck a lot shchlong to get her job, because she is one pisspoor journalist, the kind that makes you want to put your fist thru your own face every time you read her...

― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Thursday, 13 April 2006 22:03 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.