Increased levels of chatter
Oct. 18th, 2004 11:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusI'm posting this morning to message boards on three subjects.
1. On the Stirling Prize for Architecture:
'The Grauniad has a long piece on the gherkin today entitled A Fine Pickle. Jonathan Jones got me onside in the first half with pep talk about what a nice shape it is and how London needs skyscrapers. Then he completely lost me by saying that contemporary art has lost architecture's vision of Modernism, and that Modernism and the Renaissance have a lot in common, and modern art hasn't yet been understood and therefore can't be supplanted by post-modern art...
'In the end the article just seems symptomatic of the tendecy of Britain to pick up on art movements very, very late and then knock their successors on the head for daring to have evolved somewhere else while the critics were fumbling about, trying to decide whether to jump on the bandwagon or not. When Britain adopts the Euro I fully expect them to start complaining to the European Central Bank 'But why have you changed the design of the notes when the original was so good?'
'In other words, what I really object to in Jones' piece is his need to propose Modernism as a new Classicism.'
2. On Musicians working in genres they have contempt for:
'Coupla points. First, it's an interview cliche for musicians to say they hate the genre their band is associated with, because they've always got a 'Don't fence me in' attitude and an eye on the long game, and genre is very subject to fashion. See, for instance, The Cardigans on 'Easy Listening' or Blur on Britpop.
'Second, all pop musicians nevertheless work in a genre which is, to some extent, contemptible, and that genre is pop music. So it's inevitable that a highly ambivalent mixture of contempt and respect -- held in taut and suggestive tension with each other -- should mark their attitude to their medium. You could cite any pop record ever made and locate contempt/respect ambivalence in it, but just for fun I'm going to cite Beck's 'Midnite Vultures'.
'I'd add that as we get deeper into the post-modern period, one of the hallmarks of pomo -- its refusal to make distinctions between 'high' and 'low' culture -- will rob pop music of some of its vital energy, which comes precisely from its contempt for itself. In an era where even the prime minister was in a rock band, where pop music is taught in pop music colleges, where pop music is played by the authorities in 'social control' situations like planes on runways, and where cultural studies legitimizes pop as a serious academic subject, pop can't retain its component of self-contempt, and therefore will start to take on the dead, fusty, respectable, museum-like mantle of classical music or jazz.
'This is an extension of the attitude (which we now laugh at) of Noel Coward, who talked in one of his plays about 'the strange potency of cheap music'. My argument is that the potency is all tied up with our feeling that pop music is 'cheap'. Once pop music starts to feel 'expensive' and 'valuable' and 'endorsed by all the authorities', it loses the potency of its 'otherness'.'
3. (Not unrelated to 2) Marc Almond fighting for life after motorcycle accident:
'This is very bad news indeed. One does not usually make a full recovery from 'head injuries' which are 'critical'.'
1. On the Stirling Prize for Architecture:
'The Grauniad has a long piece on the gherkin today entitled A Fine Pickle. Jonathan Jones got me onside in the first half with pep talk about what a nice shape it is and how London needs skyscrapers. Then he completely lost me by saying that contemporary art has lost architecture's vision of Modernism, and that Modernism and the Renaissance have a lot in common, and modern art hasn't yet been understood and therefore can't be supplanted by post-modern art...
'In the end the article just seems symptomatic of the tendecy of Britain to pick up on art movements very, very late and then knock their successors on the head for daring to have evolved somewhere else while the critics were fumbling about, trying to decide whether to jump on the bandwagon or not. When Britain adopts the Euro I fully expect them to start complaining to the European Central Bank 'But why have you changed the design of the notes when the original was so good?'
'In other words, what I really object to in Jones' piece is his need to propose Modernism as a new Classicism.'
2. On Musicians working in genres they have contempt for:
'Coupla points. First, it's an interview cliche for musicians to say they hate the genre their band is associated with, because they've always got a 'Don't fence me in' attitude and an eye on the long game, and genre is very subject to fashion. See, for instance, The Cardigans on 'Easy Listening' or Blur on Britpop.
'Second, all pop musicians nevertheless work in a genre which is, to some extent, contemptible, and that genre is pop music. So it's inevitable that a highly ambivalent mixture of contempt and respect -- held in taut and suggestive tension with each other -- should mark their attitude to their medium. You could cite any pop record ever made and locate contempt/respect ambivalence in it, but just for fun I'm going to cite Beck's 'Midnite Vultures'.
'I'd add that as we get deeper into the post-modern period, one of the hallmarks of pomo -- its refusal to make distinctions between 'high' and 'low' culture -- will rob pop music of some of its vital energy, which comes precisely from its contempt for itself. In an era where even the prime minister was in a rock band, where pop music is taught in pop music colleges, where pop music is played by the authorities in 'social control' situations like planes on runways, and where cultural studies legitimizes pop as a serious academic subject, pop can't retain its component of self-contempt, and therefore will start to take on the dead, fusty, respectable, museum-like mantle of classical music or jazz.
'This is an extension of the attitude (which we now laugh at) of Noel Coward, who talked in one of his plays about 'the strange potency of cheap music'. My argument is that the potency is all tied up with our feeling that pop music is 'cheap'. Once pop music starts to feel 'expensive' and 'valuable' and 'endorsed by all the authorities', it loses the potency of its 'otherness'.'
3. (Not unrelated to 2) Marc Almond fighting for life after motorcycle accident:
'This is very bad news indeed. One does not usually make a full recovery from 'head injuries' which are 'critical'.'
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-19 08:19 am (UTC)I always saw 'Ne Me Quitte Pas' as a painfully ironic song -- it's almost assuredly the desperation shown by the lyricist that drives his lover away.
The BBC says Marc Almond is "critical but stable". That doesn't sound incredibly promising to me.
Marc Almond's website has the following:
Marc Almond was involved in collision between a car and a motorcycle yesterday and is currently in hospital in London. He was the passenger on the motorcycle and suffered serious injuries. Last night he underwent emergency surgery and today is in intensive care where his condition remains critical. We will bring you updates on his condition as soon as possible. We're all very shocked at this news and our thoughts, as we know yours will be, are with Marc and his family right now.
If you wish to send a message for Marc please use the following address: thinkingofyou@marcalmond.co.uk (mailto:thinkingofyou@marcalmond.co.uk)