When does one reasonably have to give up being a musician?
Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 7:02 pm
MrFood
I hear you. As a twenty year-old englishman whose feelings towards his peers' musical offerings make your complaints look like sparkling praise, I would suggest the following: 95% of all indie music (no matter how underground) at all points in history has been poisoned by fashion, retrocool and delusions of originality. I often find myself lamenting this foul year of our lord 2004 and wishing that I could have been in New York in '81 or Chicago in '83 or Leeds in '78 or Orange County in '62 but in all likelyhood I would have felt just as disillusioned then/there as here/now. There are plenty of really depressing arguments to suggest things aren't going to improve (see End of History, etc.), but lately I've been cheering myself up with the following: It's the beginning of a new century (admittedly a century is a completely arbitrary time reference but bear with me). Imagine we were kicking around at this age in 1904. Think of all the things we would have to look forward to, culturally. Dada, Futurism, Modernism, German Expressionism, (insert your own favorites)... keep hangin' on. It's these kinds of stagnant mires of insipid cultural mediocrity (hairrock, truckercaps and so forth) that inadvertantly provoke some of the greatest artists/movements. Sue Tissue: All action is reaction, expansion and contraction, (something something).
Cigars.
I hear you. As a twenty year-old englishman whose feelings towards his peers' musical offerings make your complaints look like sparkling praise, I would suggest the following: 95% of all indie music (no matter how underground) at all points in history has been poisoned by fashion, retrocool and delusions of originality. I often find myself lamenting this foul year of our lord 2004 and wishing that I could have been in New York in '81 or Chicago in '83 or Leeds in '78 or Orange County in '62 but in all likelyhood I would have felt just as disillusioned then/there as here/now. There are plenty of really depressing arguments to suggest things aren't going to improve (see End of History, etc.), but lately I've been cheering myself up with the following: It's the beginning of a new century (admittedly a century is a completely arbitrary time reference but bear with me). Imagine we were kicking around at this age in 1904. Think of all the things we would have to look forward to, culturally. Dada, Futurism, Modernism, German Expressionism, (insert your own favorites)... keep hangin' on. It's these kinds of stagnant mires of insipid cultural mediocrity (hairrock, truckercaps and so forth) that inadvertantly provoke some of the greatest artists/movements. Sue Tissue: All action is reaction, expansion and contraction, (something something).
Cigars.