blissblogger
Well-known member
bit more
while writing the last lengthy peroration a bunch of other postings in came through:
>When Pop has been powerful, it has PRODUCED populations, not 'represented' already-existing organic >communities...
i like this idea, this is obviously what the pirate radio continuum did, it created a tribe.... not everybody in London within the certain age parameters was a member by any means, and indeed now as woebot is arguing in the thread on urban music, the grime tribe is actually pretty small suggesting that the hard core of it is surrounded by a floating audience who are much less firmly invested but like bits of it along wiht bashment, hip hop, old skool 2step, r&b etc.
HOWEVER the population/tribe wasn't created ex nihilo , it was created out of the actual population in the normal sense of the city, there are certain tendencies that determine its composition -- which can be analyssed on race/class/gender/etc levels, because the music repels some and attracts others
BUT there is also an elective element to this, you can self-select yourself as tribal member... that is perhaps where the grime bloggerati fit in, uneasily, as people who don't fit the profile in sociological or geographic respects but for other socio-biographic reasons are drawn to it and enter into a fanatical relationship with it
for many grime-bloggerati the attraction is probably 98 percent sonic maybe, but for me beyond the sonic attraction it also has a political dimension (which is what seems to bother--i mean, genuinely perturb and upset--a lot of people, causing them to invoke concepts like liberal guilt, social worker etc) *
the political dimension i would characterize using a word that is totally unfashionable and i'm sure will be seized on by piranha-like hordes for ridicule but it seems like a totally apt word and the word is:
SOLIDARITY
and here i'm just ripping off John Berger** who was interviewed in the observer over the weekend discussing how the word had dropped out of favour and that was the measure of our decline (our i think meaning the Left)
i am just curious why it is considered so inconceivable and and unseemly that an oxbridge-educated off-white person from hertfordshire might feel some kind of connection and empathy (and also admiration) vis-a-viz mostly black youths in london
what a sad fucking world when this is considered intrinsically absurd, don't you think?
isn't that what the power of music is all about -- connection?
this is why i like the metaphor of science because science is based around curiosity -- for me the idea of liking music and not being curious about the people who made it and the nature of their lives is inconceivable
* liberal guilt and social worker:
interesting, isn't it, how 'liberal guilt' has become the shameful thing, as opposed to the actual things -- inequality, deprivation, injustice etc-- that inspire the liberal guilt in the first place. chalk that one up to Thatcher and 25 years of post-socialism
interesting how 'social worker' went from being a respected and even noble profession -- typically pursued by idealistic young men and women with an interest in things like social justice, enabling people to improve their lot etc -- to being considered interfering do-gooders. Chalk that one up to Thatcher and 25 years of post-socialism. incidentally, Simon Frith told me that the Tories hated sociology--in the 70s one of the most popular courses for students--considering it a hotbed of socialism and moved swiftly to supplant it with business studies etc
* *
and yes i'm aware that john berger moved to rural france to live among peasants. but no worries, i'm not moving to stratford any time soon. no nostalgie de la concrete for me.
while writing the last lengthy peroration a bunch of other postings in came through:
>When Pop has been powerful, it has PRODUCED populations, not 'represented' already-existing organic >communities...
i like this idea, this is obviously what the pirate radio continuum did, it created a tribe.... not everybody in London within the certain age parameters was a member by any means, and indeed now as woebot is arguing in the thread on urban music, the grime tribe is actually pretty small suggesting that the hard core of it is surrounded by a floating audience who are much less firmly invested but like bits of it along wiht bashment, hip hop, old skool 2step, r&b etc.
HOWEVER the population/tribe wasn't created ex nihilo , it was created out of the actual population in the normal sense of the city, there are certain tendencies that determine its composition -- which can be analyssed on race/class/gender/etc levels, because the music repels some and attracts others
BUT there is also an elective element to this, you can self-select yourself as tribal member... that is perhaps where the grime bloggerati fit in, uneasily, as people who don't fit the profile in sociological or geographic respects but for other socio-biographic reasons are drawn to it and enter into a fanatical relationship with it
for many grime-bloggerati the attraction is probably 98 percent sonic maybe, but for me beyond the sonic attraction it also has a political dimension (which is what seems to bother--i mean, genuinely perturb and upset--a lot of people, causing them to invoke concepts like liberal guilt, social worker etc) *
the political dimension i would characterize using a word that is totally unfashionable and i'm sure will be seized on by piranha-like hordes for ridicule but it seems like a totally apt word and the word is:
SOLIDARITY
and here i'm just ripping off John Berger** who was interviewed in the observer over the weekend discussing how the word had dropped out of favour and that was the measure of our decline (our i think meaning the Left)
i am just curious why it is considered so inconceivable and and unseemly that an oxbridge-educated off-white person from hertfordshire might feel some kind of connection and empathy (and also admiration) vis-a-viz mostly black youths in london
what a sad fucking world when this is considered intrinsically absurd, don't you think?
isn't that what the power of music is all about -- connection?
this is why i like the metaphor of science because science is based around curiosity -- for me the idea of liking music and not being curious about the people who made it and the nature of their lives is inconceivable
* liberal guilt and social worker:
interesting, isn't it, how 'liberal guilt' has become the shameful thing, as opposed to the actual things -- inequality, deprivation, injustice etc-- that inspire the liberal guilt in the first place. chalk that one up to Thatcher and 25 years of post-socialism
interesting how 'social worker' went from being a respected and even noble profession -- typically pursued by idealistic young men and women with an interest in things like social justice, enabling people to improve their lot etc -- to being considered interfering do-gooders. Chalk that one up to Thatcher and 25 years of post-socialism. incidentally, Simon Frith told me that the Tories hated sociology--in the 70s one of the most popular courses for students--considering it a hotbed of socialism and moved swiftly to supplant it with business studies etc
* *
and yes i'm aware that john berger moved to rural france to live among peasants. but no worries, i'm not moving to stratford any time soon. no nostalgie de la concrete for me.