blissblogger
Well-known member
yeah i don't think any music or music-formation can cover all the bases, supply all the needs
there is always something missing, a lack or a blindspot, that a later music will make the centre of its thing
so is that dialectical? (i use the term a lot but my grip on it is shaky)
there's a kind of corrective mechanism, which lurches ahead, creating new errors - that then must be corrected by the next shift within music
but that correction becomes an over-compensation, an over-correction - like the markets
each strength brings with it its own weakness, an imbalance
and so everything keeps on rattling ahead
case study:
rock music in the mid-70s is eclectic, lots of hyphenated fusions of rock with this or with that, very loose and laidback and musicianly, you got Steve Winwood working with African musicians etc
what's missing is the singular focus and attack of rock, so that's what punk brings back (and appropriate attitudes etc) - a stiffening of music, and a severing from all that bluesy, raunchy swinging stuff
that then rapidly becomes its own dead end, so you get postpunk which is a return to electicism, hybridity, a new sort of fusion in a way, certainly a re-engagement with the black source(s), but more stringent and severe (the attitudinal continuity of punk) - and much less musicianly so it creates interesting failures and mutations
then postpunk's funk-admirers decide that they really just want to make black-sounding records with proper tight-yet-loose rhythm sections and good glossy production
but that leads to another dead end where the white bands have learned to play well but are just making black music manque - or not even below-par, actually good, but redundant, it's replicating what already abundantly exists
so then there's a shift (Smiths etc) to a whiter sound, a de-funked and de-technologizied rock
and so it goes on..
and that's just the sonic dialectic: there's dialectics of lyrics, of vocal modes, of politics, of gender, of ideas about performance and theatricality, of image / style
overlapping, criss-crossing, one line out of synch with another line
there is always something missing, a lack or a blindspot, that a later music will make the centre of its thing
so is that dialectical? (i use the term a lot but my grip on it is shaky)
there's a kind of corrective mechanism, which lurches ahead, creating new errors - that then must be corrected by the next shift within music
but that correction becomes an over-compensation, an over-correction - like the markets
each strength brings with it its own weakness, an imbalance
and so everything keeps on rattling ahead
case study:
rock music in the mid-70s is eclectic, lots of hyphenated fusions of rock with this or with that, very loose and laidback and musicianly, you got Steve Winwood working with African musicians etc
what's missing is the singular focus and attack of rock, so that's what punk brings back (and appropriate attitudes etc) - a stiffening of music, and a severing from all that bluesy, raunchy swinging stuff
that then rapidly becomes its own dead end, so you get postpunk which is a return to electicism, hybridity, a new sort of fusion in a way, certainly a re-engagement with the black source(s), but more stringent and severe (the attitudinal continuity of punk) - and much less musicianly so it creates interesting failures and mutations
then postpunk's funk-admirers decide that they really just want to make black-sounding records with proper tight-yet-loose rhythm sections and good glossy production
but that leads to another dead end where the white bands have learned to play well but are just making black music manque - or not even below-par, actually good, but redundant, it's replicating what already abundantly exists
so then there's a shift (Smiths etc) to a whiter sound, a de-funked and de-technologizied rock
and so it goes on..
and that's just the sonic dialectic: there's dialectics of lyrics, of vocal modes, of politics, of gender, of ideas about performance and theatricality, of image / style
overlapping, criss-crossing, one line out of synch with another line
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