gord <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On Wed, 16 Aug 2000, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Not necessarily my rebuttal, but an interesting one, from Jeremy Gilbert and > Ewan Pearson quoted without permission from "Discographies - Dance Music, > Culture, and the Politics of Sound": > > "The only reason for staying underground is that in relation to dominant > structures of power, you are weak. To celebrate that weakness rather than > to try to overcome it is to concede social authority to those dominant > discourses. It is, in fact, to _choose_ too remain in a subordinate > position and to condemn others to a similar position." I find this statement to be rather naive and reductionist in a number of ways. Firstly, what if you don't support the dominant structures of power and the political stance you impose upon yourself by working together with them? This has nothing to do with being weak or strong, and everything to do with supporting and influencing change. By staying underground, you are making a statement that you have no interest in supporting these structures. This is done in hopes that reasonable people will recognize this and be influenced by it (thus affecting change). Secondly, it assumes that everyone is interested in power and that people are only either in a subordinate or dominant position (depending on the power they wield). While to a certain extent it is true that the desire to affect change is a struggle for power, it is certainly not individual power that is desired (this is often why those wanting to affect change don't reveal their identity or make public apperances). It is a struggle for power of reason. To open people's minds to something they might not have thought about, not fully understood, or not cared about before. One certainly does not gain individual power by supporting a cause greater than themself, nor are they in a dominant (or subordinate) position by making lifestyle decisions to help affect change (namely staying underground and often poor because of it). Good points...I would say though , If as an artist you creative talents should speak for themselves....if your good enough you dont have to ask for people to vote for you ,or check your info/website etc ........ As for things said about not making a website and not telling anyone about your music in order to keep it underground... that's just missing the point entirely. Underground is about a state of mind, not crawling under a rock. Anyone who uses the term underground in an elitist, exclusionary way doesn't get it. g --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://home.netscape.com/webmail