On 6/27/07, J.T. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
that's all cultural politics, which concerns me, but it's beside the fact of whether the music is good or not, and while i can't say it doesn't affect my opinion of music if i know the backstory etc, i don't think it should.
its not cultural politics, its whats right and whats wrong.
elvis was just trying to make some music he loved, he wasn't trying to steal black music, and he didn't sound just like black music. he can't help it that white america loved his music, what was he supposed to do, say "thanks anyway, but keep your money i'd rather be a starving artist"? or should he have just stuck to making white music and minded his place? that's a real narrow view and we wouldn't have a lot of great musical styles if people did that.
he should have said "this is wrong, i am not the king of rock and roll, this is all nonsense, these are the people who made this music, they should be getting paid and be popular". obviously, he never did anything of the sort. he was all too happy to continue the bamboozlement because it put cash in his pocket. which is why i dont give a sh*t about elvis.
if everybody thought like that, people would have dismissed techno (ahem) as just some black guys trying to sound like german guys.
but thats obviously not true.
or how about convextion, he's not black, and he's not from detroit so....?
was he trying to white wash a sound to make it popular for people who are outside of its usual audience? obviously you fall into the same category, you come from this culture, you make the music. there's no problem with that.
if you're going to get all political about music, don't blame the artists, blame society.
but the artists are the ones who control how they are marketed and who their crowds are and what the perception of their music is. its possible to do it the right way without being a bullsh*t artist.
i didn't even know ayres was white and i think it has f*ckall to do with whether he's a good dj or not, nor do i think the fact that he's popular while the "original" guys aren't has anything to do with how his music sounds.
his music is a joke, that has nothing to do with why i dont like these other aspects of it. but the fact that people equate his joke music to club music is what really irritates me.
besides, like rob g says, spank and ayres etc have their own sound, they're not just imitators.
no, theyre selling an image of that music to people who peddle in irony instead of good music. its even worse than being an imitator IMO.
who cares? music is what it is, i don't care who's playing it or how much street cred it has if i really like it.
street cred? what are you talking about? all music is part of a culture that shapes the sounds. if someone is not part of that culture and just jacks the sounds, theyre just pirates. which is what titface and whatshisname do. music is not just some notes played on an instrument, there's a reason for each note and each rhythm.
if i don't like it i am more likely to focus on all these things you are, but it's nonsense really, nothing to do with the actual aesthetics of music.
i cant disagree more. watered down crap isnt going to sound as good as the stuff its ripping off, it never does. maybe if youve never heard the real stuff, knock offs sound okay.
i don't like el-p because i don't like his voice or his flow, not because he's white and didn't grow up in bed-stuy and doesn't get played by [blank]
i like el-p's beats because he came from hiphop culture and his audience is a hiphop audience. i dont like his rhyming because it is weak. that is different from why i dont like someone like tithead and whatever or spank rock. sh*t, what they do could be being done solely by black artists and i would still think it was just as weak. of course i dont think its a coincidence that these kinds of things are almost always perpetrated by white "artists". tom
