>Great passionate post from Todd "Touch me, I'm shit-sick" Larson,
>although I don't remember anyone blaming UT *or* their fans for
>anything. FWIW, I placed all my blame on writers who can't seem
>to do anything but regurgitate press releases, and I thought Terry,
>etc., were also blaming the hype machine, and no one else.=
>
In terms of blaming UT, I was reacting primarily to Cheryl Cline's
assertion: "No Depression-UT focused attention on the music, true; but it
focuses attention *away* from a large chunk of alternative country music as
well. It's being "disappeared" from country/rock history even as we speak."
I read this, perhaps incorrectly, as not only an indictment of the hype,
but also of the band. It's tough not to read in the sentence the
accusation that UT was somehow complicit, if only by their presence, in the
disappearance of other/previous alt. country music. You know, like they did
something *wrong.* (I'm also not sure that "attention" is a zero-sum game
-- that other alt.country would have received it if UT did not. Any actual
evidence of who is being "disappeared"?)
On a broader level, I was struck by the smugness of some of the posts which
reduce UT and the current alt.country phase to just another "ripple" in the
alt.country pond which we UT fans could see if we' d get our head out of
our asses and look at the big picture. Even if intended to introduce
perspective, the effect of these posts is to dismiss the genuine affection
people feel for these bands as immature, short-sighted and misguided. At
least as I read it.
I admit I may be a bit oversensitive or defensive to this because I happen
to have entered the (alt) country fold via UT, but it does seem to me that
backlash against the No Depression hype too often results in a dismissal of
the hyped bands themselves, as if they were *only* a media creation and had
nothing of real value to offer. (This obviously goes way beyond this
genre.) If people think UT has no value, that's fine w/ me, but it's a
shame if that distaste stems not from the music but from reguritated press
releases or frat-boys screaming for "Drown" at the concert .
Todd
Hoping his Twangpin team shirt isn't embroidered with "shit-sick"
