12/03/2010
“ This doesn’t mean people should just be “nice.” People who dislike things should say so, and any artist who puts out a record should be prepared for the fact that not everyone will love it. This is just life, and there’s no good alternative to it: Scenes in which every artist is uncritically considered a special, fragile snowflake tend to get really cruddy really quickly. But when you get to the point where you’re wary of any band that seems to think it’s actually doing something cool— even when that act’s only gotten as far as selling a couple of hundred singles— you’re halfway to kneecapping any opportunity for bands to actually be cool. So whenever I hear complaints about new indie acts being predictable, bland, overly tasteful, or unambitious, I can’t help thinking this might be part of the reason: That this scene may have started producing music the way some adolescents get dressed, corrosively self-conscious about any sign of unfashionable difference that opens them up to be mocked. At worst, you can wind up with a whole genre where the acts and the audience are both armoring themselves against standing out or embracing risks. You wind up reaching that weird provincial point where you’re always cutting down the plant that grows higher than the others— where the way you call for the music to be more interesting (or try to express what makes you more interesting) actually has the effect of making it tamer, less interesting. „
Realizing the Nihilism isn’t a fucking ethos, what if everyone hates everything and everyone else?
I’d say this article reinforces our status as the post-apocalyptic music capital of the universe… if the marauders don’t kill us all first.
Pitchfork: Why We Fight: Why We Fight #1
Nitsuh Abebe’s first column is wonderful, but I’m especially fond of this point, which has been on my mind for years.
(via perpetua)
Quote posted at 11:04
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