Bon Iver dressed like the philosphy prof that we mocked for wearing the exact same clothes for the whole semester. Adelle sounded way more English than I expected. Apparently, some guy is credited with inventing the album cover and he's now dead.
That's all I learned, but I only watched a couple of snippets.
I always feel a little awkward when an artist I never particularly liked dies tragically.
Now that Caroline is 9, I'm learning more about mainstream pop than I have in decades. That Bruno Mars song is dreadful.
2: If the artists you like die, then they don't record any more.
My kids wanted to stay up to watch the Grammys as well. In theory I support their being more engaged in pop culture than I ever managed to be, but man, it seems like such a pointless thing to be interested in.
I was bemused when they announced that someone named 'Bonnie Vair' won an award, and then it turned out to be a badly dressed guy with a beard.
If your name is Marley, you win. Congratulations Stephen Marley! Are there any more Marley kids waiting in the wings?
"And the winner in the Reggae category is... Marley and Me: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Bonus Disc!"
Anyhow the shittiness of the Grammys is obviously due to piracy.
Man, those Somalis ruin everything.
My favourite Best New Artist gong was Amy Winehouse, five years after her extremely popular debut album and more than a year after her second and final album.
That scene in the bar was the best in ages.
As to the Grammys, after Arcade Fire won artist of the year last year, I think it can be safely said that the awards are given out based on the tastes of middle-aged suburban dads, you sexist.
The shittiness of last year's grammy nominees has been noted: "fully 80% of the nominees in the Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance category are over 60 years old (NTTATWWT, but these particular people are Neil Young, Paul McCartney (for "Helter Skelter", no less), Robert Plant, and Eric Clapton, so, I mean, at least try to pretend to try). The other one is John Mayer."
In other news I think I'm starting to like that one Gotye song.
14: me too! I still hate the video.
12: We're not in the suburbs, so it may not count. My wife bought the Arcade Fire cd, not me.
16: I think of them as the bedrock example of "Dad Rock."
Dad's watch Katy Perry, but only for the wrong reasons.
Dads employ apostrophes, but only for the wrong reasons.
re: mixtapes. I will finally get my pre-Elvis mixtape up at some point this week.
re: 17
Portentous Dad rock, no less. They currently occupy the U2-niche.
17: Sometimes I like to needle the Canadian contingent of CA's immediate family by saying things like, "Well, they're not *really* Canadian. They're rich Americans from TX who went to Andover!"*
*This is only true of the brothers, but the dissonance between "Canadian band!" and "rich," "Texas," "American," "prep school" is fun to poke if you're mean.
When I heard Arcade Fire for the first time, I thought, "This is definitely the type of music I've spent my life enjoying. But for some reason, this sucks."
So I'm a little bit more discriminating than the average middle-aged dad.
They currently occupy the U2-niche.
Twenty-two Grammy wins.
Bon Iver, indeed. Skrillex was robbed.
Wait, rob, I thought you spent your life enjoying crust punk or something.
Annie fucking Lennox occupies the perma-award niche in the UK. She used to get a Brit award every year without fail, even in a year when she hadn't release some whiny self-absorbed lazy shite.
23.2: So you're the guy calling the cops all the time.
23.1: I had the exact same reaction, but I can't say I really gave them any fair listen after that. I don't think I could name any Arcade Fire songs.
"don't think I could" s/b "can't"
I can only imagine naming any Arcade Fire song.
Statistically speaking, one of us is in Arcade Fire.
30: That WHOA WHOA whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA WHOA bit that shows up on the Girl Talk record.
30: there's that one kind of swoopy one with all the layering and the yearning lyrics.
As a non-dad, I feel betrayed by finding out that the Arcade Fire are dadrock. All those years we thought bands like Stars and Broken Social Scene were extremely cool, and they all led up to the epitome of cool, the Arcade Fire. Now it turns out that there's nothing less cool than the Arcade Fire.
Arcade Fire? Well there's that one that builds to the strummy crescendo, with a load of sub-early-80s-Dexys-fauxlk instrumental playing, and, erm, ...
36: I'm not sure the childed have fully cottoned to Animal Collective yet; you could like them.
Just nine more Grammys and Arcade Fire can cash them in for a Super Bowl halftime appearance.
given out based on the tastes of middle-aged suburban dads
How many awards did Adele take home last night?
40: oh I like her. She raps happy!
That Bruno Mars song is dreadful.
This is a good opportunity for me to mention that I am sort of fascinated by "Lazy">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FZtN7T5PXM">Lazy Song"
by Bruno Mars. It clearly seems like it falls into the genre of, "my girlfriend just left me, I'm a mess, and I can barely get out of bed" but does so
without expressing any actual pain or vulnerability (contrast, for
example, "I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight"). The mood of the song is completely different from what I understand the meaning to be.
I can't decide if I should just go with it, since the song works on it's own, and Bruno Mars is clearly a charming and charismatic performer but I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that he sings it without even a hint of irony (or anguish). When I listen to I keep having the feeling that there must be a joke there somewhere, and I can't tell if I'm in on it, or I'm missing it and just not getting the song.
Bleh, messed up the link to Lazy Song, but I think you can figure it out.
I feel like Unfogged should discuss, or at least see, this video.
http://who-is-bon-iver.tumblr.com/
I feel like Unfogged should discuss, or at least see, this video.
Wow, yes. I mean, I don't have anything to say about it, but that's quite something. Bob?
And shit, seriously, The Arcade Fire is uncool now? Goddamnit.
Oh man, the Arcade Fire is the perfect answer to my question the other day about what are things that used to be cool and are now in backlash that I would probably like (along with Yglesias and Gladwell). Oddly enough I've never been a big fan though. They're ok.
And shit, seriously, The Arcade Fire is uncool now? Goddamnit.
DS and nosflow, at least, have been arguing that position for a while.
I've pretty much always hated on teh Arcade Fire, too.
http://www.unfogged.com/archives/comments_10758.html#1221881
http://www.unfogged.com/archives/comments_8621.html#822033
Me too! Me too! Pick me! Pick me!
What's amazing is that even the people who are literally in charge of the Grammys and/or involved in the major label pop acts it celebrates make fun of it for how lame it is. The continued survival in this format is a mystery (well, not a mystery, but a case study in institutional inertia).
I like Aracde Fire and Adele. Developing taste takes too long.
re: 53
To be honest, I don't mind Adele. It's not really something I'd listen to much, but it's not irritating to me in the way that Arcade Fire are.
50 and 51 are right; The Arcade Fire was hip for a while, but they were never cool. Or more accurately, never good.
The first "was" in 55 should be "were." I am deeply ashamed.
I don't really know Adele, so I was just listening to some of her songs on youtube, and ran across the "Make You Feel My Love" cover. That's ultimately going to be Bob Dylan's longest lasting, best known, and most covered song, isn't it? Sad.
45: Wow, that part where rainbows actually do come out of her butt! (But no unicorns.)
To be honest, I don't mind Adele. It's not really something I'd listen to much
As I get older there are steadily fewer acts that I actively dislike, aside from the ones that are grandfathered in from years past when that sort of thing mattered to me. Adele, Arcade Fire, and Bon Iver's new album all fall into the same category for me: I don't mind them, but they just don't hold my attention for more than a song or two.
I never actually listen for more than a song or two.
The only thing music-taste-wise that makes me feel really old is that I just can't get there with autotune. I honestly wish I could, because a lot of really talented producers use it. But if a song has autotune I can't even pay attention to the rest of it.
I very much doubt I could tell if autotune is being used.
Somehow I always thought it was spelled "autothune," to go with "cthonic," a word I associate with Camille Paglia's pretentious fakery.
I very much doubt I could tell if autotune is being used.
62: It's meant to be subtle, so you shouldn't be able to tell... except when it's being abused. I've compared the effect to a vocoder before but apparently that's totally wrong.
That's ultimately going to be Bob Dylan's longest lasting, best known, and most covered song, isn't it? Sad.
That is a scary thought (though many of Dylan's songs will last just fine without being covered by anybody).
Spot checking a couple of songs it looks like there are more covers of "It's All over Now, Baby Blue" and "Maggie's Farm" but I don't know that either of those songs are being covered by contemporary acts.
64: I like that song.
It was a #1 hit (I don't really have anything against the song; it's the song I think of as a particularly egregious example of auto-tune as deliberate effect, but that's a sign of my limited exposure) .
67: "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" probably has an insurmountable lead at this point.
Aw, I like the word chthonic. Chthon (χθῶν) means the earth (small e), and so you can talk about chthonic deities (Hades, etc.) or (better!) autochthonous people (the Athenians, who believed they originally popped out of the Attic soil) totally without being a douche. Maybe. In classics, anyway.
I don't really know Adele, so I was just listening to some of her songs on youtube, and ran across the "Make You Feel My Love" cover. That's ultimately going to be Bob Dylan's longest lasting, best known, and most covered song, isn't it? Sad.
Also, amazing if true. What makes you say that? Just the fact that Adele has covered it, or something else? Because I can think of dozens of Dylan songs that are more likely to be long lasting and are way more covered.
Spot checking a couple of songs it looks like there are more covers of "It's All over Now, Baby Blue" and "Maggie's Farm" but I don't know that either of those songs are being covered by contemporary acts.
I suppose Hole aren't exactly contemporary these days, but they did a pretty hilarious cover of It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.
"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" probably has an insurmountable lead at this point.
I didn't think of that, but you're correct.
Has Bob Dylan recorded anything worth listening to in the last 35 years? I ask for information, because I gave up on him about that time.
What makes you say that?
Eh, cynicism mostly.
Has Bob Dylan recorded anything worth listening to in the last 35 years?
I've heard good things about Love and Theft but hadn't listened to it.
I was recently listening to a mix cd which included Dylan's Katrina song, "The Levee's Gonna Break" (paired nicely with "Blue Tarp Blues") which was quite good.
I have to say, I didn't realize Whitney Houston was such a big deal to people until this weekend. I thought of her as a singer with a fantastic voice who made a ton of money by singing the blandest pop radio nothing it is possible to concoct, who was then largely forgotten. The only time I've found it possible to have much of a reaction to her songs was listening to the patter at the beginning of "The Greatest Love of All" which is like being beaten to death with a cute puppy.
But I'm reading all this stuff now about how she was iconic for people, how she moved them at important moments in their lives. So apparently it's one of those things I didn't get.
Count me as a fan of "chthonic" and "autochthonous".
72, 69 et al. -- I would have said "Forever Young," but I haven't done a quantitative analysis.
77: I get that feeling almost every time someone famous dies. "Really? People are heartbroken about Princess Diana?"
Semi-on topic to the subthread, through some web search path I can't recall at the moment*, I recently came across this list of 1035 versions of "A Whiter Shade of Pale".
*Now I remember, a cover by Bobby Johnson and the Atoms from 1967 came up on Pandora. And it turns out a lot of people got right on top of that sucker.
|| If your childraising philosophy includes talking to a neighbor and ignoring your 4 year old while he visits neighboring tables and repeatedly throws objects loudly on the floor, you should not bring him o coffee shops.
45,47: Kawaii is complicated. It is no longer as gendered as you might think, nor is it an attempt to please the Gaze, or whatever, although some Western feminists persist in saying so.
I liked the video.
I have just barely touched Japan after the WWII generation. "Cute-worship" is obviously a profound rebellion against the Edo/Imperial culture.
The only thing music-taste-wise that makes me feel really old is that I just can't get there with autotune.
Why do you hate rai?
73, 74, 76 -- Love and Theft is great, and Oh Mercy has some great songs on it. Neither is enough to convert a non-Dylan fan but if you like other Dylan it would be odd if you didn't like those.
I have to say, I didn't realize Whitney Houston was such a big deal to people until this weekend. I thought of her as a singer with a fantastic voice who made a ton of money by singing the blandest pop radio nothing it is possible to concoct
The greatness of Whitney is that she could actually put bland sentimental pop nothings over the top and make them mean something, just through the sheer power and purity of her voice. Not through some clever reinterpretation, just through the Voice.
Has Bob Dylan recorded anything worth listening to in the last 35 years?
I think this is pretty good.
There's also Moe
And Yaoi and lolicon
Tentatively, I might say that the average Japanese is more aware of culture/pop culture/fashion as artifact of social control and individual liberation, and the way it works, from their history of radical top-down changes.
At the secondhand songs site (not sure what's the criteria for being counted), "Blowin' in the Wind" blows everything else of his away and then a relatively close bunch for 2nd.
From my eyeballing it:
Blowin' in the Wind: 81
Watchtower: 51 (a lot probably covering Hendrix covering Dylan)
The Times They Are A-Changin': 49
Mr. Tambourine Man: 47
Knockin' on Heaven's Door: 45
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue: 43
Like a Rolling Stone: 42
I Shall be Released: 40
Lay Lady Lay: 40
Just Like a Woman: 39
Other mentioned above:
Forever Young: 25
MAke You Feel My Love: 20
Maggie's Farm: 18
57: I think Blume is on to something -- it's Bob Dylan's first straight-ahead right in the pocket love song with none of the usual Dylan quirks. All the pleasures of a simple pleading love song with the special status of being a Bob Dylan song. It's already been covered by Billy Joel, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, and Adele. It could become a staple at weddings.
I remember thinking it was the weakest track on Time out of Mind, but that was probably just my snobbish preference for songs of despair.
I can think of several trillion other things that I would prefer to read, even from bob, than anything about kawaii or, Christ have mercy on us poor sinners, lolicon.
Also, I see "autotune" and think "Autothane of Cawdor," which is imbecilic.
not sure what's the criteria for being counted
For instance "A Whiter Shade of Pale" gets 59 at that site.
It's kind of funny that in response to a post making fun of the Grammy Awards for being out of touch that we've ended up talking about Bob Dylan (and, yes, I'm participating).
Quick, somebody make fun of me in 43 for having listened to Bruno Mars.
90, 89, 57: And given the relative dates of release, it might well end up at the top of the list.
94: The first rule of Being Out of Touch Club is not caring that you are out-of-touch.
Music is even worse than books for me, there's so much of it and a lot of new stuff sounds pretty good to me, but the fuck if I can keep up or even keep track. That's what you guys are for.
not sure what's the criteria for being counted
They surely aren't counting the partial credit awarded for every band with a song that's essentially a thinly disguised cover of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" with different lyrics (e.g., The Replacements' "Here Comes a Regular").
The first rule of Being Out of Touch Club is not caring that you are out-of-touch.
Oh, I mastered that one long ago. . . .
Actually I suspect most people at unfogged will say the same (considering that there's something retro about hanging out chatting in a blog's comment section).
Adele has a nice voice, he typed out-of-touch-ly.
This is a very good piece on Whitney Houston (published before her death, so it is hard-hitting but respectful of her pretty amazing talent).
96.1: As the current popular music act Hall and Oates say, "You're out of touch. I'm out of time."
97: Pretty sure not. Forgot the link to Dylan there. Some more stats (presumably duo each get full credit for a song):
Name, Covers, Songs
1 John Lennon 4515 221
2 Paul McCartney 4312 232
3 [Traditional] 3672 242
4 Bob Dylan 2289 267
5 Ira Gershwin 1936 44
6 Richard Rodgers 1900 80
7 George Gershwin 1769 39
If they're going to include "[Traditional]" how can that possibly not be #1 on the list?
I had no idea that "Make You Feel My Love" was a Bob Dylan song. Oh, dear. (Seriously, it feels like a Billy Joel original, and I don't believe I've ever heard the original version.)
It does raise some methodology questions. It is a label which is probably not used consistently. I'd counsel ignoring it (or the whole site).
Here's the top 10 from DylanCovers.com, which seems to base its numbers on iTunes availability:
1. All along the watchtower (101 covers)
2. It's all over now, baby blue (63)
3. Don't think twice, it's all right (60)
4. Girl from the north country (56)
5. Just like a woman (54)
6. You ain't goin' nowhere (50)
7. Make you feel my love (48)
8. Mr. tambourine man (48)
9. I'll be your baby tonight (41)
10. Tomorrow is a long time (41)
That doesn't look too far off my intuition, though I'm pretty sure Like A Rolling Stone (33) is undercounted - possibly it's less represented in recorded form because it's more expensive to license. I definitely think All Along The Watchtower is going to beat out Make You Feel My Love.
As for good Dylan from the last 35 years: excluding live albums and compilations, I absolutely love Oh Mercy, Time Out Of Mind and Love And Theft, and there's a few great tracks on World Gone Wrong. Not a huge fan of his last few albums though.
91:Dude, I take lolicon seriously. I just haven't got there yet, too busy looking at rock gardens.
I have an inkling that Imperial culture (and sexism and racism) is sustained by taking it seriously, that even those who rebel against/fight it or mock it/make fun of it are still subject to and perpetuating the hegemony.
Dada in the twenties was still too obvious and direct.
That is not saying that Yaoi is consciously attacking the hegemony, although it may be. It means they don't give a flying fuck. Maybe. PS:As far as can tell, Yaoi is exploding in the Far East.
Bob Dylan's radio show on satellite radio is also surprisingly excellent.
Speaking of winning awards, my super hero alter ego Major Rick Talon won first prize for best male (costume) this past Saturday. Yup. A $15 gift card for Applebees, which I used to treat my daughter to some fine dining!
Seriously, though, we raised $220K for Southern Minnesota's Special Olympics, up from the $180K we raised last year. There were over 2000 plungers, and it was cold AND windy this year. It was the coldest plunge on record.
Many were cold, but few were frozen. I'd give links to the local media coverage, but the coverage was a little lame - it didn't include me. Bummer.
Is Major Rick Talon friends with Race Bannon?
He could be. Major Rick Talon has a Jack-Russell Terrier/Pug crossbreed dog named "Bandit."
I steal from the best.
Oh, and Bandit may be making her debut playing the character "Bruiser" in a local production of the musical "Legally Blond."
98: there's something retro about hanging out chatting in a blog's comment section
There is? The kids these days don't know what they're missing. Everything's going to hell, obviously.
(Wasn't there something recently reporting that among the top complaints of twitter users about tweets they just don't like was: Too long.)
To the OP, this seems to explain many of Apo's issues.
Speaking of the Grammys, anyone have thoughts on this?
Yaoi is exploding in the Far East.
I think we have a couple of carriers deployed out there that could probably stop it with H-bombs.
re: 59
Yeah. I still get passionately angry about music, but the stuff that annoys me is very rarely 'young people's music'. I'm not out there fuming abut the latest dance sensation, or whoever. If it's not aimed at me, it's fine if I don't like it [and sometimes I do like it].
What usually gets me raging is music that is sold at/bought by approaching middle-age fatter and balding Word/Uncut/Wire/multiple-music-blog reading types like myself. The stuff that music blogs and critics are telling me is stuff I _ought_ to like, but when it's lazy or pompous or just obviously shit it still makes me as furious as it did when I was a teenager.
"One Moment in Time" was playing in the stadium when Cal Ripken did his victory lap after consecutive game #2131 became official. I don't care much for Whitney Houston's type of music otherwise, but her song was a part of The Greatest Moment in Sports, Ever, so that makes me sad she is gone.
Has Bob Dylan recorded anything worth listening to in the last 35 years?
My favourite Late Dylan track would probably be Not Dark Yet. My mother likes it too, I guess partly for stage-of-life reasons.
116: No thoughts beyond the ones voiced in the linked post. I hadn't heard about the Chris Brown/Rihanna series of events before.
Of course big-money events show little conscience; I guess a person could dig deep into just which parties were responsible for any pressure to have Brown perform at the Grammys, to paper things over and look away. I ... can't really opine on the overall misogyny of the music industry, in its current incarnation. That's your territory: you know more about it. (I'd never heard of Chris Brown, so I'd sound like an idiot if I started ranting about what an asshole he is.)
Grammy's on British TV right now. Nicky Minaj's performance pretty amazing/bonkers.
Does anyone want to see my current playlist? It's really good, I have been pruning and ranking for years now but it is mostly really really boring, especially if you are the kind that say I've heard that now move on.
Beatles, Gomez, Robert Johnson, Merle Haggard, Dixie Chicks, Etta James, Red House Painters, Rolling Stones, John Campbell, Robert Johnson, Richie Havens, John Cale, Baby Face Willette, William Clarke, John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Benny Goodman (Billie), Jim Hurst & Missy Gaines, Hank Mobley, Rolling Stones, Whispers, Rolling Stones, Rolling Stones, John Martyn, Emmylou Harris, Steve Roach, Elmore James, Dulcimer, Rockpile, John Lennon, Mandy Morton, Santana, Emmylou Harris, Billie Holiday, Nick Lowe, Milkwood
(skipping repeat artists)
Clapton (acoustic), Beck, Dolly Parton, Rooks, Ringo Starr, Astrud Gilberto, George Harrison, Ian Hunter, Jackie McLean, Tish Hinojosa, Dexter Gordon, Dillard & Clark, Creedence,, Little Walter, Nick Drake, Ronnie Lane, Mormos, Ginny Hawkes and Kay Justice.
Who's Nicky Minaj? Looking at the above, do I need to know?
My favorite Dylan song. The slideshow is comic relief.
I like Tryin' to Get to Heaven a whole lot; that cover by Druha Trava is one of the sweetest things ever.
http://www.archive.org/download/rhitchcock2003-11-25.flacf/rhitchcock2003-11-25d2t06.flac
Not as sweet as DT, but an ok cover. I probably linked this next one some time in the past, but feel too lousy to RTFA:
http://www.archive.org/download/rhitchcock2003-11-25.flacf/rhitchcock2003-11-25d2t08.flac
W Sucks, But Rumsfeld Is The Anti-Christ
Robin Hitchcock? An old standby.
You know, the other angle on the issues raised by 116 is the not exactly new question about the extent to which we might, should, or do separate the artist personally from her or his work: is Chris Brown so awesome that his work warrants highlighting regardless of his personal shortcomings? Is he, I don't know, Barbra Streisand? I doubt it. But I could be wrong!
108: Yaoi is exploding in the Far East
Pistols cocked and rifles loaded?
Barbra Striesand killed a dude in a bar once.
Not even for any real reason. Some people say it was over a pool game, but some people say she just got that look in her eye.
130: Shit. Well, um, damn. She has an awesome voice, though, a voice for the ages and all that, not just some punk.
Chris Brown doesn't actually have any "work" at all. He has a generic voice and is just a personality, like Katy Perry. That's what makes it so maddening. It's not like we're dealing with the fiery artistic temperament here.
Clocked him, first. With the cue. Put him down in a shot. Cue broke off, jagged base left in her hand. Well. You don't need to know what she did next.
OT: I went for my first run while wearing unnatural fibers. It was very much more comfortable than cotton. Also, the whole spandex-moob fear turned out to be largely unfounded.
"I AM THE LAW", she said. Well, said. She half sang it. Beautiful, too. That's Babs.
I'm just glad my dad isn't alive to hear about this, Sifu, because he loved her, watched her 3-DVD (or whatever) concert set over and over, teared up and the whole nine yards.
133: I was guessing that was the deal.
Barb-NO FUCKIN' 'A'-ra Streisand
She was wild in those days. Black leather jacket. Bennies. Freaky. Ran with that Guttenberg kid, like he was her little toady. He could never fight, really, not like Babs. But he was mean.
Shit I don't think there's a joint from lancaster to palmdale she was welcome in at one time. Now, whatever, yeah, come on in, do some standards. But back then? What kind of asshole do you have to be to stand back and cheer while she burns your place to the ground. You know? No thank you.
Teeth like baseballs and eyes like jellied fire.
128: Chris Brown is commonly rated as having a better-than-average voice, though he's less talented (IMO, at any rate) than Rihanna. His songs are mostly generic, but he has sex appeal to spare and therefore a rabid fanbase that was quite ugly when the Rihanna assault story broke (lots of rants about how she must have hit him first or really done something to deserve it, that kind of thing; the same kind of fans, one surmises, who have recently been seen Twitterating statements like "Chis Brown can beat me up anytime LOL!!!:))). And the assault wasn't a minor altercation, he'd worked her over pretty badly, so that makes the whole thing ickier.
So I get why El Journalista is worked up about him. But OTOH the entertainment industry is generally pretty forgiving people's past run-ins with the law with good reason -- would we actually want to see people still hounding Fergie about being a meth addict or Li'l Kim about the Hot 97 shootings in 2001? Is it not the purpose of the justice system that once someone has paid the Court-mandated penalty of their deeds, they're citizens again and get to go back to work and stuff? But then on the other, other hand, Brown has taken to flipping out and tearing dressing rooms apart when asked about the incident, so not really showing signs of having taken care of the whole anger-issues-thing.
I wonder if I'm maybe too fatalistic about the entertainment industry and the prospect, or desirability, of getting people to go in for the shaming and shunning the way some parties would like to see it do.
144: shot through with some kind of devil energy like as to split the earth.
Oh, they knew. Not like the grammys.
145: These are unanswerable questions: no, I don't think there's ever going to be a clear answer about whether we should refuse to read Nietzsche, or whomever.
The post linked in 116 condemns the entertainment industry more than it does Brown himself, no? For saying that it was 'a victim'. Which is truly beyond the pale. There are some lines we can draw without going all in for shunning forever after: what we should not do is pretend it never happened. (Much less declare, per the twitterizers, that Brown can beat us up any time.)
I will not rest until The Offpring win some lifetime achievement award. The NYT live blog read like a mst3k commentary.
I don't think Nietzsche ever beat anyone up.
I would kind of kill to hear Streisand cover I Am The Law
Also, the new Die Antwoord? Kinda meh.
151: Not directly. Eh, as I said, in a manner only half-responsive to LC, we know that some people have been problematic in some ways that are not exactly minor; there's not going to be a bright-line principle dictating how we respond.
On January 3, 1889, Chris Brown collapsed in a piazza in Turin. It is oft repeated that he saw a coach-driver beating his horse, threw his arms around the horse in tears, and collapsed. However, it has also been said that this coach-driver was Chris Brown himself, and the horse was his girlfriend.
J-cute has it's place, but the future is manufactured Kpop groups.
Not sure iPhone will give me the right Linkj, but
Get 'mr taxi wild' or 'abracadabra brown eyed girls'
151: I don't think Nietzsche ever beat anyone up.
Walter Jon Williams begs to differ.
Well, tell you what, parsley, I promise not to read anything by Nietzsche's sister.
Sounds about right: The Will to Power is a complete mess. (And I acknowledge that I chose Nietzsche, somewhat unfairly, as what I took to be an easily accessible example of a problematic writer. I don't have a problem with him.)
159: Apparently his original title was The Will 2 The New Power Generation but his sister screwed that up too!
158: Still inspiring art, over a hundred years later.
neb rightly called me on my remarks.
I guess I'm the only one whose opinion of the Arcade Fire has improved over the years.
Don't worry, just exploring the tangent here. The narrator is a douche, but still some interesting items in this visit to Nueva Germania.
151: German Freddie may not have been the best example to illustrate the point. However, Anne Perry, a convicted murderess who went on to become a well-known genre author -- and even wrote a book about the crime for which she was convicted -- would be reasonably relevant. Is it corrupt, or simply mature, of the literary establishment not to be interested in continuing to persecute her after she served the sentence for the crime of which she was convicted?
More relevant to the music industry, James Brown had repeated run-ins with the law over spousal abuse, but was never noticeably shunned by the entertainment industry. Was that prudence or venality? Or a bit of both?
Put me in the mood for some Kenneth Goldsmith, but alas he seems to not have sung Nietzsche (or it is not available online)--but here he is doing some Harry Potter.
I actually kind of like "The Suburbs" as an album, though it fits into the usual "I'm not particularly interested in hearing over half of the songs on this album" category for me. But I don't actively reach to skip most of the songs when I'm driving and not paying close attention to what's playing.
The only other song of theirs I've heard I listened to just now by clicking on a link in an old thread to a video showing some of Once Upon a Time in the West. It's kind of repellent-level bad.
I will not rest until The Offpring win some lifetime achievement award. The NYT live blog read like a mst3k commentary.
How so? I don't know enough about them to follow. (A friend of mine has worked for them quite a lot and thinks highly of them. IIRC the lead singer is ABD in biochemistry or something.)
I must say that I enjoy the shit out of most of The Offspring's stuff.
See, there's another example right there. The Offspring wantonly murder music every time they touch an instrument or a microphone, and yet nobody bats an eyelash, let alone thinks to shun them. Some even claim to "like" it.
My God, I think I'm coming around on this.
More relevant to the music industry, James Brown had repeated run-ins with the law over spousal abuse, but was never noticeably shunned by the entertainment industry.
And how does one feel about Gil Scott-Heron?
Mostly very sad, of course. Personally I think he's an amazing performer but I find it particularly hard to completely ignore the allegations of domestic violence about somebody who is so political in his music.
173: Gil Scott-Heron passed last year, I think. Yeah, he was a messed-up, damaged guy.
Gil Scott-Heron passed last year, I think.
Yes, and going back and re-reading the New Yorker profile from a year before his death is very sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1n7o4Wy4g0&
actually, I rather like the arcade fire.
More relevant to the music industry, James Brown had repeated run-ins with the law over spousal abuse, but was never noticeably shunned by the entertainment industry.
But unlike James, Chris Brown largely build his career on him having beaten up Rihanna, trading in on the noteriaty and explicitely refering to it in his music as people trying to keep him down and himself as the victim. Lots of artists are shitty people in their personal lives, but few actively build their careers on it...
178: But unlike James, Chris Brown largely build his career on him having beaten up Rihanna
No, I don't think that's true. Brown's star was rising in tandem with Rihanna's before the assault, and while he's written a song about her since (and I wouldn't doubt, one or two about the media hounding him over the incident, which very clearly infuriates him), such material has hardly burned up the charts or powered his subsequent continued fame. He shows every sign of not really having processed and learned from the wrong he did, but he has hardly been trading on the notoriety of the incident, which he plainly would prefer people to stop talking about and which his career has survived "despite" rather than "because of."