Tom Ewing

Surprisingly strong for clapped-out old Pitchfork! In 26 minitheses, turgidly alphabetized, Ewing captures the state of modern music frame by frame. He defends the absurdist proliferation of imaginary microgenres, "each one the light-trail of an idea being tested and refined in public"; talks about subcultural perseverance in the face of a cultural glut, in the light of James Murphy's observation that being into a scene now is basically like being really into high school sports; points to the development of new privilege-hierarchies out of marketing, as you hope to fall into the right demographic through birth, accident or design, and otherwise just reconcile yourself to a life without official imprimatur, jam-band fan (but perhaps that opens new vistas? I have had to come to terms with my music moving from rebel yell to soundtrack of the global elite; perhaps we could leave these tired binaries behind? what does that do to music as a site of resistance?); and discusses at relative length the "guilty pleasure" problematic, concluding:


" Guilty pleasures appeal as a concept because the feeling you oughtn't to be enjoying something is a really powerful, complicated one. So maybe the real problem isn't that the idea of "guilty pleasures" promotes guilt but that it cheapens it-- reduces the profound impact of cognitive dissonance to the level of a sneaky cream cake. So opponents might try and reframe them as a secret urge, a vice, a kink-- which might have the knock-on effect of making normal tastes seem tiresomely virtuous."


Smart stuff! Poptimist #32.… (mer)