(I actually did some tallying up -- because I am a nerd like that. It was around 5% at the low end, and 25% at the high.)
]]>(I actually did some tallying up -- because I am a nerd like that. It was around 5% at the low end, and 25% at the high.)
Of course, it's no secret that female recording artists get the shaft unless you are young, beautiful and heavily promoted.Jezebel's response to a Times Of London article on the concept of "musical genius" earlier this year:
The Times of London writer claims that Rufus Wainwright gets plied with the "genius" accolade frequently, while similarly blessed female musicians like Kate Bush, Bjork and Goldfrapp are not given the genius label. Um, Jane? Goldfrapp? You're really arguing that Goldfrapp is a "genius?" Maybe the term genius is being tossed around entirely too frequently, regardless of gender.
and
I checked out the Billboard Hot 100, and as five of the top ten albums are by women, maybe we need to lament the lack of "genius" females in music writing, not music making... Yes, 50% of the top selling artists this week are female, but they're all, to a woman (Rihanna, Natasha Beddingfield, the abhorrent Katy Perry, etc.) beautiful, under 25, and singing pop. Several of them do not write their own songs, and their popularity is largely driven by their packaging, not their music.
With image being at such a high premium, and women being more susceptible to attacks on their image, it's easy to see why so many talented female artists fall through the cracks. But what does this all mean to those of who have long-prided ourselves on eschewing glossy, cookie-cutter pop stars for something more organic? Not much. Indie rock has long been a boy's club, and speaking from personal experience, it doesn't get much better on the fan-end. Apparently, the internet isn't the great equalizer it should be. Nancy Baym from Online Fandom says of women music fans and the online experience:
Meanwhile, music on and offline is as much of a boy’s club as it’s ever been. When I worked in a record store (the only woman who worked at that store), almost all of our customers were male, and all of the ones who came in and dropped tons of cash on large stacks of records and later CDs were. Women in bands are expected more than ever to be sex objects as well as singers (have a look at coverage of the most recent American Idol if you doubt that). But few and far between as women in bands are, fewer and further between are women behind the counters at record stores, working at record labels, acting as managers (let alone producers or engineers), and working behind the scenes at “Music 2.0” sites. We can’t expect the internet to overcome a playing field that unlevel to begin with.
The closest parallels can be drawn from the gaming world, another "old boys' club":
For those of you who haven’t been around the past few years listening to me rant about the gender issue, let’s just say that there’s been a pattern of fanboys ignoring fangirls, of male scholars dismissing and ignoring our interests or, when discussing the same material, our outlook and insights.
(ephemeral traces)
My own experiences online and off have followed the same pattern. There's always that feeling of "proving yourself worthy" before you are accepted, something most women have faced especially those who dare to enter a "boys only" zone.
I've always wanted to ask other female music fans this: do you feel talked down to or marginalized in the presence of fanboys? Has the internet been the great equalize it was supposed to be?
]]>Many of us like to believe that there's a little magic behind the making of a hit single. Take a song like "I Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas. That's a good song, judging by sales: It's on top of the Billboard pop chart. David Meredith, CEO of Music Intelligence Solutions, says there's no magic in that; it's math. His software, called Hit Song Science, gave the song a hit score of 8.9 out 10.
Via CNN:
The software, developed by Barcelona-based Music Intelligence Solutions, works by breaking down more than 60 elements of a song, including melody, harmony, tempo, pitch, octave, beat, rhythm, fullness of sound, noise, brilliance and chord progression, and compares it against a database of over 3.5 million past commercial hits.
But can you truly guess which songs become hits? Sure, a lot of popular songs share certain characteristics: great hooks, for instance, but scoring that elusive "hit single" is much more unpredictable than that. (And we haven't even accounted for image and marketing yet.) Besides, isn't longevity and respect more important than a few fleeting minutes of chart fame? I doubt anyone could have predicted Radiohead's commercial success. And with music fans turning to blogs like The Rich Girls Are Weeping and I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS, is all this "hit predicting" really necessary? When I think algorithms and music, Pandora immediately springs to mind. I've been hipped to a lot of artists I would have turned down (or turned my nose up at) through Pandora's personalized radio service. I'm far from being the only one. Leah from Confessions Of a Music Addict on The Kooks:
i never paid attentions to this album until 'love it all' showed up on my pandora station, and then i revisited it, and i lurve it. it's mindless and fits in with everyday music, but has that little extra smidge of brit rock.
Looking back, all the great music I've discovered came through different means: radio, internet, a cooler friend's mixtape -- all valid ways of reaching fans. Robotic hit making machines and algorithms aside, music usually does find its audience. Passion wins out over science every time.
]]>I like my idols flawed and human. If I'm going to give my fan dollars away, I'd rather give them to an honest foul-up than a soulless automaton parroting the same canned (read: correct) answers every time he meets the press. Drunken outbursts don't phase me. Caught on tape passed out with detritus of several illegal substances at your feet? I'll still buy your albums and listen to your music. Inappropriate? Yes, definitely. And at times sad and a waste, but never has that been grounds for shunning. Maybe I'm jaded that way. Or maybe I'm not the only one. Sweetney says in her recent post "In Defense of Kayne West:"
A good part of how and why I feel the way I do about West I think also relates to having an strong natural capacity for compartmentalization, whereby I'm able to easily separate out an artist -- the person and persona behind the art, their life and what they do and say in it -- from the actual art. And though by every possible measure Kanye West may be a jerk (I don't know if I agree with THAT sweeping of a condemnation, but for the sake of argument), he's also an extremely talented man who has been acknowledged by public, press, and the music industry alike as one of the important musicians of our day. He is, simply put, a complicated and contradictory individual: by turns arrogant to the point of absurdism (at one point calling himself the second coming of Christ, for example) and humble to the point of discrediting himself and his achievements...
Drunken onstage buffoonery is one thing, but in light of Mackenzie Phillips's recent allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of her father, Mamas and Papas founder John Phillips, and acclaimed director, Roman Polanski's arrest, I wonder how far we are willing to excuse someone's behavior simply because that person is an "artist?" 138 of Polanksi's film industry peers, including Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese signed a petition demanding his release. From Jezebel:
Yes I can totally see how arresting a fugitive child rapist is a slippery slope toward censorship. If I were a creative professional, I'd certainly be concerned about the authorities coming after me and my work! Except, I am a creative professional, and I'm not worried, because unlike Roman Polanski, I have neither raped a child nor jumped bail and evaded capture for three decades. See how that works? Don't rape a child and flee sentencing for it: Enjoy your personal and artistic freedom! Rape a child and flee: Get arrested! (Eventually.) Is there something I'm missing here? Like the part that explains how arresting a fugitive child rapist has fuck-all to do with festivals traditionally being a haven for controversial filmmakers? Is that really supposed to mean they should also be a haven for known felons?
Flawed is one thing: felon is another. Granted, I've yet to see the same support for John Phillips (well, he has been dead for some time), but the validity of Mackenzie's statements have certainly been questioned. (I believe her.) It's sick to think that because one "makes art" he gets an automatic pass. What are your thoughts? How far are you willing to "separate the art from the artist?"
Related links:
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As Generation X shrugs toward forty, more of our childhood idols are fading away rather burning out. Let's face it, we're getting old. In a summer that has already seen the deaths of John Hughes, Farrah Fawcette, most recently Patrick Swayze, and the two-month long media spectacle of Michael Jackson's drug-fueled passing, last week, poet and punk-pioneer (and inspiration for the movie The Basketball Diaries), Jon Carroll died unexpectedly from a heart attack at age 60. Holly Gleason from American Songwriter writes:
He knew about people who died, about compromises without choice, about sullying oneself for a vicious habit that made ones muscles flinch back with a force almost stronger than he could cognitively muster. It was terrifying. It made me feel more alive.
Carrie Brownstein from NPR's Monitor Mix:
Jim Carroll was on the same bill as us. He was tall and lithe, with a ghostly, otherworldly mien. Carroll was reading poems with no back-up band, no team, no amp to crank to up to 10. But he didn't have any problems covering the stage, reaching the corners and permeating the room.
Has this summer been particularly "deathy?" Kate Harding writes for Jezebel:
Since the news of Swayze's passing hit Twitter last night, I've seen a ton of people reiterating a sentiment that's been floating around at least since Jackson and Fawcett went within 24 hours of each other: 2009 is the year of shocking celebrity deaths! Michael, Farrah, Walter, John, Patrick. Jim Carroll. Dominick Dunne. Gidget the Taco Bell dog. It's as though some cruel virus is making its way through Celebrityland, robbing us of our icons.
The only pattern here is that people die — and a lot of us have finally gotten old enough to "know" and really miss the ones who do. The older we get, the more we recognize the names of the dead, the more we recall first seeing them on screen, the more we have to say about the meaning of their absence — and the more every season, every year, will feel like it deserves an "...of Death" title. That's not a new trend. It's just what happens when you're lucky enough to keep living.
Well said.
Related links
...probably the two biggest things that Ryan Adams did for me had very little to do with his own music: he opened me up to whole spectrum of artists, from the ones who inspired him (Dylan, Westerberg) to the ones who came after. And he soundtracked a period of my life when everything was changing. I got my tattoo the morning after walking out of a concert at the Edinburgh Picture House last year – a little piece of album artwork that means more to me than just the first shelf of my record collection.
In light of Noel Gallagher's recent departure from the band, The Guardian's Penny Anderson reminisces about the early days of Oasis:
I witnessed their live debut. No matter what you think of them, they had the tunes, and even for an audience of roughly 25, Liam exhibited that trademark swagger, as if he was headlining Glastonbury, not the Boardwalk. Geoff Travis of Rough Trade checked out the long-forgotten support band, leaving soon after. My snippet in the MEN was headlined: "Oasis Are Going Places". They were, and they did.
Carrie from NPR's Monitor Mix asked her readers if they have a "signature song," revealing hers in the process:
For walking into a room, I would want something without lyrics -- and something ridiculous, like Beethoven's 5th or Bach's "Jesu, The Joy of Man's Desiring." If the song had to have words, I'd go with "Play With Fire" by The Rolling Stones. And, for a sports fantasy, doesn't everyone just want John Fogerty's "Centerfield" playing? Okay, I guess there are a few people out there who want that "Oh Yeah" song by Yello.
Hmm. I've never thought about what my signature song might be. I guess I was never truly "named by rock and roll." I'm off to check out new music. Maybe I'll find it.
]]>Since his June 25 death, Michael Jackson has seen a spike not only in record sales but pretty much anything he's ever been affiliated with.According to Billboard, the Recording Industry Association of America is expecting Thriller to soon become the top-selling U.S. album of all time. That title previously belonged to the Eagles for Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975.
Music played a huge part in John Hughes's films. Shawn Amos from The Huffington Post says:
Still, Hughes' taste in music was impeccable. He set the benchmark for a new era in film soundtracks where songs were as much the stars as the actors on the screen. He could hear a hit the same way a good A&R man smells the next big thing. Apparently, it runs in the family, Hughes' son, John III runs a Chicago indie electronica label called Hefty Records. Films like (500) Days of Summer and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist with their song-driven plots would not exist without The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink.
Of course, borrowing from the past is nothing new. Music has always drawn from that which comes before it. Throughout the 00s, we've seen a surge in popularity of bands with a distinct 80s-tinged sound (Interpol, et al.) along with the resurrection of skinny jeans. Some of the best, however, dig deeper into the 80s canon, looking for those long-forgotten gems to pay tribute. Heather from I AM FUEL YOU ARE FRIENDS on the soon to be released Mark Mulcahy (leader of 80s college-roc band, Miracle Legion) tribute album:
Since being introduced, I have come to respect Mulcahy as a literate first-class songwriter, and this song from his band Miracle Legion first appears simple, yet is laden with ache and meaning in the smallest of moments, like watching a sibling cut grass and the overwhelming monotony of life that can imply. The jangly effect of the original reminds me quite a bit of some of my favorite things about late-80s R.E.M or The Smiths. Thom Yorke’s version is distant electronica, layered all crisp and sad and perfect.
Related links:
Not with a bang: “It was the final day of business for the Virgin Megastore chain in North America, which at its peak had 23 locations but by Sunday was down to two… when the [Union Square] store opened, perhaps 90 percent of the merchandise had already been sold, leaving two tables of CDs and DVDs, a dozen T-shirt racks and a few other scattered displays.”
Carrie From NPR's Monitor Mix packed up or sold her CDs prior to a move, but refuses to part with her vinyl albums:
I've sold off or packed all of my CDs for storage; I've loaded the content of the ones I can't live without onto my computer. That's right: Not a single CD is coming along to NYC. Yet I can't seem to part with the glorious and tactile experience of vinyl.
As someone who got into music in the late-eighties and early-nineties, I've never had tons of vinyl. I'd always wished I'd built a better collection, but I'm not tidy or organized enough to be a true record geek. I've ditched a lot of my CDs, too, moving twice in the past eight years. The songs I've found indispensable, I've ripped to iTunes, while the physical artifacts were shipped en masse to whatever used CD store would take them. The cassettes a distant memory. I should feel guilty about this, but I don't. To me, it's still music, regardless of the format?How about you? Do you buy CDs still?
]]>The Mercury Prize exist solely to champion UK music by Promoting the 12 Albums of the Year by British or Irish artists
The 2009 Shortlist:
The Guardian's Rebecca Nicholson notices something:
There are no less than five female solo artists on the Mercury music prize shortlist – a record. Does this mark a sea change in pop?
Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine), Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan, Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes, La Roux, and rapper Speech Debelle all make the cut. From the same article:
"The nice thing about being a female pop star these days is that you can make stuff up as you go along," says former Mercury judge and TV presenter Lauren Laverne. When she was frontwoman of 1990s indie band Kenickie, the rules were different. "It was very serious and nobody was allowed to dress up. We used to wear glitter and crazy makeup, but we had to go to clown shops to buy it. In my day, you'd have got massively slagged off for wanting a flick of mascara before you went on Top of the Pops." The preposterous, glittery quiff worn by Elly Jackson, and Khan's feather headdresses, are an indication of how things have changed. "It's market forces," says Laverne. "There are more girls around making it OK."
Heather from I AM FUEL YOU ARE FRIENDS says singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan :
is the gorgeous-voiced Irish woman who essentially made up half of Damien Rice's majesty, through her haunting collaborations all throughout the O album --on songs like "The Blower's Daughter" and the secret and devastating "Silent Night"-- and on the recent 9 Crimes.
Not everyone is happy with the nominees, though.Related links:
Brit Pop Redux (We *heart* Music)
Mercury Prize Nominees Announced (All Songs Considered)
Mercury prize 2009 Nominees (Stereogum)
]]>Sure, people much younger than me knew who Michael Jackson was and experienced him being out there as the “King of Pop” for many years muscially, as well as his ongoing legal and financial troubles the last almost-couple of decades. But most of them weren’t even born when Michael Jackson wasn’t really MICHAEL JACKSON yet. He was always there, almost as long as I’ve been alive, but first he was just Michael Jackson of The Jackson 5, and pretty much almost ever since I’ve been alive, either The Jackson 5, The Jacksons, or Michael solo have all been on the radio, somewhere, sometime, all the time. I have very clear memories of several Jacksons-related episodes, probably the earliest being when I couldn’t have been more than three or four, accompanying my grandparents on the trip to Memphis either to pick my eldest aunt up at nursing school or bring her back home, being in the car with “ABC” playing on the radio.
Like I said before, I don't really have a personal "Michael Jackson moment," other than the ubiquity of his music providing a sort of aural wallpaper for my childhood. I was a little too young for The Jackson Five, about eight or nine when Thriller came out, and already past my pop music stage for all the other albums. (I had to wrack my brain to remember some of the songs from Dangerous.) Sadly, for most of my life, Michael Jackson was a punchline. And after watching Tuesday's moving memorial service, I feel a bit guilty about that.As much as I pretend to be a music fan, I never really had that one album that saved my life. And every forum I've been a part of eventually asks that question: What album changed your life? I can't credit any album for changing my life. It's just too complicated for that. I can easily come up with three that changed my taste in music, for sure. (That would be Tim by the Replacements, Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights, and Rain Dogs by Tom Waits. One, an influential, 80s modern rock record, the second, possible the saddest break-up record ever recorded, and the third, well, a Cookie Monster-voiced singer-songwriter who thought way outside the box.) Recently, Jezebel asked its readers to name theirs. Editor Hortense said of Britney Spears:
I wouldn't say that her music has ever "saved my life" or even provided a comfort in darker times. But there are albums, and artists, who have, and while some might mock Britney fans for clinging to her pop songs as a salvation of sorts, anyone who has fallen in love with a band, or a singer, I think, can understand the level of devotion these people have toward Spears and what she has, most likely unintentionally, provided in their lives.
Did an album or song ever save your life?
]]>Kim from Kimblahg writes:
Back and forth online, people were defending him as a legendary, revered figure because of his record sales and talent. The media seems to be grabbing on to this perspective and when I flipped on MTV (since they actually started playing his- gasp- videos!), the VJ (are they still called that?) repeated he was a legendary artist whose bizarre personal life and legal troubles had eclipsed his earlier accomplishments. The fans that mourned the loss of the musician had to excuse themselves from his messy personal life because how can you mourn the loss of what most assume to be a pedophile? Some stood up to say he was never convicted of any crime but c’mon. If he wasn’t a child molester, he still admitted to wildly unacceptable behavior around children. Some argued you couldn’t mourn the loss of someone who had probably committed heinous acts and seemed indignant that anyone would continue to like his music. They argued you couldn’t separate the artist, the sinner from the art. That’s not true. There are countless works of art, literature and music created by people we have pretty much forgotten.
Carrie Brownstein of NRP's Monitor Mix:
For many of us of a certain age, Michael Jackson's Thriller was the album. The music contained therein wasn't relegated to the turn tables we played it on. (These were our first turn tables, usually part of some crappy combination stereo system that featured dual cassette players, a giant roving stereo dial, and cheap speakers barely better than megaphones). No, those songs on Thriller informed more than our musical taste; they taught us our dance moves, gave us a sense of style, and transformed what we saw on television and in the movies. Michael Jackson was our first superstar.
Heather Browne of I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS:
So first I was all, “Wow, that’s sad news but I am not qualified to blog anything about this musician, since I never could’ve honestly counted myself as a real fan.” And then I went home and the first thing I typed into my iTunes search box was “Michael Jackson” and then before I knew it I was mouthing, “I’m not gonna spend my life bein’ a color,” dancing around the kitchen. It happens.
More Links:
Michael Jackson: A Life In Pictures (Jezebel)
Dear Michael (Citizen Of The Month)
Remembering Michael Jackson (A to Z)
Collected Twitter and Facebook thoughts on Michael Jackson's death (Rock Insider)
]]>And of course I participated. My dirty little secret: I love "favorite album" or "favorite song" lists. Especially the online variety. It's the closest you can get to peeking into someone's record collection. I also wait with baited breath at the beginning of each year for the mother of all "best-of" lists: The Village Voice's Pazz and Jop poll, but anyway, back to this week's cornucopia of best-of like posts:
In response to recently defunct American Songwriter's Top 25 Songs Of The Last 25 Years, Croutonboy from Cheeky's Hideway wrote a multipart post detailing his top 25 songs of the last 25 years. He also invited readers to do the same:
It's a tough list. It can only include songs that came out after 1984. All the heavy hitters (Beatles, Dylan, Zeppelin, Stones, etc.) are effectively disqualified. Most of the best punk and new wave albums wouldn't count either. A huge number of the go-to songs you'd immediately think of as among the greatest don't cut it.Let me put things in perspective for you. Michael Jackson's Thriller came out at the end of 1982. So did Duran Duran's Rio. Pyromania was in 1983, the same year the The Police broke up. None are eligible. Feel old now?
In a feature called the Mamapop roundtable, Sweetney (who does her own fabulous Sweetney's Anthems of Yore ), asked readers to name "Your Top 5 Favorite Songs Of All Time, explaining why each one is so ultra fantastic/extra speshal."
Some of the responses included Schmutzie on Big Star's classic, "Thirteen:"
This song brings me to a nostalgic sense for a kind of youth I never had, kind of like when people talk about the flag, freckles, and apple pie. It's strange, but it's somehow comforting to reimagine myself within that context.
... and kdiddy on Bill Wither's "Lovey Day:"
The husband and I don't really have "a song," per se, but this one comes pretty close. It's funky and sweet and I like to sing it to both my husband and my son, much to their chagrin, due to the aforementioned singing voice. "Just one look at you and I know it's gonna be a lovely day..."
The post itself got over twenty responses, proving that everyone likes to peek at their fellow bloggers' record collections.
Related links:
The first mention I found of the new album came at around 8:30 p.m., from (one user). Another user chatted with him about it. But then things didn't get all crazed, capital-letters-and-exclamation-points, HOLY SH** WILCO LEAKED!!! until 10:30-11:30 p.m. or so. Then the snap-judgment reviews started rolling in, with reactions ranging from "amazing" to"I want Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Wilco back" and "huge disappointment." Someone even did a "livetweet" of the first listen. That's not even mentioning the people putting up links to the actual album for download.
As thrilled as I am at the prospect of new Wilco music, I haven't brought myself to listen to any of the streams. I have this weird theory that if I preview a record, I'll like it less than if I had just bought. Apparently I am not the only one who likes it "old school," but Robin from Poppymom caved:
You know what helps? The new Wilco album leaked last night. I usually stay away from early album leaks because 1) I love the anticipation of a new release. It’s like Christmas. And 2) I don’t want people reading my rough drafts, so I shouldn’t listen to what amounts to a rough draft of someone else’s creation. But dammit, I’ve had a week of child hysteria. I got my foot stomped by a horse. Twice. I’ve got allergies that two daily doses of Claratin can’t budge. I’m listening to the damn album.
On a much sadder note, multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett, who played a crucial part is shaping Wilco's sound, died earlier this week. Bennett, in the news earlier this month for suing his former bandmates over royalties for his part in the 2002 documentary, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, had recently undergone hip replacements surgery for an old injury. An official cause of death is not yet know. Online tributes like this one from Rock & Roll Ghost poured in:
Jay - wherever you are, know that you were loved, admired and thought about always by your friends, fans and family. May you find peace. We will carry on in your honor.
The Daily Kos had an interesting spin on musicians and their lack of health care:
However, with this morning's news, we now know what drove Bennett to sue a former friend and bandmate: the threat of overwhelming medical bills. Like many artists and countless others who do not pursue traditional forms of employment, Bennett lacked health insurance. At the time of his death, Bennett was suffering from severe pain, and though he desperately needed hip replacement surgery, he was concerned that seeking help would send him spiraling into crippling debt.
Further reading:
RIP Jay Bennett (Outlandos Music) RIP Jay Bennett (Mamapop) Jay Bennett Thoughts (All Songs Considered)
If her bemused stage movements, inability to figure out the sound system, unintentional underwear flashing, and general confusion weren't enough, heavy rains were finally enough to make Amy Winehouse ditch her comeback attempt at the St. Lucia Jazz Festival on Friday.
Rolling Stone wrote a much longer piece on the whole mess:
Winehouse has spent the past few months on the tropical island as she looks to rebound from a tumultuous marriage and a well-publicized drug habit that threatened to derail what looked to be a promising career following the Grammy-winning success of her second album Back to Black.
the singer took the stage at this weekend’s St. Lucia Jazz Festival to disastrous results, struggling to get in sync with her band during the opening number and at times...looking completely disinterested.
Weather aside, why does there have to be this fascination with damaged goods? Do we like it when our artists fail, especially women. And privacy? Forget it Feministing said of Rihanna after being allegedly attacked by her boyfriend, Chris Brown :
Celebrity culture currently thrives on depicting the stories of women's demise. We have seen this with Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears, among others. There is an obsession with making spectacle of women. So, all the more reason to keep her name out of the initial press materials
Several sites linked to the actual video of Amy's aborted St. Lucia show, something I've yet to watch and don't feel al that comfortable with linking to.
Related links:
British "It" Girls: A New Trend, A new Set Of Obnoxious Media Standards (from Jezebel)Amy Winehouse Comeback Gig Cut Short (from The Guardian UK)One More Reasons To Love Lily Allen, And Another To Fear Posh Spice (from Mamapop)Why Does Amy Winehouse Still Get Performing Gigs? (from E! Online)
Not to take anything away from the women mentioned: all respected performers in their own right, but there are plenty of men in the music industry over forty, fifty, even sixty and their "rockin'" needs no justification? Yes, the music industry is youth obsessed, distressingly so, but shouldn't this be old news by now? And as I mentioned before, the next generation is rapidly approaching forty, and changing what that means.A couple years ago, New York magazine's Adam Sternbergh wrote "Up With Grups." What is a grup, you ask?
Our preferred term, grup, is taken from an episode of Star Trek (keep reading) in which Captain Kirk et al. land on a planet of children who rule the world, with no adults in sight. The kids call Kirk and the crew “grups,” which they eventually figure out is a contraction of “grown-ups.” It turns out that all the grown-ups had died from a virus that greatly slows the aging process and kills anybody who grows up.
So we're not growing up. Or rather, we're not growing up in the way that our parents and our grandparents did. It's not uncommon to see thirty and forty year olds at a concert, mingling (and sometimes indistinguishable from) the twenty-year-olds.And is that such a terrible thing? Should there be an age where it's just "not right" to hang out at clubs? Ever? I've curtailed my show-going behavior tremendously in the last few years, partly out of not wanting to look like an aging groupie, and because I just don't have the desire to anymore. My guy friends don't seem to feel the same pressure to act like a grown-up. Maybe it is really different for girls. When I read posts like this one Robin wrote a few weeks back after a recent Morrissey show, I have hope:
At the show on Wednesday, I had a bit of an epiphany. I remember the kids at my school who wore Smiths, Cure, and Bauhaus t-shirts. I knew the bands because I was a “120 Minutes” junkie. I didn’t like the bands because something about them made me uncomfortable. Back then I thought it was just all the melodrama in their music, which could still be a part of it. I’m realizing more and more that if I’d been more honest with myself and the world during my teens, I would have been one of those kids in a Smiths t-shirt. Back then, they scared me. I’m not one for regret, but Wednesday night, I had some regrets about spending my adoloecense trying to make everything think I was confident, assertive, aloof, and ready to take on the world. That wasn’t me. More often than not, I was wanting to go home, cry, and die.]]>
This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances.
If you live in a city with at least one cool independently owned record store, you might want to check this out, and reconnect with your inner music geek this Saturday. Says Whitney Matheson of Pop Candy:
The event was such a success last year that they're bringing it back April 18. Record stores across the country will participate in the effort with special performances, releases and other festivities. Record Store Day is designed to celebrate independently owned record shops -- places that should be preserved but, sadly, seem to be fading fast.
Which makes visiting your local indies even more important.Other bloggers on Record Store Day: