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Thursday, October 18, 2007
And I think you can dance to Arcade Fire
I've read a lot of Sasha Frere-Jones' work in the UK magazine The Wire, The New Yorker and on Slate. I've found that he's often had solid points about popular music in his articles but it's often buried under perplexing notions Frere-Jones doesn't even try to prove. The last time I considered Frere-Jones was reading this New York Time article which confirmed for me that he suffers from a problem a lot of cultural critics do. He comes to these conclusions that makes sense to him on an immediate emotional level but rather than testing them with the facts he just tries to spin his original gut feeling into something that sounds convincing.
This piece from The New Yorker is a prime example of why Frere-Jones frustrates me. While I enjoy The Arcade Fire, The Decemberists and some of Wilco's new material I have some reservations about the orchestral and elaborate direction rock music has taken. Frere-Jones' argument comes from a slightly different direction, asking what has happened to danceable rhythm in rock 'n' roll? He opens the argument to race, tracing how white rock 'n' roll bands like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin were greatly influenced by the blues and R&B music of black musicians but now, since black artists can make it on their own and white kids are scared by political correctness, the sounds of black and white musicians are more (dare I say it?) segregated than ever before.
The problem I have with the article is that Frere-Jones completely ignores bands that would complicate his argument. By the third page I was screaming inside my head "why haven't you mentioned The White Stripes? Why haven't you mentioned LCD Soundsystem?" As soon as I saw this was an article on race and indie rock I knew we were in for a mention of TV on the Radio, one of the best bands around and whose line-up is 4/5ths black. But the band isn't mentioned. I'm glad that they weren't used as a token but I also felt that it was another sign that Frere-Jones is just ignoring certain bands so he could create a stilted argument.
It's a shame becuase becuase I did like what Frere-Jones has to say about how the rise of hip-hop completely changed the conversation between pop musicians of all ethnicities. But at the end of the article instead of coming up with an idea that readers could really chew on he just says that the Internet has "made individual genres less significant." So he went from selecting a few bands to prove a shaky point to using every band out there to subtract real substance behind his words. There is a good article or book to be written on this subject but Frere-Jones only supplies a feeble jumping-off point.
Edit at 8:13 p.m., after a shitty day at work and coming back from seeing The Go! Team do a free show at Amoeba: You know, what annoys me about this article is that the real story is why so many bands are moving to a sound of grandeur. Or maybe the real story is why complicated music is hitting kids the way three-chords and a drum beat used to (and still does, let's be honest). But Frere-Jones doesn't concentrate on what these bands are, he concentrates on what the bands are not. Bringing in anxieties about race robs the examination of this subject of coming upon any vital discoveries. What a waste.
Permanent Link: 5:58 AM |
3 comments
Comments:
but how was the go! team?
# posted by fraction : 8:29 PM
I found out what happens when a great live band gets a shitty mix. I've heard how awesome a front woman Ninja is. She's certainly a magnetic force on stage but unfortunately nobody could hear her or any of the other singers while the music was going! But the rhythms were undeniable as was the fun the band was having, which transfered over the to audience.
I'm thinking of catching their actual show tomorrow night to see what the band does when everything goes right. I'll certainly buy one of the albums. It's music that picks you up no matter how you're feeling.
I was thinking of relating them to the article becuase here was a multi-gender, multi-ethnic group playing to a multi-gender, multi-ethnic crowd. But they're too good to be dragged into this nonsense. If I can make it to the show I'll post a review.
# posted by Ian : 8:54 PM
Great post, Ian. You're spot on.
Go see the Go! Team, definitely.
Their live shows are awesome, I saw 'em open for Sonic Youth a year ago and they were great.
# posted by AaronM : 10:29 PM
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