Sasha's right: this guy certainly did have a different year from me. (But then again, so did Sasha.) Reading this guy is like trying to talk to someone about 30 years older than you who has attained some knowledge of popular culture and a large amount of intelligence and so spins it on out. It's so cute! If I was related to him, here are the questions I would ask:

1) Do you really think "rap" is what you call stuff that's negative/ugly/violent and "hip-hop" is what you call stuff that has a "positive social aura"? Do you mean gangsta rap and hip-hop? Will the National Review not let you use the word "gangsta?" (It's especially cute because clearly someone told him that there's a difference between rap and hip-hop, but he doesn't actually know what it is!)

2) "Frat rock" is "punk music's more sanguine and engaging stepchild?" Do you mean pop-punk? Isn't frat rock either the Rascals or, I dunno, Dave Matthews and Barenaked Ladies? Do you think these bands are punk bands?

3) If you think the Dixie Chicks' new album is warmed-over pop, do you think bluegrass is warmed-over pop? (That damned "Landslide" cover aside, obviously.) Is it possible your opinion in this regard is a wee bit influenced by the Chicks' political stance? Did you just see their Lipton commercial and extrapolate from there? Am I totally wrong about it being a Lipton commercial and it, in fact, a Pepsi commercial?

4) Music was once a friend of sobriety? Whose? Should I break out the David Markson and list all the alcoholic composers?

5) You can use "bourgeoisie" but not "gangsta"?

6) Swedish "death-metal"?

7) Since you're astute enough to link FoW and the Barenaked ladies, do you want me to lead you a little further down the indie-pop path?

And then I see Spock's Beard and remember: oh yeah! That the guy who wrote that really hilarious and sort of convincing prog article that I read a while back. If you haven't read that yet, it's worth a look, especially post-Simon's prog-dump. Written by a true believer who's clearly very smart but not very conversant with the terms of rock crit, it's an interesting alternative to the way we all try to sell each other our favorite bands. This is genuinely why he likes it, even if you don't. (Which I don't.)
posted by Mike B. at 2:37 PM 0 comments