The idea behind this blog is to create dialogue (argument, discussion, comment, rancour) around my ongoing PhD topic - "Is there anything left to say about music?". The idea is to run a blog in parallel with a blog being set up by a group of QUT students, helmed by myself. I would like a uniformity of design, and to regularly update this page, otherwise I feel it lacks validity. The design needs to include hypertext links, visuals, audio. The uniformity should spread to the written entries. The blog will be used to test out ideas and theories, hopefully to shoot every last one down in flames. The blog will be based in and around Brisbane, but is not intended to be limited by any boundaries - real or imagined - imposed by my location within this fair city. The blog is intended to add colour, not lessen texture.Sunday, March 15, 2009
The first post
The idea behind this blog is to create dialogue (argument, discussion, comment, rancour) around my ongoing PhD topic - "Is there anything left to say about music?". The idea is to run a blog in parallel with a blog being set up by a group of QUT students, helmed by myself. I would like a uniformity of design, and to regularly update this page, otherwise I feel it lacks validity. The design needs to include hypertext links, visuals, audio. The uniformity should spread to the written entries. The blog will be used to test out ideas and theories, hopefully to shoot every last one down in flames. The blog will be based in and around Brisbane, but is not intended to be limited by any boundaries - real or imagined - imposed by my location within this fair city. The blog is intended to add colour, not lessen texture.
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There is obviously a great deal to say about music.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that hardly anything that has ever been said about music is worthwhile.
PS: Where did you get that picture? Is there a "The Young Ones" fan-site that I don't know about?
ReplyDeleteThere's a no-prize for the first person to name the single I'm proudly holding in my hands.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I think. Rock music as a corporate entity is pretty much over. Rock music was essentially a corporate invention to start with, except for a brief moment in the late 1960s when the largest generation in modern history got a little, shall we say, outta control. Hard times call for heartfelt music and that is what I think is required, the reconnection of music to the REQUIREMENT of its existence to keep people from going batshit crazy, for any writing about it to have any kind of relevance.
ReplyDeleteMy blog: culturanta.wordpress.com.
Over is over.
ReplyDeleteSingle: Part-Time Punks
Something maybe left to say about music:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/arts/music/15rubi.html?em
How about this?
ReplyDelete"Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about." - Cory Doctorow
Rock music is mostly context... maybe 90% context?
ReplyDeleteSome of that context is created by the artists themselves, some by the band's constituency ("fans"), some by the economic machinery (labels and promoters - through advertising, promo photos, graphic design, etc), and a big part of the equation is the "rock writer." Especially when the critic/writer/fanzine kid interprets the whole field: the music, the personal style, the scene around the band, the advertising, etc.
I'm always a little taken aback when people say, "It's all about the music." I mean, I can't remember - did the White Stripes really have better songs than the Strokes? Or did they just seem somehow more... relevant? And isn't that what we're after anyway?
I think we talked about this in a late-night Seattle noodle house five years ago?
You lost me at "helmed". One of the more overused statements in criticism today, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteIs it? It's so nice to be considered part of the zeitgeist occasionally. (And it's so nice to be thought of as a 'critic'.)
ReplyDelete