Monoculture and rockism

[boof_boy]

Weekend in Huddersfield with K. Weather hideous, but we did manage to get across to Dewsbury to do some charity shopping. Found an excellent pair of brown Loakes slip-ons (£8), plus The Smiths: The Complete Picture VHS (£1) and the BBC footage of the 1966 World Cup Final on DVD for 49p. Hooray

Comments

[milky_vii]

uh, what if the band wants multiple female vocalists? or what if the members simply feel alienated by whatever scene they are in (for lack of a better term) and want to meet other creative, like-minded women? in a culture where you are a minority, perhaps it gives these people strength to seek out one another and work together. One day hopefully it wont have to be that way, but we are still working within a male-oriented structure. Music can be incredibly alienating to women, especially in say, punk and hardcore. I don't really think it comes down to gimmick. I'd personally really like another girl in my band so we could layer female vocals, and perhaps at one point I will have to place an ad seeking out such a member. Perhaps the band wants to discuss issues in regards to feminism? (though personally, I do believe it would good to see bands with mixed members speaking about feminist issues...it should be of equal importance to both genders and it's important not to alienate).

and i know i'm being picky, but I don't see the relevance of visual kei. from what I know, visual kei is a (mostly) japanese genre which does place a lot of emphasis on visuals and theatrics. Is this such a bad thing? does it automatically render the music a gimmick? the few visual kei bands I have heard played quite complex,interesting music. but I could be wrong.

Anyway, i agree with many aspects of your original point, but I don't think it's quite as simple as girls wanting to start bands with other girls for gimmick's sake, or because they don't 'get along' with men.

[boof_boy]

Visual Kei? I'll have to look that up!

[tredecimal]

if the band wants multiple female vocalists?

To me, that would fall under choosing people for sonic reasons. Wimmens vocal cords just be different than men's! So more power to 'em. I think the gimmickry starts when you start to coordinate outfits and such.

Now, if one worries about feeling alienated, it doesn't seem likely that they'll ever get much past buying an instrument. I'm not the punk professor or whatever (and honestly don't listen to much anymore, 99% of it bores me, and I probably find 1 hardcore band every other year that I like), but giving a shit what other people think doesn't strike me as very punk. If you worry about getting ostracized or hurt feelings, those may not be the right genres for one to be working in.

from what I know, visual kei is a (mostly) japanese genre which does place a lot of emphasis on visuals and theatrics. Is this such a bad thing?

Not necessarily a *bad* thing, but it doesn't seem very musical to me. That's 'performance' or 'entertaining'. Is Tom Jones a musician, or is he an entertainer/performer? I'd say more the latter. One of my friends is all into those sort of bands and the music seems to be a real afterthought. It's like people who go see Madonna and they come out talking about how awesome her costume changes were during the set. The music is not really the point, which is what VK seems to be about. I said this to my friend and she basically said "Yeah, DUH."
I know can't judge VK bands on the same merits I would judge the bands I listen to (be that hiphop or reggae or post-rock or whatever), I know they're not really going for the same thing. At the same time I don't feel bad or incorrect at saying that the sound is not really the main focus.

Which brings us back to band personnel and the choosing of them- I recognize not really being able to get inside the skin of the thought process of a 'minority', but at the same time the rationale you lay out kinda strikes me as predecided. I guess I'm a little less likely to let that slide because my life has a lot of experiences where people end up telling me "wow, you're nothing like what I initially thought you were" or "you're not like most people that look like you", and the thing is, I don't think I'm all that special. I really think if you find someone that has the same musical aspirations as you, and you take the time to jam with that person a couple of times, then you'll find it doesn't matter what sex, gender, race, political affiliation, etc they are. (of course, you may be saying 'hey! points well taken, i'm saying i can't get the OTHER people to that point!' in which case, my sympathies ;)
I don't mean to paint myself as Mr. Rainbow Coalition or whatever, but music is responsible for almost all the diversity in my circle of friends. It's how gay people became humanized to me (i was raised in a very right-wing 'christian' environment), IOW, surrounding yourself with people that think or look like you doesn't interest me much. Even though most of the people in my band are more or less like me ideologically (left-leaning atheists), I've had to relearn to still see xians as people, and not the group of generic zombies I tend to usually mentally lump them together as. Otherwise I would have missed out on say, one of the aforementioned women in the band, who in the end, probably has more in common with me than not.