(no subject)
Okay, I swear this is total coincidence and just what happens to be up next on my booklogging list, but the book I'm going to talk about today is called Let's Talk About Love . . .? NOTHING TO DO however with my locked post of yesterday. (Which I am actually thinking about unlocking, but enough people have commented with what may be feelings that they don't feel comfortable sharing with the internet that I'm sort of hesitant to change the game - does anyone have strong feelings about it?)
The full title of this book is actually Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste, part of the 33 1/3 series of music criticism focusing on single albums, in this case Celine Dion's Titanic-era bestseller. agonistes recommended this book to me EVEN THOUGH I know nothing about music criticism (except what I've picked up from her) and EVEN THOUGH I have no feelings about Celine Dion one way or the other, and she was totally right to do so; I found it completely engaging.
The thing is, the author of this book starts out - as many music critics and self-proclaimed people of taste do - hating Celine Dion music with a disproportionate passion. Which is a phenomenon we're all familiar with; I don't think there's any of us who has not either ranted about "My Heart Will Go On" ourselves, or listen to our friends rant about it. (Okay I guess maybe some of you were too young to really remember Titanic, but that's a depressing thought and I'm going to leave it alone now.) Carl Wilson's project for himself, though, is to go against his instinctive reaction to Celine-bash and try to find out why our cultural Arbiters of Taste have so vehemently dismissed Celine, and why so many people passionately love her anyway - and, if possible, come around to being a Celine fan himself.
The resulting book is a really fascinating look at class, globalization, and cultural capital, not to mention the nature of personal taste, all of it in ways I did not expect. I did not come out of it with a particular urge to download Let's Talk About Love . . . but I did come out of it with a certain degree of respect for both Celine Dion as a musician and Carl Wilson as a critic, and also, an urge to listen to more music.
Therefore, semi-relatedly: guys! Rec me music! It's finally starting to be spring, the season for putting on your iPod and walking places instead of taking the subway everywhere like a slug, and I would love to have some new stuff to listen to. I like songs that are lyrically interesting, but I also like a level of - I guess I would say tunefulness; I do not, for example, appreciate Bob Dylan as I ought. (Or rather, I appreciate him as a lyricist, but I don't particularly enjoy listening to him when I'm walking around town.) I tend to gravitate towards slightly offbeat lady singer-songwriters (Jesca Hoop, Vienna Teng, Thea Gilmore, Neko Case), stuff that has a bit of a creepy folksong vibe, and conversely I also enjoy entertainingly over-the-top alt rock. That said, I also have liked a lot of other things, not excluding pop and country and rap (especially French rap! OH MANAU, so amazingly ridiculous), so please feel free to try and broaden my musical horizons.
The full title of this book is actually Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste, part of the 33 1/3 series of music criticism focusing on single albums, in this case Celine Dion's Titanic-era bestseller. agonistes recommended this book to me EVEN THOUGH I know nothing about music criticism (except what I've picked up from her) and EVEN THOUGH I have no feelings about Celine Dion one way or the other, and she was totally right to do so; I found it completely engaging.
The thing is, the author of this book starts out - as many music critics and self-proclaimed people of taste do - hating Celine Dion music with a disproportionate passion. Which is a phenomenon we're all familiar with; I don't think there's any of us who has not either ranted about "My Heart Will Go On" ourselves, or listen to our friends rant about it. (Okay I guess maybe some of you were too young to really remember Titanic, but that's a depressing thought and I'm going to leave it alone now.) Carl Wilson's project for himself, though, is to go against his instinctive reaction to Celine-bash and try to find out why our cultural Arbiters of Taste have so vehemently dismissed Celine, and why so many people passionately love her anyway - and, if possible, come around to being a Celine fan himself.
The resulting book is a really fascinating look at class, globalization, and cultural capital, not to mention the nature of personal taste, all of it in ways I did not expect. I did not come out of it with a particular urge to download Let's Talk About Love . . . but I did come out of it with a certain degree of respect for both Celine Dion as a musician and Carl Wilson as a critic, and also, an urge to listen to more music.
Therefore, semi-relatedly: guys! Rec me music! It's finally starting to be spring, the season for putting on your iPod and walking places instead of taking the subway everywhere like a slug, and I would love to have some new stuff to listen to. I like songs that are lyrically interesting, but I also like a level of - I guess I would say tunefulness; I do not, for example, appreciate Bob Dylan as I ought. (Or rather, I appreciate him as a lyricist, but I don't particularly enjoy listening to him when I'm walking around town.) I tend to gravitate towards slightly offbeat lady singer-songwriters (Jesca Hoop, Vienna Teng, Thea Gilmore, Neko Case), stuff that has a bit of a creepy folksong vibe, and conversely I also enjoy entertainingly over-the-top alt rock. That said, I also have liked a lot of other things, not excluding pop and country and rap (especially French rap! OH MANAU, so amazingly ridiculous), so please feel free to try and broaden my musical horizons.