Shot out of a
When you read an interview with a famous musician, and they get asked about their musical influences, you can pretty much assume you're going to get a regurgitated version of the musical canon. If it's Sting, he'll mention the Beatles, the Who, maybe Aretha Franklin, a token jazz guy (most likely Coltrane), etc. If it's Flea, it will still be the canon, just a slightly different canon: the Sex Pistols, Bad Brains, Gang of Four, P-funk, and a token jazz guy (probably Coleman or Davis, possibly Ayler). There's some variation, but these lists are usually pulled from the same list of 100 or so albums that make up the societal canon; i.e., albums that are important from the point of view of musical history as a whole. But are these albums really that important to the individual?
The other day I was doing some spring cleaning and I pulled out a cd I hadn't listened to in at least four years: the self-titled debut of Anne Summers. Anne Summers was a DC-based (I think) pop band that would often come down to Williamsburg, VA during my freshman year of college and play shows at Psi U, the "punk rock frat" (ha). The album is actually pretty good; it's solid, catchy pop rock with nasal vocals, and I actually remembered lyrics and melodies for most of the songs despite the time that had passed since I last listened to it. On the other hand, there's nothing particularly distinctive or innovative about it, it's derivative, and if Flea had heard it when it came out, he probably would have listened to it once and then lost it under a pile of mysteriously damp sweat socks. But I am convinced that, if I were forced to honestly compile a list of my most influential bands, Anne Summers would have to be on it. Growing up outside of the US for most of my life, I was seperated from any kind of punk rock scene, and while I went to rock shows during my last couple of years of high school in Maryland, they were all at the Black Cat or the 9:30 Club and were all fairly established bands like Built to Spill. Anne Summers was probably the first band that seemed popular (there wasn't much else for the indie rock kids to do in Williamsburg) but approachable, like you could go drink shitty keg beer with them after they played (not that I ever did). They had formed at William & Mary, had graduated, but were still in a band, trying to get somewhere. Honestly, Anne Summers had much more effect on my life than the Sex Pistols ever did. There are other bands that would have to be in my personal canon despite their relative unimportance to music as whole, like Faith No More, Silkworm, and Mu-ziq.
I'm sure Sting has an equivalent band, a mediocre skiffle group that blew his mind when he was 14 years old, so why does he blather on about Aretha Franklin (who, let's face it, Sting doesn't really like)? I could blame it on intentional revision of his own taste to seem more relevant, on losing his memory in his dotage, on being brainwashed by society, but I'm not going to. I'm going to blame it on laziness. It's easier to stick to an established societal canon then to explain one's own personal canon. But does the societal canon really matter to anyone except for music critics and historians?
The other day I was doing some spring cleaning and I pulled out a cd I hadn't listened to in at least four years: the self-titled debut of Anne Summers. Anne Summers was a DC-based (I think) pop band that would often come down to Williamsburg, VA during my freshman year of college and play shows at Psi U, the "punk rock frat" (ha). The album is actually pretty good; it's solid, catchy pop rock with nasal vocals, and I actually remembered lyrics and melodies for most of the songs despite the time that had passed since I last listened to it. On the other hand, there's nothing particularly distinctive or innovative about it, it's derivative, and if Flea had heard it when it came out, he probably would have listened to it once and then lost it under a pile of mysteriously damp sweat socks. But I am convinced that, if I were forced to honestly compile a list of my most influential bands, Anne Summers would have to be on it. Growing up outside of the US for most of my life, I was seperated from any kind of punk rock scene, and while I went to rock shows during my last couple of years of high school in Maryland, they were all at the Black Cat or the 9:30 Club and were all fairly established bands like Built to Spill. Anne Summers was probably the first band that seemed popular (there wasn't much else for the indie rock kids to do in Williamsburg) but approachable, like you could go drink shitty keg beer with them after they played (not that I ever did). They had formed at William & Mary, had graduated, but were still in a band, trying to get somewhere. Honestly, Anne Summers had much more effect on my life than the Sex Pistols ever did. There are other bands that would have to be in my personal canon despite their relative unimportance to music as whole, like Faith No More, Silkworm, and Mu-ziq.
I'm sure Sting has an equivalent band, a mediocre skiffle group that blew his mind when he was 14 years old, so why does he blather on about Aretha Franklin (who, let's face it, Sting doesn't really like)? I could blame it on intentional revision of his own taste to seem more relevant, on losing his memory in his dotage, on being brainwashed by society, but I'm not going to. I'm going to blame it on laziness. It's easier to stick to an established societal canon then to explain one's own personal canon. But does the societal canon really matter to anyone except for music critics and historians?