Rules Of The Game #8: Which Social Class Sounds Better?
Rules Of The Game #8: Which Social Class Sounds Better?
At 2 a.m. Tuesday, with the column due in nine hours, I realized I simply couldn't create a coherent piece about social class, so I started this, went to sleep for a couple of hours, then finished. It reads OK but feels like a holding action. And honestly, I'm not sure where I'm heading now. For weeks 1 through 7 there was a clear line of thought; now I'm searching for a direction, though I know that Ashlee needs to become the subject sooner or later. And the question atop this piece is provocative, and there's more to explore.
My use of "class" is as problematic as ever, but the question here is can one class (or whatever) make better music than another class? And my answer is "sure," but this isn't inherent in the class; the goodness of the music happens in a particular time and place and has to be explained historically in reference to that particular time and place. From 1963 through about 1979 Anglo-American bohemia made some of the best music in the world; then it rather abruptly went down the crapper (at just about the time I was starting to perform onstage). This doesn't mean it wasn't subsequently meaningful and of value to the people who cared about it. And interestingly some of my favorite current music from both the mainstream and from country - ordinary mainstream girls like Ashlee Simpson and Kelly Clarkson, country oddballs like Deana Carter and Big & Rich [whose new album is a snore, unfortunately] - is saturated in old bohemian values. So...????
EDIT: Here are links to all but three of my other Rules Of The Game columns (LVW's search results for "Rules of the Game"). Links for the other three (which for some reason didn't get "Rules Of The Game" in their titles), are here: #4, #5, and #8.
UPDATE: I've got all the links here now:
http://koganbot.livejournal.com/179531.html
At 2 a.m. Tuesday, with the column due in nine hours, I realized I simply couldn't create a coherent piece about social class, so I started this, went to sleep for a couple of hours, then finished. It reads OK but feels like a holding action. And honestly, I'm not sure where I'm heading now. For weeks 1 through 7 there was a clear line of thought; now I'm searching for a direction, though I know that Ashlee needs to become the subject sooner or later. And the question atop this piece is provocative, and there's more to explore.
My use of "class" is as problematic as ever, but the question here is can one class (or whatever) make better music than another class? And my answer is "sure," but this isn't inherent in the class; the goodness of the music happens in a particular time and place and has to be explained historically in reference to that particular time and place. From 1963 through about 1979 Anglo-American bohemia made some of the best music in the world; then it rather abruptly went down the crapper (at just about the time I was starting to perform onstage). This doesn't mean it wasn't subsequently meaningful and of value to the people who cared about it. And interestingly some of my favorite current music from both the mainstream and from country - ordinary mainstream girls like Ashlee Simpson and Kelly Clarkson, country oddballs like Deana Carter and Big & Rich [whose new album is a snore, unfortunately] - is saturated in old bohemian values. So...????
EDIT: Here are links to all but three of my other Rules Of The Game columns (LVW's search results for "Rules of the Game"). Links for the other three (which for some reason didn't get "Rules Of The Game" in their titles), are here: #4, #5, and #8.
UPDATE: I've got all the links here now:
http://koganbot.livejournal.com/179531.html