Dear Various Music Fandoms
We all know the music fandom is something I absolutely can't stay away from. Whether it's haunting the Other Main Artists forum at @, slinking around (the sadly deceased) TurbidBlue forums, cluttering the shoutboxes at Last.fm, laughing at the bizarrity of SongMeanings.net, or registering at GeekArmy (MSIfan.com) hoping to find musician porn - I'm so hopelessly addicted to discussing musicians that it hurts. And, of course, it hurts because the music fandom is clogged with a special form of idiocy.
This special idiocy goes only by the name Nostalgia. And moreso than television fandoms and comics, the music fandom is chock-full of it.
Look, music fans. Let's use a small pool of examples.
Tori Amos is never going to make From the Choirgirl Hotel again.
Tom Waits will not repeat Rain Dogs.
MSI will not make another Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy.
Voltaire will not go back to The Devil's Bris.
Kate Bush will not make Hounds of Love part two.
Bjork is long past making Post.
PJ Harvey has changed since To Bring You My Love.
Paul Simon isn't going to make another Graceland.
Goldfrapp hasn't been obsessing with making Felt Mountain one more time.
Neko Case is making different music than redoing Blacklisted.
Nine Inch Nails isn't busy working on The Downward Spiral again.
The Dresden Dolls are not going to release another Dresden Dolls.
Morrisey hasn't redone You Are The Quarry.
No more OK Computer from Radiohead.
No more Mortal City from Dar Williams either.
Rasputina isn't going back to How We Quit the Forest...Do we see a pattern? Do we understand why this pattern exists?
YOUR FAVORITE BAND ISN'T MAKING YOUR FAVORITE ALBUM AGAIN BECAUSE THEY ALREADY MADE THAT ALBUM.
But you know what? When your favorite album came out, everyone hated it (unless it was their first album and they had no expectations set up for them). In general (some specific fans will always give the new stuff a shot). Tori Amos fans were disowning their redheaded pianobitch after she dared to use a full band in Choirgirl! Bjork fans were enraged when their Icelandic pixie decided to do serious experiments instead of more danciness. Radiohead fans were scratching their heads at OK Computer.
In ten years, a great chunk of you will go back and realize that the albums you're trashing now because they're not your favorite are actually, quite good. Uh Huh Her has the best ending sequence of any PJ album ever. You're the One is absolutely marvelous. Hail to the Thief has some great tracks, and I love Yes, Virginia... to shreds because it's awesome. You'll Rebel to Anything is a great FU rock album and Medulla, of course, is the best album ever because I said so. Even those that are below par (Beekeeper, I'm looking at you) are gradual steps in the musician's evolution. They're DIFFERENT.
Frankly, good musicians aren't going to repeat themselves. They're going to keep trying new stuff. Voltaire's incorporating horns and clarinets on his next album, how cool is that?
How far could Bjork have gone if she never broke away from dance songs? How long can you stand "Violently Happy"? What if she'd never managed any more urgency than "Hyperballad"? We'd never have gotten "Pagan Poetry" or "Bachelorette" or "Joga".
Hey, even if The Beekeeper did suck, it's not as if Tori's been making nothing but Choirgirl since 1998. Scarlet's Walk was a bloody easy-listening travelogue (that I loved). To Venus and Back was over-synthed electronica.
Why weren't you freaking out when MSI went from their get-down rap-metal-punk combo on Tight and jammed it full of electrical beeps and androgyny? When Neko started writing her own songs rather than covering classics? When PJ decided to throw down the electric guitar for an organ? When Fori discovered drums and bass? Because those were your favorite albums. Different from the ones that came before.
And the fandom at large hated them.
I'm not saying new albums can't suck - oh god, they can. But constantly comparing new releases to your beloved Choirgirl/Graceland/Downward Spiral/Blacklisted/Frankenstein Girls/OK Computer/Post and being only able to focus on how they're different (and therefore must pale in comparison) is just a headache.
This special idiocy goes only by the name Nostalgia. And moreso than television fandoms and comics, the music fandom is chock-full of it.
Look, music fans. Let's use a small pool of examples.
Tori Amos is never going to make From the Choirgirl Hotel again.
Tom Waits will not repeat Rain Dogs.
MSI will not make another Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy.
Voltaire will not go back to The Devil's Bris.
Kate Bush will not make Hounds of Love part two.
Bjork is long past making Post.
PJ Harvey has changed since To Bring You My Love.
Paul Simon isn't going to make another Graceland.
Goldfrapp hasn't been obsessing with making Felt Mountain one more time.
Neko Case is making different music than redoing Blacklisted.
Nine Inch Nails isn't busy working on The Downward Spiral again.
The Dresden Dolls are not going to release another Dresden Dolls.
Morrisey hasn't redone You Are The Quarry.
No more OK Computer from Radiohead.
No more Mortal City from Dar Williams either.
Rasputina isn't going back to How We Quit the Forest...Do we see a pattern? Do we understand why this pattern exists?
YOUR FAVORITE BAND ISN'T MAKING YOUR FAVORITE ALBUM AGAIN BECAUSE THEY ALREADY MADE THAT ALBUM.
But you know what? When your favorite album came out, everyone hated it (unless it was their first album and they had no expectations set up for them). In general (some specific fans will always give the new stuff a shot). Tori Amos fans were disowning their redheaded pianobitch after she dared to use a full band in Choirgirl! Bjork fans were enraged when their Icelandic pixie decided to do serious experiments instead of more danciness. Radiohead fans were scratching their heads at OK Computer.
In ten years, a great chunk of you will go back and realize that the albums you're trashing now because they're not your favorite are actually, quite good. Uh Huh Her has the best ending sequence of any PJ album ever. You're the One is absolutely marvelous. Hail to the Thief has some great tracks, and I love Yes, Virginia... to shreds because it's awesome. You'll Rebel to Anything is a great FU rock album and Medulla, of course, is the best album ever because I said so. Even those that are below par (Beekeeper, I'm looking at you) are gradual steps in the musician's evolution. They're DIFFERENT.
Frankly, good musicians aren't going to repeat themselves. They're going to keep trying new stuff. Voltaire's incorporating horns and clarinets on his next album, how cool is that?
How far could Bjork have gone if she never broke away from dance songs? How long can you stand "Violently Happy"? What if she'd never managed any more urgency than "Hyperballad"? We'd never have gotten "Pagan Poetry" or "Bachelorette" or "Joga".
Hey, even if The Beekeeper did suck, it's not as if Tori's been making nothing but Choirgirl since 1998. Scarlet's Walk was a bloody easy-listening travelogue (that I loved). To Venus and Back was over-synthed electronica.
Why weren't you freaking out when MSI went from their get-down rap-metal-punk combo on Tight and jammed it full of electrical beeps and androgyny? When Neko started writing her own songs rather than covering classics? When PJ decided to throw down the electric guitar for an organ? When Fori discovered drums and bass? Because those were your favorite albums. Different from the ones that came before.
And the fandom at large hated them.
I'm not saying new albums can't suck - oh god, they can. But constantly comparing new releases to your beloved Choirgirl/Graceland/Downward Spiral/Blacklisted/Frankenstein Girls/OK Computer/Post and being only able to focus on how they're different (and therefore must pale in comparison) is just a headache.