sasha frere-jones, a paler shade of white..
The New Yorker’s Pop Music Critic, Sasha Frere-Jones and me share the same sentiments about the current state of indie rock music. I have long complained in this blog about the dearth of creativity and experimentation in rock these days, Sasha though has a larger public audience than I and he is also much more erudite on the subject. Having said that SFJ has hit the blogosphere and the sabre rattling has begun over a lengthy piece he wrote in the current issue of the magazine entitled A Paler Shade of White.
What’s the fuss all about? Well here’s a hint from the article - I’ve spent the past decade wondering why rock and roll, the most miscegenated popular music ever to have existed, underwent a racial re-sorting in the nineteen-nineties. Why did so many white rock bands retreat from the ecstatic singing and intense, voicelike guitar tones of the blues, the heavy African downbeat, and the elaborate showmanship that characterized black music of the mid-twentieth century? These are the volatile elements that launched rock and roll, in the nineteen-fifties, when Elvis Presley stole the world away from Pat Boone and moved popular music from the head to the hips.
It is often difficult in the USA to mention race when the context alludes to black music and its inherent sexuality - As Carl Wilson writes in response in a Slate article The Trouble With Indie Rock, “…the article also tends troublingly to reduce “black music” to rhythm and sexuality, and to elide the differences between, say, funk, soul, disco, folk-blues, Caribbean, and African influences in white rock.” So the rumblings begin.
Meanwhile I left my immediate thoughts on Carl’s blog as a comment, the gist of which was…..
Carl writes - “While it’s possible to cherry-pick exceptions ever since, Frere-Jones does so selectively, overlooking the likes of Royal Trux or the Afghan Whigs in the 1990s, or more recently, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Spoon, Battles and the dance-punks LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, and Junior Senior,”
To which I respond - Other than Spoon who add the “swing” to their music, none of the above mentioned bands are anymore than four to the floor merchants in my mind. Battles’ math-rock workouts are quite intriguing at times. SFJ is asking why bands no longer borrow from say reggae like the all-female outfit The Slits (and, cough..even my own band Gang of Four.) The Pop Group (produced by dub merchant Dennis Bovell) managed to mix Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman into a fiery jazz-punk mash up in the early 80’s and before Arcade Fire there was of course the extremely funky white outfit, Talking Heads. These days I too lament the lack of experimentation and the, as SFJ calls it, miscegenation of rock music. I’m still digesting both the SFJ piece and your Slate response so I’ll return with more insight later. Readers should visit Sasha’s blog for more good stuff. Also SFJ is a musician and had a band I loved called UI - check them out below. If you like what you hear you can buy it here.
UI - Drive Until He Sleeps from the CD ‘Lifelike’ [MP3]
October 19th, 2007 at 11:34 am
I made an arguement on Slate in which I pointed out that I considered what is commonly termed “indie rock” to encompass a broader spectrum of sounds and be a better assimilator of genres than any other popular music scenes going on in America today (namely mainstream rock, country, and rap).
What I’ll say here is more of an artistic arguement. I think that most indie artists have made a somewhat conscious decision to eschew the blues-influence that basically birthed Rock as an attempt to be taken more seriously as “artists” rather than “musicians.” Among the reasons for giving the blues the axe is that 1. its simple, repetative, and less avante-garde, 2. Its been done, a lot and 3. Its cheesy. That is, over-emoting and entertaining (instead of “communicating”) seems to have less artistic merit.
I don’t personally hold these opinions to be true. However, I can understand the appeal of pushing the focus of rock from the hips to the head.
October 19th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Justin, I agree with you on the broad spectrum of music in indie rock. I think it’s too simplistic though to say that musicians dropped the blues to be considered more as artists. There should be no such division; music=art=culture. It’s an oddly American contrivance to try and neatly button things up and compartmentalize them. As SFJ argues rock and roll is a torrid sexy beast and has always been that way until recently - now the spark has gone. I don’t think anyone misunderstood the fact that David Byrne, the nerdy art school protege and erstwhile frontman for Talking Heads, was anything but both an entertainer and a big thinker. Some of the videos he was responsible for when the Heads were at the top of their game are pure art plain and simple; Talking Heads were supremely funky too.
In the big picture world view it might be worth noting that this turn towards earnestness in indie music is perhaps a response to the way the world, and especially the USA, has turned post 9/11. People are more reticent and defensive than before and perhaps there is an unwillingness amongst the educated, middle class, white male indie rockers (they do dominate you must admit) to let it all hang out figuratively speaking - Arcade Fire had the finger pointed at them by SFJ and I have to agree with him. I sort of like their songs but I lose interest really quickly as the same sound keeps tumbling out of the speakers song after song. They sound like they have one great song done 20 times over. They never let go, it’s all too controlled so inevitably I no longer trust that their passion is authentic.
On the Moose home page today in the MP3 list is the Ratatat remix of the Biggie Smalls track ‘Party & Bullshit’. Now that shit rocks me but what I’ve heard of Ratatat’s own stuff doesn’t. What’s wrong with that?
October 19th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I think the post - 9-11 point is true. Whatever their reasoning, I think we can agree that artists have been trying to create a more “serious” sound, which often ends up being reserved or paranoid. But I suppose that too shall pass, as trends do. Personally, I’m not aware of a lack of creativity in all this - I’m quite happy with the music out there, even if the dominant indie genre is Anglo-Fear.
October 20th, 2007 at 7:33 am
From your lips (and Sasha’s) to god’s ear - especially your point re. Arcade Fire - who mostly leave me cold. I hear more fire and passion in contemporary heavy metal nowadays….as verging-on-boring/repetitive as a lot of it is.
October 20th, 2007 at 10:14 am
I have this terrible feeling that God stopped listening to me, or vise versa, many years ago….!
October 25th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
“What I’ll say here is more of an artistic arguement. I think that most indie artists have made a somewhat conscious decision to eschew the blues-influence that basically birthed Rock as an attempt to be taken more seriously as “artists” rather than “musicians.” Among the reasons for giving the blues the axe is that 1. its simple, repetative, and less avante-garde, 2. Its been done, a lot and 3. Its cheesy. That is, over-emoting and entertaining (instead of “communicating”) seems to have less artistic merit.”
Let me respond:
1. How is simplicity or repetitiveness not avant garde? Are Steve Reich, Terry Riley, The Fall, or Spacemen 3 not avant garde?
2. I’ll see you there. Although the article isn’t talking specifically about blues but any black influence, especially influence from modern black musics.
3. Who is defining “cheesy”? Where is the line between emoting and over-emoting? I’d consider any Arcade Fire song a million times more melodramatic than any Leadbelly song.
I think a more interesting article would be about the lineage from punk to indie rock, the differences, and their different relations to black music. And why are white artists now so reluctant to take ideas from modern black artists, when they will readily be influenced by electro or funk or any black music that is at least 10 years old.
October 26th, 2007 at 6:30 am
Your last point is a good one. Punk rock was rhythmically rote and devoid of the funk but the post-punkers found the groove (however white) and threw it in the mix. Even those plain vanilla boys from Manchester, A Certain Ratio, managed to swing when playing ‘Shack Up’….. oh the irony..