Though they have been at times rhetorically numbing and ridiculously semantic, the recent go-rounds about black influence on indie rock have been compelling to me. They're not particularly exciting but at the very least curious. I'm just glad that conversations like this are happening.
Briefly, it started with Sasha Frere-Jones' October article in the New Yorker, A Paler Shade of White. Then Carl Wilson, of The Globe and Mail, replied with an article in Slate called The Trouble With Indie Rock. Then a slew of opinions came, including this from Frank Kogan of the Las Vegas Weekly, and this from the lovable dork of the New York Times Op-Ed crew, David Brooks along with countless bloggers. There was also an article this week from the LA Times that I refuse to link for it is profound in its missing of the point. There is some very interesting and personal stuff on Frere-Jones and Wilson's respective blogs, including a great raw diatribe by Wilson called "Indie, Class, and the Death of Bohemia," and SFJ's reply to a letter he got from Will Butler of Arcade Fire. The gist of the argument is Has black influence disappeared from indie rock? Is it race? Class? Does anyone care? We've heard from cultural commentators and music critics from most of the major bastions of indie rock, New York, Toronto, LA. But I'd like to hear something from Portland, indie's veritable home.
At the risk of adding to the din, I'll add a couple cents. My leanings are mostly toward Carl Wilson's, but, briefly, the biggest fault I find with the arguments themselves is that it is sometimes neglected that "indie rock" is no longer a symbol of a state-of-mind (or rather a lo-fi, low-energy kind-of-counter-culture) but is actually the moniker of a specific musical genre with its own genesis, evolution, influences, aesthetic, thematic elements, range of sound, audience, etc. It is a particularly malleable genre, but specific nonetheless. Perhaps it is that a good deal of the artists in the genre are expressing certain things at the moment that take on forms that don't resemble Pop as we know it. Other influences like classical or chamber music (which give the impetus for such projects as The Wordless Music Series, a great thing) or minimalism may be more appropriate sensibility to the subject matter, emotional texture, whatnot.
I'm excited that discussions like this are going on, and I commend Frere-Jones for being forward with his bold, albeit flawed, observations. It sparked an intellectual fire that I think needed to be lit. And while I find these conversations interesting, my real question is this: Why the fuck is it so hard for indie rock fans to dance? In 9 out of 10 shows I go to, it is mildly infuriating.
mark.
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Hey Mark this is making me think a lot about Theodor Adorno and his take on art and music. (If you aren't familiar with his work you should check it out. He is a Frankfurt School Marxist. Oddly enough I first encountered him through assignments I was busily reading in the car during our Austin road trip.) He was (and I am) interested in ways that art (mostly music for him though) can resist being co-opted by the status quo--hegemony--what not. Unfortunately the conclusions he reaches are a bit too bleak for my cheery (read hopeful--god it's hard but I need to be hopeful) disposition.
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