Photo by David Greenwald
Matthew Fluxblog and Amanda Perpetua touched upon an interesting topic in the final bit of their five-post (read: four more page views for Fluxy) conversation last Friday: The absence of larger-than-life figures in the endless flatlands of Internet-era musical discussion and fandom.
"Things have moved towards appreciating styles, and embracing things that conform to certain expectations for whatever genre, and genius figures have been devalued or discouraged somewhat," Matthew wrote. "I think the '90s was really focused on genius figures, this whole pantheon of larger than life icons."
Amanda agrees, citing a conversation about the Silver Jews' David Berman about the dearth of new heroes, and the two go on to note that they're absent from hip-hop as well as indie rock -- Lil Wayne being the only guy who's really reaching for the brass ring. The characters are arguable (dudes, Kanye), but it's a good point -- where are today's heroes? [Continue reading...]
Pop music has always been disposable, to an extent -- otherwise acts like the Beatles and the Supremes wouldn't have birthed new singles faster than Sarah Palin -- but never more obviously than it is today. It's reflected both in sales numbers and on the even more revealing Last.fm charts, and it stretches from divas to noise-rock. The giants of pop music can barely score one hit single before the album drops off the charts, and blog bands are washed up before they can even finish their debut albums.
As a folk afficionado, I can name a number of artists with vast catalogs trailing behind them like troops following their general to war. Bill Callahan, formerly Smog; Lambchop; Bonnie 'Prince' Billy; Sun Kil Moon; Destroyer. Phil Elverum of the Microphones and Mount Eerie. Heroes one and all. ...And all '90s leftovers.
Matthew and Amanda argue that the Internet has helped ruin the music scene for geniuses, and to a point that's true, and not just for geniuses -- new bands simply get less mileage and make less of an impact now, partially because of the increased competition and accessibility and partially because many of the ones who stumble to the front of the line simply aren't good enough. As a CD purchaser in the '90s before indie rock was the soundtrack to teenage soap operas, the stakes were a lot higher -- if you discovered a band you loved, you were almost forced into loyalty because it was so much harder to find more of them. And then there's the mystique. It's hard to be a mysterious rock star when 20 identical Q&As with you show up in RSS readers every time you put out a record or go on tour.
However, the twilight of heroes, as Alan Moore once termed a never-to-be-seen comic book epic, is also the fault of changing times. In the '80s and '90s, musicians railed against pop culture and offered middle fingers to corporations; now, they hawk their songs on every TV commercial and soundtrack opportunity they can find. I'm not against this; the music industry and yes, peg-legged, swashbuckling fans, has failed the musicians. I don't care who subsidizes art as long as they're relatively hands off -- and honestly, a TV show or a car company might be a better partner than a record label, whose needs tend to be the opposite of envelop-pushing. The prevailing mindset of today is "Fuck art, let's dance" -- or worse, fuck Bob Dylan, let's pout and sing about being from Sweden. There were a number of would-be heroes at the turn of the decade, but they've been lost in the blogwash (and would you want to still be a Hives fan?).
There are bands, of course, who stand taller than the rest -- more than any '00s act, Animal Collective has probably made the biggest impact in influence and relevance. Broken Social Scene would be another, though they've begun disappearing into critical irrelevance, and it won't surprise me if the Arcade Fire go down the same path. By the terms of Matthew and Amanda's discussion, a "hero" can't just be a flash in the pan -- they have to be able to release album after album. To inspire a following. To be great, continuously. By this logic, of course, we're left with Coldplay as the decade's preeminent new band as Radiohead remains the world's best band, which would be about the same thing as 50 Cent showing up in a movie with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro and scoring an Oscar nod. (Stranger things have happened.)
So Panda Bear might really be all we've got, a boon for stoners and a bane for anyone who misses Malkmus' or Moore's glory days. There are a number of bands I believe in who are planted firmly in the modern age: To name three, The National, Grizzly Bear and Of Montreal -- a '90s act that's thoroughly reinvented itself for the online era. Only Kevin Barnes, who Matthew mentions, has enough charisma and madness to be a genius for our times, which he most certainly is. Then there's Ryan Adams, who's my hero -- and in complete seriousness, a contender for artist of the decade -- but us Ryan fans are a pretty lonely 150,000. And King Sufjan seems to have abandoned his crown. But then, so did Dylan.
I think we'll find that heroes come in cycles; while people may not hold today's damaged frontmen to their hearts as dearly as Malkmus and Pavement or Berman and the Silver Jews or Isaac Brock and Modest Mouse, it's easy to forget that '90s indie rock is littered with the broken promo copies of bands who never made out alive. It's probably for the best -- if anyone could be a hero, we wouldn't need them anymore.
Silver Jews - "Smith & Jones Forever": mp3
Animal Collective - "The Purple Bottle (Stevie Wonder version): mp3
Of Montreal - "Every Day Feels Like Sunday": mp3
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Critical Backlash is a column where I complain about things.
Labels: Critical Backlash
posted by David Greenwald @ 10:10 AM 
Comments (7)
I think maybe your adieu to Heroes may be a bit premature.
Granted, the music world has been changed drastically by the explosion of flash-in-the-blogpan artists, but the "let's dance" mentality isn't an entirely bad thing as long as we understand that it is an entirely new sphere of music, and can never replace the artistry of the geniuses of today.
Like, say, Andrew Bird.
And we should also realize that some of these geniuses are content to remain primarily on the production side. You may not Like Timbaland, but you have to admit that he knows how to play the system, and that takes some measure of intelligence, and if he can pull out another run like the Justin-Furtado-Timbaland trifecta of 2006-8, he deserves some recognition.
And then there are producers like Ronson, who crank out album after award-winning album, and aren't known by 95% of the general public. You ask a pop music fan who Ronson is, and they don't know but I promise they know all the words to several of the songs he has crafted.
I would point to three consecutive very solid albums by The Books as a sign of genius.
And while Greg Gillis can't be credited with that much creativity on his part, he has certainly become an Icon.
And let's just talk about Daft Punk for a second. To be able to rule the club scene for a while, fade into the background, come back with a remarkable tour, and then Team up with Busta Rhypes for Touch It and Kanye for Stronger. Everytime I think we have seen the last of Daft Punk, they show up with something new.
Feist?
Nickel Creek?
Muse?
Sure, the heroes of music may not be in the spotlight as much as they once were, and it pains me to think that Oldies Radio will choose to remember and pay tribute to Beyonce instead of Bjork, but our icons aren't gone. If anything, they are more ours. The beauty lies in understanding the difference between a blogspark and brilliance.
Great points.
Andrew Bird is a great choice for the model in discussion; the fact that he's sort of triumphed over his own audience-limiting quirkiness is a bonus. Colin Meloy can go in this category too except the Decemberists are past their prime (as is Timbaland, who I generally like a lot).
But I suppose producers -- Ronson, Diplo, Justice, etc. -- are in many ways the new geniuses, which is a bummer for us '90s rockists but something this discussion definitely overlooked.
i think the problem is moreso that the internet has become such a cluttered mass of opinion, that visionary artists that would have normally been widely heralded as heroes can easily be torn down a couple pegs from a couple of bloggers that aren't drinking the kool-aid.
the latter half of this decade has also brought forth the fact that there are far more heroes on a much smaller scale, due to marginalization under the aforementioned huge mass of opinions.
who knows if there will ever even be a consensus-favorite genius due to the times we're living in? just like you, i'm rooting for one.
the way i worded this makes it clear that i merely skimmed over the paragraph about the internet, but that point-- and really, your whole case-- is spot-on.
another point is that artists could be less thoughtful when making their art, because they're trying to figure out how to make money, as you allude to in your paragraph about licensing.
I think part of it just has to do with it being a weak time for music -- it feels like a lot of the ideas have been exhausted and everybody's waiting for the next big movement. '80s loft-pop and lo-fi round 2 ain't exactly it. But "indie rock is dead" is another column.
good read. i agree with the sentiments. generally speaking, since the start of 'pop music' anyways, i would argue that there has always persisted the mindset to just dance. but there was perhaps a greater appreciation of art than exists today. or at least, the majority has polarized so that there are far more in the crowd who only care to go clubbing than to mope with a velvet underground record in their room (which would probably be termed today by many as 'emo': a grossly abused and misunderstood term nowadays). i do love to dance but i also appreciate art immensely, but that seems to be a fluid minority. i could make this much longer, but i'll just say that it will take multiple records for anybody to reach that pantheon. lil wayne will NOT be that hero (even though i enjoy him) because he will also be a flash in the pan (anyone should recognize his style to be gimmicky (see southern/bay rap), it will not hold the pop culture ear for much longer). kanye i can see as a hero figure. radiohead i would say is for many. coldplay might be for pop-rock. andrew bird if he puts out a lot of records maybe (but like sufjan, i dont know that he will ever reach as many ears as he deserves). i'll also say this: music has become more genre-bending so although much can be classified as 'pop', there seems to be many different niches being filled so that it becomes harder for any one 'unifying' hero figure (which could be seen as a good thing for the music scene/ears at large, or maybe is just a nod at today's ADD culture).
Agree completely -- THE END OF POP CULTURE due to the fractured nature of a crumbling mainstream + internet hype/competition definitely plays a role here.
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