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 Now online (2)Hyperflake big ...and 213 guests Last 5 registered Oplandisks nothingstar N_loop yipe foxtrotromeo Browse members... |
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have a read of this editorial from the latest issue of The Wire. The Wire - Editor's Idea 31 Songs, a new book by High Fidelity author Nick Hornby, is a 190 page, soulless, spineless and vacuous attack on music. His stated purpose is to explain why he loves songs so much, but the feeling you get is precisely the opposite. It is, in fact, an argument for hating music, for denying its power. A critic has called it "Hornby at his most persuasive". Here are examples of that persuasiveness: "[...]mostly all i have to say about these songs is that i love them, and want to sing along to them, and force other people to listen to them, and get cross when these other people don't like them as much as i do..." Of Nelly Furtado, he gushes, "I will always be grateful to her for creating in me the narcotic need to hear her song again and again. It is, after all, a harmless need, easily satisfied, and there are few enough of those in the world... I don't even want to make a case for this song... The point is that a few months ago it didn't exist, at least as far as we are concerned, and now here it is, and that, in itself, is a small miracle." Discussing how he now has "no use for" Suicide's "Frankie Teardrop", he declares, "I don't want to be terrified by art any more." The text is loaded with the kind of fudges, ramblings, digressions, arguments founded on hypothetical situations, digressions, etc, that any editor should have immediately condemned to the spike. Among other factors that make this tract so despicable are the lack of commitment or ideas, the relentless yet misplaced and laughably bungled political correctness, the low attention span, the desperation to be all things to all people, and the irritating, preposterous arbitrariness of that title - why 31 songs? That's the essential problem with Hornby, and all the sadsacks he represents (the kind who have to buy two copies of everything - one to keep in its shrinkwrap; the card-indexers; the 'my 20 favourite records this week' list co |
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the 'my 20 favourite records this week' list compilers): they are engaged on a futile quest for perfection. But music is not a matter of perfection. As much as its 'successes', there is plenty to value in its 'failures', its imperfections, flaws, system breakdowns, outtakes, flies in the ointment and fallen angels. Readers of David Toop's articles and books may be surprised to hear him declare, in this month's Invisible Jukebox, "In a lot of ways I've come to dislike music... I don't like the idea of background music, I don't like listening to it on the radio, seeing music on television, I don't like having it on in the house. So that love of music as a generalised experience, I've come to the end of that." If there is a measure of fatigue in this statement, there is as much positive light as well. It is an extreme manifestation of the kind of impatience with the banal which must characterise the kind of person who would read, and write for, this magazine. It bespeaks the determination not to choose the path of least resistance, and to recognise that there are intelligent choices that can be made about the music you let into your life. All that Nick Hornby's insipid love letter to background music expresses is that the time when he required music to play a part in his intellectual life, and to offer new revelation and challenges, well, he's come to the end of that. If, indeed, he was ever there in the first place. ROB YOUNG |
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yeah i've read that, very funny! The Wire is a great magazine. |
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interesting read |
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ha. I did like Hornby's "high fedility" - the book, NOT the film (which is okay but kind of sappy). this book sounds like one to miss, though. I mean.. Nelly Furtado.. come ON.. |
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sounds like someone who's music-life is dictated entirely by daytime radio. |
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most tv and most radio is so bad, but so easy to get sucked into. we gotta make an effort to boycott this shit before its too late. have you seen the way some people stare at a tv? |
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