on 11/12/03 4:13 AM, Efrén del Valle at efrendv@yahoo.es wrote:
Hi,
Moreover, anyone keen on - other currently *very popular* artists (either Stateside or in Europe) that are, in your opinion, pushing musical boundaries of one sort or another?
Pushing musical boundaries is often a lame substitute for content. Or has everyone forgotten Van Dyke Parks' first album (he's sure made up for it since, but...) A lot of the stuff whose innovations have been felt over the long haul weren't greeted as particularly visionary at the time of their release -- Joni Mitchell's HEJIRA, any Tower Of Power album, Frisell's LOOKOUT FOR HOPE. But there's tons of evidence of those records in records that follow (much as we hear echoes of Burt Bacharach in so much contemporary R&B or strands of Webern in B horror movies). If you're wondering why we haven't seen a "next Dylan" or a "next Zappa", it's because the playing field has changed so much. When those guys showed up, rock journalism was not yet an industry. But, because what critics write means everything to audiences (especially on lists like this one), the taint of expectation has made it impossible for the unexpected to happen, because everyone is waiting for the "next _________" (fill in the blank with Beck, Bjork, or the other industry-generated teen trend of your choice). Do you know how much major-label money it costs to design and build a Bjork or a Rage Against The Machine? The Radioheads of the world do not come cheap, and they're brought to you by the same folks who give you Garth Brooks. The advertising budget alone is staggering. Fortunately, that money not only buys you a big ad, but the "right" kind of press coverage. The only world that has been relatively free of this sort of thing -- and probably won't be for much longer -- is hip-hop, which is why innovation is still running rampant in that world. Being a critical darling isn;t really that impressive in hip-hop land. The want the money. Quite possibly the most groundbreaking album of the last twenty years in De La Soul's THREE FEET HIGH AND RISING. But a certain amount of racism always colors the perception of anything that comes out of non-academic black music world. The critics will suck Lester Bowie's dick in print from here to next Friday, but Prince Paul in one swoop changes a lot about American pop music and doesn't get the credit we afford Spector, Brian, or the Beatles. White bands that are affiliated somehow with counterculture get better treatment -- a band like Sonic Youth has more credibility than Prince or NWA. Which smells worse than teen spirit to me -- it smells like very PC racism. Or doesn't anyone else wonder why Run DMC aren't mentioned in the same breath as the Beatles in terms of worldwide cultural influence? I don't know that incorporating a tradition into anything is essential in order to make good music. It seems unlikely that anything all that good happens without that (the Shaggs notwithstanding). But the way music is presented in the media now that there's a whole media built around popular music has made it possible to pass off self-indulgent bullshit with the right personnel as "progressive". If you look at what was being written about pop music in 1966 (in what few real outlets there were for pop music writing back then), you see a much more careful use of words like "innovative". Dylan, Beatles, Bacharach, Brian Wilson, Zappa. Little else earned use of the term. Now, we've gotten to the point where 15 people in every issue of SPIN (your shopper's guide for what record comanies want you to think) get to be "innovative". The same people who said Beck was the "new Dylan" (which is an insult to the old Dylan, and Bob Marley, the only new Dylan who actually lived up to the job description). Zappa said the only reason he ever got a record deal was because nobody knew what was going on, so the labels were forced to take chances. Nowadays, everyone at every label knows what's going on. If they don't, they lose their jobs. No way would they make a mistake like signing a Zappa. Much safer to sign Bjork or Toby Keith. skip h