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ch-scene - Re: "Is Stephin Merritt a racist because he doesn't like hip-hop?"

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Subject: RTP-area local music and culture

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  • From: James Hepler <jameshepler AT yahoo.com>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: "Is Stephin Merritt a racist because he doesn't like hip-hop?"
  • Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 07:32:25 -0700 (PDT)

Ugh. What we need are more stupid articles talking
about stupid people saying stupid things about other
stupid people. I guess there's no actual music for
slate to talk about this week in Music Box?

Sorry, my bed had two wrong sides this morning.

--- grady <grady AT ibiblio.org> wrote:

> Probably already discussed to death on that other,
> hipper music list
> you're all on, but it's Friday and I got precious
> little to do at work
> at present:
>
> http://www.slate.com/id/2141421/
>
> Steve Albini sez:
>
http://www.electrical.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=223811#223811
>
> Jessica Hopper claims that it's not Stephin's
> embrace of "Zippity Doo
> Dah" *nor* his distaste for Beyonce (um, OK), but
> rather his "unconcern
> for the last 50 years of black music" (
>
http://tiny.abstractdynamics.org/archives/007762.html
> ) that calls his
> racial politics into question. (Simon Reynolds
> elucidates further here:
>
>
http://blissout.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_blissout_archive.html#114668681783360454
>
> )
>
> So: how many records by artists of races other than
> one's own does one
> have to own/listen to in order to escape charges of
> racism? And does one
> have to keep the collection current? I mean, a
> majority of the black
> people in my record collection are either dead or at
> least really old, I
> suspect, though I haven't exactly done a census.
>
> I find a lot of the current hip-hop that I'm exposed
> to, via TV & radio,
> to be pretty boring, repetitive, and derivative.
> Those exact same
> adjectives could also be used to describe my
> feelings about most music
> of most other genres as well, though. Go figure. Pop
> culture can be
> boring. Who'd a thunk it? I also know that there's a
> tiny subset of
> current hip-hop that's consistently pushing the
> envelope & is every bit
> as exciting, presumably, as the tiny subset of
> indie-rock that's still
> interesting. I don't really buy much/any indie-rock
> anymore, either. The
> last 3 CDs I bought were that new Candi Staton (meme
> collision: the best
> song on it was written by Will Oldham), that Pyramid
> album from last
> year, and Muddy Waters' "Hard Again." (the
> half-dozen before that were
> either local [indie-rock] bands or the Rhino Doo-Wop
> and Girl Groups box
> sets, depending on how you count to six).
>
> So I may not be a racist, but rather just a terminal
> square? Whatever
> happened to just gleefully mocking peoples' musical
> tastes themselves?
>
> Ross
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors
> alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
>


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