I'm stuck on the train, jetting home to my empty apartment (r is in Portland) at a late hour, after sushi and drinks with a co-worker that I adore. I'm rocking Justice's cross album.
I linked to their 3rd single/video, dvno, the other day. The album debuted #1 in Billboard dance; they are (basically) considered the 'new Daft Punk' — 2 French guys rocking disco house in funky new ways. But they aren't robots.
And I've been rocking it all day. I think this must be my fourth time through the album today. Which, granted, isn't literally 'all day' but it's close enough for government work.
And the note I have had on my laptop for months now regarding post topics is 'the disposibility of music.' And I find it true — music, perhaps more than any other medium, is one, especially right now, made up of trainspotters and snobs, kids looking for the next big single, the next thing for the week. In many ways, it remind me of my own political junkiness the last month or so — watching the moves of the Democratic potentials — not just week to week, but day to day. Hour to hour.
And it's how I feel about music sometime. Haven't heard 'Beeper'? Shit dude, Rex posted the video last week, Annie Mac has been rocking the song for months, where the hell are you in following it? You're late son. Rex runs something now saying 'favorite band of the next 5 minutes.'
And I just want to stand up and say 'that's whack.' Fine arts don't do it. Films don't do it. Why the fuck are we always obsessed with the next thing in music? Why does any 'movement' have to rise and fall in 12 months (see: UK garage, oh, I'm sorry 'funky house') like a dried up fad? Why do my favorite albums and songs have to be replaced by the next big thing? Why the hell does music have to have trainspotters? No other art does. It doesn't have to be fleeting and it doesn't have to be elitist.
I get the notion of things evolving, hearing new things is exciting and it's fun to be on the cusp. But do we have to do it at the expense of running through things so quickly that they never get a chance? What's wrong with rocking half a dozen albums a year? That's plenty for any of us, if they are quality.
Sigh. 'Dvno' still rocks.
Honestly, I think "Fear of a Black Planet" and "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" are zeitgeists in and of themselves. Wherever they're played, whoever's listening, it holds the potential to be an unprecedented and radical moment in culture and history. Both albums were before my time, and I didn't really get to hear them until well over a decade after their release. Even to a white dyke in Oregon, though, it was that same first love kind of experience. And it was one of the first times I'd seriously, substantively sat down and thought critically about race. Any record that can do that is most definitely a masterpiece in my book.
I agree. I just hadn't ever thought to define a masterpiece as a piece of work that is never duplicated. (And, yes, duplicated is a tough word.)
But when you talk about these PE albums — they sound like nothing else. Ever. Still.
Compare it to something like Massive Attack's 'Blue Lines' — something generally regarded as a classic. But it hasn't held up and there are 100s of deriviatives of it now. I don't think that's true of those PE albums.