from the new yorker, an excellent article on race, soul and music: a paler shade of white
i haven’t finished reading this yet, but it highlights a feeling that i have never been able to articulate, and, as a result, i have never really discussed with my friends: i just don’t like newer indie rock.
a small gaggle of us went and saw lcd soundsystem and arcade fire at shoreline about a month ago. i went for lcd — arcade fire does very little for me. this article talks about how the rhythms in indie/rock music have moved away from sould and blues, at about the same time that rap became a dominating force.
for me, the guy who played bass drum in high school, who got sucked into rave/electronic/industrial music, this explains a ton. i like things with heavy beats. it’s not that i don’t like indie stuff — but the ‘colege rock’ of the 90s sounds amazing different than the stuff that comes around now. for a long time, i thought it was maybe nostalgia. but it isn’t — i’m still listening to new music. it’s just that most of the rock i hear doesn’t have a soul, doesn’t pack a punch for me.
anyway, i found the article to be really solid. highly recommended read — john, chrispy, kurt, mike…i’m looking at you all specifically.
and just in case you aren’t into music, how about reading about how cloned meat is slipping its way into the food chain.
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“back when I was listening to music, music was cool”
Oh cmon. Did you really take it like that? (“I used to work in the record store. I had everything before anyone.”)
I’m not dissing music now — there is plenty of stuff that I’m digging these days. It just turns out that it isn’t indie rock. I’m not even saying that the stuff isn’t good — I was just saying that this argument aligns with my personal trajectory of music.
I just had never stopped to really concentrate on why a lot of these bands weren’t doing it for me. And this is as good of an explanation as I’ve seen. But maybe there is a better one.