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Anyway, after the Dave Gray mud wrestling comp last week, I got to thinking. Maybe I was a bit harsh....etc...etc..... And on Saturday the universe decided to take its revenge. Yes! It seems the universe is actually all for the liberal-minded approach. It totally digs on diversity and different strokes and all that. It might be a 'lither.
So....it's Sunday and we're all enjoying a good old drink-up at me ol' Mam's birthday bash, when, horror of horrors! I'm sat there with my Sis, Matty, and her beau (who, in order to protect the innocent and all that, shall be referred to forthwith as 'Jayvid') and we're talking music. Jayvid, much to my total amazement, is a big Oasis fan - he still loves them - and the convo began to segue towards Britpop and how important and influential Oasis were. I'm working from memory here, but this is roughly the gist of the thing:
Jayvid: '...I mean, before Britpop, what was there? The English music scene hadn't said anything interesting since the 70's..."
Pig: 'Uh...okay...'
Jayvid: 'You try and think of one thing.'
Pig: 'Uh...well, there was the small matter of acid house...'
Jayvid: 'That didn't do anything.'
Pig: 'Well, um, it changed the face of popular music. House influenced everything from the Happy...err... well, everything. You can't listen to the top 40/adverts/radio/theme-tune w/out hearing a kickdrum. It changed the emphasis from melodic to percussive. It changed the social/listening/Friday night habits of thousands upoun thousands of young people up until the present day. It produced some of the most outrageous fashions...'
Jayvid: 'It didn't do anything. People danced to it in clubs on drugs. Nobody really likes to listen to it. Nobody listens to it at home. It's just clubs and drugs. Repetitious nonsense. It's hasn't done anything for music.'
Pig: 'Um....'
And that REALLY IS the gist of it.
Now...I actually 100% dig Jayvid - he's intelligent, friendly, witty and cool, but this! This WILL NOT stand! It seems incredible to me that someone could dismiss something as big as house - the music at the centre of the late 80's dance/rave boom - as completely, well, NOTHING in the scheme of things. I don't even want to start trying to justify how important it's been, 'cause I'd be here all day, but needless to say, a million and one things Jayvid likes wouldn't even exist w/out it! What I can't believe:
that the evidence of the last 15 years isn't slapping him round the face. We wouldn't even have the CJBill, at least not in it's present form, w/out the rave scene!
that he actually really knows what house is. He professes to like techno and electro....so why not house? I mean, the lines can get pretty blurry.
that he confuses his inability to understand the joys of an endless-groove-that-jus'-don't-stop with 'people only like it on drugs'.
that any music that illicits the 'it's just not music' response, is bound to be worth a second look.
Oh, shit, it just does my head in all over. I can't catalogue the reasons. It just seems so willfully ignorant.
So, yeah, the universe agrees with the right-on crew. 'You see!' it says, 'It's annoying when people shout their mouths off w/out thinking!'
Uh-huh...okay, universe, but what do I do about it?
I moan. Thanks Barbelith. I get constructive and all teacher-like:
Suggestions for the ultimate house mixtape please.
Oh, and if anyone could think up some wicked text (history o' house, personal experiences with the music - that sort of thing) to chuck in with it, this thread could become a right tootin' rave up! |
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