tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post3780838049220353341..comments2024-03-27T21:40:29.799-07:00Comments on RETROMANIA: dredge too far #2 - the anthologist-archaeologist explainsSIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-29175275299763969182014-09-21T17:14:25.014-07:002014-09-21T17:14:25.014-07:00cheers Nick
what you say makes perfect sense
als...cheers Nick<br /><br />what you say makes perfect sense<br /><br />also there is no objective cut-off point for when something is worthy of reclamation/reissue<br /><br />in Retromania, the question of cultural memory and what's worth preserving / rescuing from history's dumpster is raised specifically in reference to Numero Uno - with the implication being that some degree of forgetting is a necessary function within any culture <br /><br />Numero Uno’s approach reminds me of anthropology. Those city-based things they do remind me of this well-respected anthropologist Ruth Finnegan who did a survey of all music-making activity in Milton Keynes. Every last band, in every genre, pretty much. But her criteria were not aesthetic or critical, she was looking at things sociologically and in terms of the function of amateur music-making in a British community. <br /><br />With Numero Uno I think they can perhaps feel that the soul music they tend to specialize was not properly covered in its own time, was marginalized by the media for racial or regional reasons. Often it’s very solid music, but whether it really warrants being re-presented to a new audience who may not be that familiar even with Al Green or Stevie Wonder, let alone a regional great like ZZ Hill.... is a moot point.<br /><br />I think with rock though, certainly by the mid-Eighties, the independent label system and the small magazine / fanzine system was pretty efficient as a way of finding local DIY talent and elevating it to its proper level. Certainly with the UK music papers, there was both an external dynamic (competition between the papers – you had four weeklies plus ZigZag, as well as a number of big selling zines) and an internal dynamic (with the weeklies 51 issues a year, loads of writers all looking to make a name for themselves) that probably erred on the side of giving attention to new bands too early. It doesn’t feel like many deserving cases slipped through the net. Situation wasn’t quite the same in the US cos of no weeklies, but there was Spin, Puncture, Option, Alternative Press, local alt-weeklies on the Village Voice model.... it was also the heyday of zines...<br /><br />But then my appetite for grunge isn't that high in the first place... i'm pretty much Nirvana, maybe a few bits by Soundgarden, perhaps a few other things.... <br /><br />with something i'm voracious for, i've lot more tolerance for the hopelessly obscure, the second-division and third-division.... The redundancy factor doesn't kick until things get really mediocre, really inessential... Hardcore and jungle tekno being prime examples of this uncritical insatiability, see http://energyflashbysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/<br />SIMON REYNOLDShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com