Re: (TV) more Newsom

["Rex Broome" <rexbroome@gmail.com>]

On 12/5/06, Justin Meinecke <the0208@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> I hope someday she can be respected in the musical community, because she
> very much deserves it.


Oh, if anything, she's hyped and critically lauded to death right now (the
fact that this thread has persisted is evidence of that).

What she represents to me is part of my own musical ossification:  every few
years, suddenly *everyone* is talking about an artist as if their work was
the only important thing to listen to, but whose work I find... not bad, but
not earth-shattering.  The first major example of that for me was Radiohead,
who have never struck me as bad but certainly were never the "best band
going" or the "saviours of rock" or whatever.  It seems to be Newsom's turn
this year.  She could be a minor interest of mine were it not for how
inescapable she's rapidly becoming.  (Interestingly these kinds of artists
often exemplify a "breakthrough" for a non-mainstream musical form--
Radiohead = "experimental", Norah Jones = "torchy standards",
Strokes/Interpol = "post-punk",Newsom = "modern classical") and yet does not
well exemplify said forms, nor create any general public interest in those
forms at large (that is, massive sales of "Kid A" did not cause a mania for
Neu! reissues or whatever).

Sometimes the music overcomes the hype and I become a fan (Neko Case is a
good example, and her associates the New Pornographers) but all too often I
find that these artists have more value as hipster touchstones or cultural
bellweathers than compelling musicians... to me, anyway.

(Should one criticize Bjork as well? I find their voices very familiar.)


I keep hearing this and... what?  I don't hear it.  No vocal similarity at
all.  But I'm still reeling from discovering how much Bjork borrow from Ari
Up... whoah.

-Rex
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