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Non Bertha Da Blues
Jul. 21st, 2009 07:30 amIn case you missed it, or were on it originally but haven't stuck around, Tom asked a question over on his lj last week and the conversation is still underway (Sante and Frith and Woods joining in), so I recommend you take a look:
http://freakytigger.livejournal.com/259269.html
How come rock'n'roll didn't trigger the birth of rock criticism? (i.e. why wasn't Crawdaddy or an equiv started in 1957 or 1958?)
And indeed how come swing and jazz didn't start a fanzine culture?
Tom himself posted further thoughts over on tumblr (here and here and here), as did Dave.
Dave: I think that you could make an argument that there's a certain vein of "rock critic-y" critics, of whom "rock criticism" may actually be a side issue (and that means that the Big Thing that they all adhere to is actually _______...), for whom the phrase in bold [From the alliance between hucksterism and self-conscious artistry comes greatness?] is kind of the essence of what they do, or at least a recurring theme. I'm not sure where you'd stick, say, Manny Farber (who detested a lot of the baggage that comes with the phrase "self-conscious artistry") but you might argue that he's at least defending an artistry that emerges from hucksterism; what it allies with is a bit more inscrutable, but the point is that hucksterism has a role. It's not the only thing — cf. Farber's championing of e.g. Michael Snow and Underground Film, though I suppose you could call the structuralists hucksters of sorts, though hucksters who appeal to a bohemian art world. (Or... maybe not? I dunno, I like to think of a huckster streak in the art I like. Not sure why.)
http://freakytigger.livejournal.com/259269.html
How come rock'n'roll didn't trigger the birth of rock criticism? (i.e. why wasn't Crawdaddy or an equiv started in 1957 or 1958?)
And indeed how come swing and jazz didn't start a fanzine culture?
Tom himself posted further thoughts over on tumblr (here and here and here), as did Dave.
Dave: I think that you could make an argument that there's a certain vein of "rock critic-y" critics, of whom "rock criticism" may actually be a side issue (and that means that the Big Thing that they all adhere to is actually _______...), for whom the phrase in bold [From the alliance between hucksterism and self-conscious artistry comes greatness?] is kind of the essence of what they do, or at least a recurring theme. I'm not sure where you'd stick, say, Manny Farber (who detested a lot of the baggage that comes with the phrase "self-conscious artistry") but you might argue that he's at least defending an artistry that emerges from hucksterism; what it allies with is a bit more inscrutable, but the point is that hucksterism has a role. It's not the only thing — cf. Farber's championing of e.g. Michael Snow and Underground Film, though I suppose you could call the structuralists hucksters of sorts, though hucksters who appeal to a bohemian art world. (Or... maybe not? I dunno, I like to think of a huckster streak in the art I like. Not sure why.)
