They put the world off at a distance

Tom asks over on his Blue Lines tumblr:

People make statements all the time about which music they like and why they like it.

Some of these statements will be false.

Is there any advantage to trying to guess which, or in assuming that certain people or groups are lying? Rather than simply assuming good faith?

I said in response that emphasizing motive has more risks than advantages. Not that - if we're aware of the risks - motive should be off the table; motives can matter, but their relevance is greatly exaggerated.** These were my reasons***:

( They put the world off at a distance without realizing they're doing so )

**EDIT: Actually, I think there's something crucially important - in a lot of my thinking, anyway, which is an attempt to tunnel down to insights and impulses that are half-expressed and half-masked by the actual reasons we give and arguments we make - ...something crucially important that I hesitate to call "motive" but that I might end up placing in the category "real reasons" or "more reasons." That's what I'm trying to suggest in that cryptic sentence, "sometimes subterranean 'real' reasons can turn out to be better than the merely good ones." But most people who focus on motive don't care diddly-squat about tunneling down to insights and impulses. I elaborate on this thought down in the comments.

***The reasons I give in my post hardly encompass all my motives for making the post, however.

Homework

Dave Moore (2001: A Taste Odyssey): I would lie on my back and "get moved" -- I honestly hadn't listened closely to pop music like this, in what I would call dorm fashion, tired, inert, just listening carefully for sounds and words, letting the music act not as soundtrack but as appreciation object. I don't listen quite like that anymore, either -- too many forced "revelations," too much effort transforming mere boredom into something more thoughtful. It was like a performance for myself: I am going to listen to this to really HEAR something. I think it was helpful -- I was quick to notice structure and attitude and feeling I may not have heard otherwise -- but there was something mildly phony about it, as though I was as busy convincing myself of the music's importance as I was understanding why I genuinely liked it.

I don't think anyone can gain lots of knowledge without going through a period (or repeated periods) where music is a kind of social homework. It sometimes still is (like, when am I ever going to catch up with poptimists and the Jukebox?). In 1966 at age 12, when I realized that I had had three years of solid boat-missing in relation to pop and rock that I had to counteract, I literally called listening to Top 40 "doing my homework."

But for better or worse I had it easier than Dave did in 2001. In 1966 I didn't have to go back and hear the major hit albums of 1932, whereas in 2001 there's Dave on his back listening to the Doors. In the late '60s some of us imagined we'd surpassed the past - with, you know, maybe the blues being an exception. When I graduated high school in 1972 I doubt that, other than some albums from my life before rock - the Kingston Trio and the Brothers Four, West Side Story, Kiss Me Kate - I had anything released prior to 1964 other than an album by Robert Johnson and a Billie Holiday two-fer. I'd been reading Fusion since '69 so I'd already had the progressive narrative flipped on me, but it took glitter - the Dolls and Bowie - to get me to act, to reach into the past.

Another Year In America September 24, 2009

Remember the Steve Forbert Game (and here)? Well, we have a winner! Let me introduce Drake, the Steve Forbert of nice-guy hip-hop superstars. I really have no idea why this guy became famous, but I can see how if this style is really your thing, Drake could be your guy - all the other guys being taken.

(He's got three tracks suddenly charting because the So Far Gone mixtape has been officially rereleased with samples cleared, hence old Drake songs are suddenly new again.)

( Jay-Z )

( Drake )

( Drake )

( Muse )

( Drake )