Eminem v. Pynchon

[Phil Wise]

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Sarno" <david.sarno at yale.edu>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 6:03 AM
Subject: Re: Eminem v. Pynchon


> > David Morris:
> > Eminem is unrelentingly commercial, while Pynchon elaborates his art
> > with little apparent attention to market realities.
>
> The (relatively) great thing about Eminem is that of the 20 or so songs
per
> album, and average of about 2 make it to MTV, and usually the broadcast
> versions are so massively mute-laden that they ends up being half song,
half
> silence.  I guess 10% is actually a pretty good hit ratio, but you've got
to
> consider that it's an upper bound.  The other songs are simply too
[network
> censor euphemism] to play on the air.  The ones that make it are horribly
> diluted stylistically and lyrically, and that's because he's pandering to
> market types with those.  The best songs are the most racy and
> pseudo-offensive.  Here's an example of a lyric that's not only never
played
> on air, they actually [bleeped] it *on the album*:
>
> I take seven [kids] from [Columbine], stand 'em all in line
> Add an AK-47, a revolver, a nine
> A Mack-11 and it oughta solve the problem of mine
> And that's a whole school of bullies shot up all at one time
> --I'm Back, The Marshall Mathers LP
>
> If you look at something like this, claims that he's a market running dog
> are harder to make.  When you have thruppence-a-dozen acts like NSync and
> Backstreet boys whose central artistic dogma is to appear on MTV as much
as
> technologically possible, Eminem looks like a rebel who says
> 'fuck the market and MTV', sometimes in those exact words, 'I'll go
> tri-platinum without ever getting radio play, and offend as many whiny
> mid-westerners as possible along the way.'
>
> Might Pynchon at least offer an empathetic nod from the back of the room?
>
> --dave
>
> p.s. I've only read GR once so I could be completely wrong.
>
>
I'd like to think so.  But don't bag the Backstreet Boys too much - they
lead their particular pack and usually have a couple of pop classics to
offer on an album...

Phil