Eminem v. Pynchon

[Phil Wise]

----- Original Message -----
From: <CyrusGeo at netscape.net>
To: <o.sell at telda.net>
Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2001 1:22 AM
Subject: Re: Eminem v. Pynchon


>
> "Otto" <o.sell at telda.net> wrote:
> >
> > > >
> > > 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
> > >
> >
> > Agreed.
> > Even in the Boygroups-corner there are differences in quality and surely
> > there's much, simply "bad" or boring, uninteresting and unnecessary
music on
> > many 70's records too.
>
> Most "commercial" bands today (including boygroups, girlgroups and
whatnot) don't write their own stuff. They rely on proffessionals who know
what can be sold in millions and what can't. And most of these guys and
girls would be nowhere if it weren't for their ingenious producers. So, you
see, they're just a front, a hollow image, a hologram. In the 70's, however
bad the music in some cases, there were real people behind it, with their
own personal vision and ideas, shaping their own material, following their
own way. And the producer was an assistant, not a master.

The likes of 'N Sync are not exactly unprecedented - the Hollies, the
Monkies, the Bay City Rollers etc, but I know what you mean, certainly.  I
listen to a lot of popular music - have for well over a decade now since I
gave into my interest in it, and I used to think the same thing.  And it
remains true for much of the current (now receding, thank God) craze.

But I got thinking about the genuinely great, important artists who didn't
write their own material - Sinatra, Elvis, a lot of the R&B artists of the
fifties and soul singers of the sixties, and realised that the stipulation
on writing plugs into a myth of lonely genius that's tended to make "rock"
as developed by the Holly/Beatles line get more critical favour than, say,
"soul", in which often a great producer simply matched a great singer with a
great song.  This resulted quite often in something like "Respect", which
both in context and out is a work of art to anyone but an incurable
highbrow.  Obviously, yes, Aretha implants her personal vision on that track
and many others: happy to concede that point.  But I contend that the
Backstreet Boys knew what they were doing when they made the two best
singles of 1999 - "I Want it That Way" and "Larger Than Life" - that the
reversals and the credit they give to an otherwise marginalised teenaged
audience wouldn't have worked without the personalities of the Boys
themselves.

Phil

>
> Some of today's "bands" think of themselves as "artists".
> A catchy tune repeated for the 26,325th time doesn't constitute "art".
>
> As for Eminem, fraud or no fraud, he's interesting. That's enough for me.
>
> Cyrus
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