Indie rock’s white burden?
While I could go on about Sasha Frere-Jones’ white-indie-rock guilt piece in the New Yorker, I’d leave it to three smart scribes for a response. First, is Margaret Wappler’s piece for the Los Angeles Times (Turning the beat around again) covering how dance music is indeed making a comeback in the indie world. The other is Grace Brodie Cruz (of the great Playlist blog) who proclaimed: “Shocka: Rock Music Made By White People Is Surprisingly White.” Best of all is Carl Wilson’s article in Slate, where he not only parses out some worthwhile things in the article but he also nails what’s off-base or just plain wrong about it too and shifts the argument to class conflict.
Honestly, you’d think that SFJ would have stopped after calling Stephen Merritt a racist and then having to apologize (somewhat). I was mad enough at him already for making Fiona Apple look bad.
Comments
The same day I read Jones’ article, I went to see the Dirtbombs at Mercury Lounge. I’m assuming Jones didn’t have a place for them in his article.
Comment by James — October 20, 2007 @ 1:41 pm
I agree with SFJ that so many indie rock bands sound more like eunuchs these days. Wilson is pretty spot on, though.
And to address James’s comment, I don’t think the Dirtbombs carry the cultural currency these days that the artists referenced in SFJ’s article enjoy.
Comment by D — October 20, 2007 @ 11:13 pm
In Frere-Jones’ essay, he conveniently leaves out the fact that while The Rolling Stones professed love for blues artists (as did Led Zeppelin), they conveniently used the material of black artists without crediting them or paying them (see original copies of “Beggar’s Banquet,” “Exile on Main Street” and “Led Zeppelin I and III”).
On Bob Dylan’s original vinyl “Self Portrait” LP (which I now hold in my hands) Elmore James’ legendary blues tune “It Hurts Me Too” is credited to…Bob Dylan! As “composer.” Greil Marcus makes mention of this in his writing.
And this doesn’t count the times white artists rewrote black tunes by changing a few chords. The Beatles’ “I’m Down” is “Long Tall Sally” (without the good parts, IMO.
I think Frere-Jones is romanticizing the supposedly wonderful relationship between black and white musicians in the old days. I don’t think Willie Dixon—who sued Zep and won—found this relationship so ideal. Back then it was called “stealing.” We look back on it with rose-colored glasses and call it “influence.”
Comment by Tony Sclafani — October 21, 2007 @ 1:34 pm
Good comment Tony. I also liked <A HREF=“http://fray.slate.com/discuss/forums/thread/438172.aspx?ArticleID=2176187”>this response</A> to Carl Wilson’s Slate article.
Comment by Jason Gross — October 22, 2007 @ 9:50 am