Sinister: selling out to majors

[duke of harringay]

MWaggner at aol.com wrote:

> I believe some people "sell-out," but I think
> they meant to all along, and
> you can almost see it coming from the start.

this kind of reminds me of something Lawrence of
Felt (oh, and Denim if you insist, Peter) once
said, i think actually in specific reference to
Hurrah! after they (or Kitchenware) signed with
the Big Record Company and released 'tell God I'm
Here'.  The music press were claiming ridiculous
things like Hurrah! being the 'last great rock
band' or someting, whilst all the 'original fans'
were weeping into their beers about how Hurrah!
shouldn't be about rock at all, and how they'd
'sold out'.  Anyway, Lawrence simply said that
when a band signs to a Major ('me and the major'
might take on a new slant, perhaps?) they have the
chance to sound 'how they always wanted to' but
couldn't afford to on an 'indie'.  I often wonder
how much truth there is in this.  I also remember
talking about East Village with Peter Williams of
'Baby Honey' fanzine, and him saying, well yes,
East Village are nice blokes and all that, but
they DON'T feel any bonds of intent with the
groups that we, as fanzine writers, were
imagining.  They were 'just' going their own way
and making their own records.

All that said, i think it's the 'job' of
journalists, writers, other artists, 'fans' to
observe, criticise, cast their own hopes and
dreams onto a Pop group, to make the associations
that may or may not be implied by the group
itself.  This is how Pop works... it doesn't work
in that vacuum that some people have suggested.
It's NOT about just music.  I don't think it
exists in the kind of way wee Chris seems to
suggests either, like how you never pick up on a
band or artist through written words in a paper or
fanzine or whatever.  Greatest respect and all
that (cos Chris has a mean taste in the fashion
stakes, after all), but i think that's bullshit.
I know for a fact that some of my all time
favourite bands i heard about first in words in
fanzines, and sometimes in the Big Bad music
press.  And it was the effusive writing of the
journalist or writer that made me want to hear the
group.  I mean, who can deny that Nik Cohn's
'Awopbopaloopbop...' is not infectious Pop writing
that makes you want to go hear Little Richard?!
Or that Lester Bangs going on about Astral Weeks
doesn't make you want to go out and check it
yourself (it did me!).  Or Kevin Pearce's awesome
and inspiring 'Something BEginning With O' makes
you want to discover The Action, Creation, Godard
and the mythic Dexys?  I could go on... Matt
Haynes 'Are You Scared To Get Happy' and Kevin's
'Hungry Beat' fanzines.  Inspirational, thrillling
fanzines that turned me onto some truly great
Pop.  Or  Morley and McCulloch in Sounds and MM in
the 80s.  Biba Kopf even for a lot of people.

i think if we start thinking about the artists as
'just' artists then we miss out on a lot.  in fact
i think maybe we miss out on some essence of what
makes them mean something to us in the first
place.  You need to claim art for yourself.  As
soon as a piece of work for 'public consumption'
is released, be it a Pop song, architecture or
software or whatever, it's down to the individual
'consumer' or user, to interpret it, apply it, use
and abuse it in whatever way they see fit.  What
Belle & Sebastian might do, it seems to me, is
actually create a situation where much of this
right to abuse and adapt their art to the needs of
the user is left intact, is manipulated as little
as possible by the intermediary delivery service
(the Record Label and the Media).

Okay, i wittered on too much as usual.  Sorry if i
bored you all.

keep the faith,

the duke


--
Tangents On-Line
http://www.virtual-pc.com/tangent/
Tangents On-Paper: PO Box 102, Exeter, EX2 4YL, UK

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