Does this help?

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Paul Morley throwdown on the rockism "debate". Only useful point as far as I can see = anti-rockism as laughing at the squares, or rather trying to make the kids who think they're cool feel like squares. But as always with Morley it all falls down when his emphasis on humour and polemic as a motor to saying something passionate about anything (Nick Drake AND Christina Aguilera are his examples) gets bogged down in X vs Y judgements. e.g. Springsteen vs. Beefheart has now flip-flopped surely -- Beefheart love is solid gold rockism and Springsteen is the chirpy pop act. But actually that doesn't get us very far with thinking about EITHER! My conclusion = anti-rockism is good as a levelling principle when used in support of something you are loving; but rubbish when used as an attack on something. Anti-rockism seems to work for Morley as an attack on a perceived consensus (and maybe works best when there is something to that perception), but when some form of broadly anti-rock (not the same as anti-rockism) has become the consensus (in realm of people who care about these things) surely it is time to USE OTHER WORDS PLEASE! Perhaps the mistake is about that perceived consensus: Morley sees himself as the loner going against conformism, but conformism is always in the eye of the beholder, and perhaps PM is really missing out on the fun out here in land of the (non)-conformists!

Comments

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

still, that's the word "poptimism" in a national paper - now to put it in front of the dictionary ppl at work...

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

lor, i just had to try to explain rockism to my mum (which reading out that article didn't help with). at first she couldn't "see what was worth discussing - everyone likes there own music" (which is as much as i get to TBH) but then i said that a rockist (if such a thing popped into existence) WOULD object to someone saying "you like X, and I like Y, so what" with "BUT YOU CAN'T like X". amirite? (srsly)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

No Mums need to understand it ever!

You should only ever use the word to your sworn enemies, I think.