See you next yoghurt

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Viva manufactured hip-hop! The Fannypack album - SO GOOD. I had most of it as MP3s but the whole thing is just wonderful, if only my copy wasn't swears-free.

Anyway here's a question: how far can an aesthetic or taste be positive, i.e. how strong can it be without defining itself against something else? Obviously this came up in thinking about indie, which defines-against very strongly vis-a-vis the mainstream. But everybody does it.

I like the idea of an aesthetic which avoids this, but that leads to another qn - is there anything wrong with defining against? I kind of have a knee-jerk irritation with it, has that got any rational basis beyond my optimistic faith in the decency of individual humanity?

ph34r my ill-thought out groping towards the qns I want to ask.