a fight for the soul of poptimism...

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

...has broken out on this thread. Since I am now using 'poptimist' with scare quotes, it may be possible that I am about to publicly 'break' with 'the' 'movement'. :-)

Comments

Bottom line

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

It's totally understandable for people to dislike this album without having heard it, because this is basically disliking Paris, which I think is legitimate as she is a horrible human being (if wholly entertaining as well). But the songs I've heard have very little actual Paris in there--it could basically be anyone, given that they've taken her fairly distinctive voice and treated it into oblivion (wisely, probably). So hating the actual songs based on Paris herself seems fairly unlikely; they may just not be songs the listener likes.

Also, you know, the album technically didn't come out until today, so maybe we can assume everything said before this was just (legitimate) Paris-hate and not reflective of some underlying ideological wrong-think.

Re: Bottom line

[cis.livejournal.com]

yes, & also 'disliking the album without having heard it, based entirely on yr sense of Paris Hilton' is totally poptimist!

Re: Bottom line

[juror8.livejournal.com]

a) surely some things are more important than poptimism? (ie, hating 2Pac/Jerry Lee Lewis/Public Enemy/Elvis Costello records because of them being contemptible human beings rather than the content?)
b) how about hating, say, the new James Blunt album without ever hearing it? Anti-poptimist?

Re: Bottom line

[cis.livejournal.com]

but poptimism isn't a focus on just 'the content'! "it's all about the songs, man" is not a position I subscribe to and not a position I'd call poptimist. Okay my personal def of 'what is poptimism' is fairly blurry and not yet fully-thought-out, but your interpretation of the media identity of a musician (or other media-content person) affects your reception of the music (or w/evs) and there isn't much you can do about it beyond accepting that it's going on and trying to think your way through it.

Hating the new James Blunt album without ever hearing it is just a kneejerk reaction (if an informed one, presumably based on his previous record), it's got nothing to do with whether you're taking a poptimist stance or not.

Re: Bottom line

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

"Understandable" does not mean "legitimate." I.e. I think it makes enough sense for people to dislike the album before hearing it that it's probably pointless to argue with them about it, and helpfuly it means you don't need to take their opinion seriously.