Context and Anticontext

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Quite unformed thorts based on Frank K's latest column and discussion of same - see here: http://koganbot.livejournal.com/26897.html

Music has a social context, obv - who else is listening to stuff you encounter, both people you know and people you don't but you assume things (good or bad) about.

It also has an anticontext (erm this is just another part of the context rly but I wanted a snappy name for it) - people who AREN'T listening to it, because they don't like it or because they don't know about it.

But not everyone who doesn't listen to something matters in terms of the anticontext - my reaction to Keane, say, is affected by my imagining Mums listening to Keane, and NME readers mostly not listening to Keane, but isn't significantly affected by Amazon tribesmen not listening to Keane, or by my Great Aunt Betty not listening to Keane. The Amazon tribesmen and Great Aunt Betty are not part of the anticontext here: the NME readers are.

Context and especially anticontext are obviously hugely important in enclosed social spheres, like school or University, and then maybe the anticontext fades from importance a bit later in life.

Here's my theory - the anticontext has shrunk, steadily, since the 1960s. The sense that a random guy on the street, or someone of a different agegroup, or someone not dressing the same as you, is part of the anticontext, has diminished (with occasional seismic flare-ups). And also, MAYBE, the size of the potential context is directly related to the size of the anticontext (since just as not every non-listener is in the anticontext, not every listener is in the context).

Comments

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Not a fully formed thought here, either, but oddly enough this resonated with something I was thinking on the way to work today.

Background: I am, or was, the only person born in the US in my office. There are a few people who lived there or in Canada maybe 5 or more years as a adults, and the majority of them are life-long Russians. That is, until recently, when we hired a young American to work as an English-language editor.

The story: This morning "Sodajerk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNrb2jrZvv0)" by Buffalo Tom shuffled up on the iPod, and I suddenly realized one reason (or aspect, perhaps) of why I kind of resent the arrival of this new person. Until now, "Sodajerk" was completely mine - chances are next to nil that anyone else I know (IRL) would have even heard it, let alone have a context to place it in. Suddenly I have this person who, it's entirely likely, might hear the song and immediately mentally note "Oh yes that was that song from My So-Called Life (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGm_rbQvyU8) (or whatever context he might have - "another crappy 90s alt-college rock band"). And that kind of robs me of *my* meaning of the song - i.e. to me it may have been red but suddently there's this drop of yellow in it, and i've got to negotiate with orange.

Not sure that gets anyone anywhere, just what I was thinking. Occasionally I think to myself that this is kind of a strange community for me to be participating in, because of a lot of music is for me an intensely personal, and therefore private, experience, and the last thing I want to do is *share* it with anyone.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I often feel the same, although as I noted above pretty much all my real life friends have no interest in about 75% of the music I'm into, so it still gets to feel special and mine out there. And then I have here (and other places on the net) to come to when I do want to talk about that stuff with other people.

Angela! Wait! Don't Forget The Geometry Review!

[koganbot]

Ha! First thing I thought when you mentioned Buffalo Tom was "My So-Called Life." Was it the pilot episode, the one where they're going to go see some show - I think it's Buffalo Tom - and there's a vague subplot where Tino is supposed to arrive with fake IDs or something, but of course you never see him, and they're passing time in the parking lot so Ricky asks Rayanne and Angela what they'd most want a lover to say when commencing sex? (Rayanne: "This won't take long.") Angela suggests, "You're so beautiful, it hurts to look at you." Ricky tells Angela that that is absolutely wonderful, while Rayanne snickers. Then Rayanne goes on to get smashed and smashed up, flirting and picking fights; she has to be rescued by police. So she and Angela miss the show. As they're being taken home in a patrol car, a giggly drunk Rayanne gets suddenly lucid, stares at Angela, says to her in earnest, "You're so beautiful it hurts to look at you," then stumbles from the car up the steps to her home.

No, wait, a quick google shows that "Sodajerk" is in a different episode, in fact a different couple of episodes, actually, most notably the one where Jordan finally is willing to hold Angela's hand in public (except the Buffalo Tom song that accompanies this is "Late At Night").

Well, now I've probably ruined your private meaning of "Sodajerk" forever.