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

Re: Tha birth a da smoove

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Actually, I've gotten over many of my own problems with the song, but I noticed the "soft rock" categorization about a year or so ago after hearing it on the radio between, like, Phil Collins and...I dunno, something Phil Collinsy. Thought it was a bit odd, but my girlfriend assured me that the song played on that radio station (in the nearby coffee shop) all the time. (But yeah, maybe "adult contemporary" is more adventurous than I remember it being when it was "hits of the 70's, 80's, and 90's" as a kid, which usually meant lots of Vanessa Williams and...uh, Phil Collins.)