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

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

About two years on I have FINALLY realised that 'Pieces Of Me' is prob a reference to 'Tear In Your Hand' by Tori Amos, DUH! ("I think there're pieces of me you've never seen, maybe she's just the pieces of me you've never seen.")

This is a really good post and anticontext is def a v important point - usually it manifests itself as sneering at stereotypical fans - but I am too frazzled to contribute anything more! bah.

Re: Tha birth a da smoove

[koganbot]

OK, well, I'm listening to "Tear In Your Hand" for the first time, and the Ashlee song I might associate that with thematically isn't "Pieces Of Me" but "Autobiograpy" (Ashlee's "I walked a thousand miles while everyone was asleep/Nobody's really seen my million subtleties" in comparison to Tori's "I think there're pieces of me you've never seen"). My guess is that Ashlee came up with the idea for "Pieces" without reference to anything else. But Tori is the sort of singer Ashlee would listen to, and I can imagine her hearing "Tear In Your Hand" and thinking, "Yes, but there are no pieces of me that Ryan's never seen" - except the way "Pieces" appears chronologically in Ashlee's reality show* (and the chronology may have been manipulated), you get the sense that she hopes this is what will happen with Ryan, but the relationship is just getting underway. The Ashlee lyrics are way more articulate in regard to what the pieces actually are, of course. Watching the show you see that the idea for the lyrics were clearly hers and probably the anxious Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday stuff at the start, but I also got the impression that Kara (it's her one appearance) wrote a good deal of the middle: she assures Ashlee that she's using the song title as a guide. In any event, Tori's being thrown over while Ashlee, for once, is being accepted, even though she's moody, messy, restless, angry, and she crashes real hard. (But then Tori claims to be the black of the blackest ocean.) Another thematically similar song is Jess's "With You," from 2003 I think; it's a nice song though of course the words aren't one-tenth as complicated as Ashlee's, but anyway, with you (i.e., with Nick, at least that's what the video suggests) Jess can let her hair down and can say anything crazy [except she doesn't, at least not within our earshot] and wear nothing but a T-shirt and be herself, etc.; it sounds warmer than it reads. The thing is, the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday stuff in "Pieces Of Me" gives the song something a plot, so you actually understand her joyous relief and release when on the Tuesday following the sleepless Wednesday she fades into his arms and finally breathes.

[*Incredible episodes three and four (S01E03 and S01E04) of the Ashlee Simpson Show, if you haven't seen them.]