Transferrable poptimism?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

When you start exploring a new genre do you make any assumptions about whether the best-known acts/records/choons in that genre are likely to be the best or not? Do you think, for instance, that there must be a load of obscure better records lurking behind the famous ones that the Real Heads know about?

Of course I think for most people the answer is "depends" - but what does it depend on? For instance, here are two statements someone might make:

"James Brown isn't actually that good - there are loads of other obscure funk acts who are way better than him."

"Incantation aren't actually that good - there are loads of other obscure pan pipe moods acts who are way better than them."

I think statement #1 would raise eyebrows and statement #2 would be more generally accepted as likely to be true.

(I started on this train of thought because I realised when answering a thread on sukrat that for all I knew Merzbow might be a huge noise sell out and despised by all the real noise fans.)

Comments

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

But there's obvious hooks for why newcomers might be sent to Beastie Boys (white, been at it for 20 years, "grew up" sharply after first album) or Kanye (mega producer, finds his voice, likely to have a rap best-of guesting on his records). Outkast as far as I can tell, people recommend them because they like the music they make.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Oh come on Andrew - LOADS AND LOADS of Outkast copy involved Andre 3000 as hip-hop's Bowie - gender-playing dandy in the midst of all that nasty guns and bling stuff. It's only after that film they did flopped that Big Boi's getting much of a look in again, coverage-wise.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Oh! I genuinely didn't see any of that. I mean, I quite like that he isn't about guns, I'm not sure how he's not about bling!

Also even when all I knew was the video for B.O.B. (or even just the mp3!) it all seemed very "Andre 3000 and his the mighty Outkast".

[weasel-seeker.livejournal.com]

Was that really always the case though?

I definitely got that sense circa Speakerboxx/The Love Below when everyone was enamoured with Dre's spotty attempts to become Prince, but ATLiens? Stankonia? They've certainly been presented as kind of a yin/yang Poet/Gangsta group, but it's not as through 3000's been completely devoid of gun talk or bling.

Is the question whether or not there are BETTER acts than crossover-to-pop acts, or are we talking on the meta-level of how they're written about in the press and the narratives that get created to faclitate mainstream acceptance? Because those seem fairly distinct from one another.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Outkast's big hook = "not like other hip-hop".

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

That's a good hook! Okay, point taken.