My hatas blue in the face like Gonzo

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Bone to pick with this dude for quite some time but haven't said anything: YOU DON'T GET TO DECIDE WHAT THE KIDS THINK IS COOL. If they wanna get down to ninnies, as Simon Reynolds calls 'em, then that means that NINNIES ARE COOL. I'm perfectly OK with this.

And it is with this qualifying rant that I link to:

V.I.C. - "Wobble"

Comments

[koganbot]

Of course, in regard to cool, see "The Death Of The Cool," where among other things I recount the argument I made to Xgau in '87:

I could no longer discern a "cool" path to knowledge, a cool area on the musical map or a functional way to grace under pressure, and the music that was moving me and teaching me was being made by smart screw-ups like Spoonie Gee and Michael Jackson and by open-hearted nitwits like Teena Marie, people who were desperately and passionately involved (that's a phrase I nicked from a piece on the Shangri-Las by Richard Goldstein back in 1965). So the performers who were reaching me didn't have a stylish way to insight - more like they were bumbling their way around.

A problem I might have with V.I.C. and Soulja Boy Tell'Em is that they are a bit cool, are at ease with the beats and nothing fazes them, carrying a style that lets them slide right beyond the haters and the world's insanity.* Which is admirable, but it doesn't move me as much as the stuff that struggles with the insanity.**

*Insanity would be a world in which a paid journalist gets away with insisting that what a white college basketball coach can master can't be cool. "He is old, he's white, and he should have nothing to do with pop-cultural relevance." Yes, why should old people be relevant, especially ones whose job is to give instruction and encouragement to nineteen-year-old boys? What insight into life and music and culture could we possibly want such an old person to have, after all? (Sorry for the rant; I'm attacking an easy target, but bigotry is bigotry and I'm astonished at how blithely unaware this guy is in displaying it. I should be used to this.)

**Actually, stuff of the moment like "Disturbia" that I'm rating higher doesn't struggle with insanity either, even if it name checks the insanity. It's more the piercing, delirious sound of "Disturbia" that gets me. I do like "Wobble" more than "Get Silly."