murkage

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I was gonna post this on my own LJ but it's a welcome counterpoint to that k-spunk article from yesterday, I think. The other week, I went to a symposium on the hardcore cuntinuum at the University of East London, which is WAY WAY WAY OUT EAST, Cyprus is so far out but I love the DLR so it was all good. I missed k-spunk's talk because I was interviewing Tori Amos (and tbh her academic babble is so much more preferable) but that didn't matter - I was there to support Dan Hancox and Joe Muggs and they were both excellent, v funny and incisive in debunking the cuntinuum. I don't think either has put their speech online but I was particularly pleased that Dan brought up the issue of dancing, which ~for some reason~ is rarely discussed despite the cuntinuum consisting of dance genres. ANYWAY, my friend Melissa Bradshaw (who is the kind of smart, knowledgeable writer who should be linked up all over the place, rather than fauxthorities like k-spunk and SR) was in the audience with me, murked k-spunk at one point and has now written about it, as well as comparing the symposium to the soca aerobics class she left early to go to, and a vg read it is too.

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Well, then it's incomplete and exclusionary, and there's no reason to privilege or pedestalise this particular preference as the HC has been. Though it's worth asking a) why those preferences - what does it say that aggressive, masculine traits are deemed OK and smooth, feminine ones not? that's worth unpacking; and b) for a phrase which has been in use for a decade plus, how come it hasn't trickled down to being used by fans and producers? Surely if its validity was so obvious this would have happened? Maybe it's because for your average fan, it's not something which matches up with your quotidian experience of the music at all...

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

If people are taking it as something that encapsulates a comprehensive representation of UK dance then they are obviously missing the point. I don't who is doing this or why. It's clear from the 'hardcore' qualifier that exclusivity is evident (and necessary).

I don't really like this "masculine/feminine" thing at all but it's fine to say you prefer rough to smooth and vice versa. Are we all supposed to appreciate both qualities equally? Anyone who does think HC material is so great BECAUSE it's anti-smoothness or somehow anti-feminine is stupid. It's great for what it is pro.

"for a phrase which has been in use for a decade plus, how come it hasn't trickled down to being used by fans and producers?"
- might you not ask the same about 'hauntology' or whatever other terms are applied by critics? there is no real need for fans or producers to use these terms - what would they gain from it? this is not a problem as far as i can see.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

'Hauntology' is an even more rubbish term than 'hardcore continuum'!

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

both infinitely superior to 'electrodribble' as a term