Moving Day

This is an announcement to those of you who have been keeping up with Beat. First of all, thank you so much for reading my blog. I want to let you know that I'm moving the blog to WordPress and am beginning the process today. I won't delete this one, but I will be bringing in the archives to the new address. Which, for continuity's sake, is count234.wordpress.com. Bear with me while I get this set up. I hope to be more consistent about posting very soon. Thank you to Blogger for hosting me for the last year, and cheers to a new host!

Punk Rock Guilt

There's a line many music snobs draw to mark what they feel is an acceptable level of fame for a musician. Once you cross it, you're considered a sell-out. Once you’ve sold out, you’re no longer welcome in their lair of hip-ness. So, as a musician gains a following, they lose many of their original fans. Caleb Follwill touched on this conundrum when reflecting on KOL’s big year, and Jack White recently talked about it when Rolling Stone asked if he worries about the scene he came from:

I never stopped thinking what I wanted to do for their [fans from his original “underground” scene] sake. I always considered it and thought about it and at times felt guilty about it, but it wasn't until maybe about Get Behind Me Satan when I finally said, "I can't stand even thinking about anyone else's reaction to how this goes down. It doesn't matter to me anymore. I can't win either way." So I finally released myself from any of that... I don't know how to word it exactly. Some of the grunge bands used to say it was punk-rock guilt.

Punk Rock Guilt. It's the musicians’ awareness of their original fans’ repudiation. And shame on those fans for such arbitrary judgment.

To reject a band whose music you love merely because they start selling out venues and selling more albums isn't really fair, is it? If you love a band, you should theoretically want them to succeed. And, since success, for a musician, means gaining more recognition and thereby selling more records, shouldn't you be happy for them once they start doing that? Most of the musicians plagued by Punk Rock Guilt didn’t set out to be famous for the sake of it, but fame and success go hand in hand for them. Fame means more people know about them, and if more people know about them, more people will listen to their music. If more people listen to their music, they get to keep doing what they love without having to bus tables on the side. We all want to make a living doing what we love. When a musician reaches that point, how selfish are we to shun them, merely because we can no longer claim them as our little secret. White's right to release himself from the guilt.

If you’re ready to walk away from a band you once loved, fine. Music is fluid and subjective. But give the musicians a break when they catch theirs, and come up with a better reason to turn your back.

Assessing 2009...Not In List Form

In December of 2009, as happens every December, we were bombarded by lists assessing the year's best, worst and everything in between. And, since the end of this year marked the end of a decade, there were even more lists than usual, with each one more specific and comprehensive than the one before it. Halfway through December, The List lost its novelty and became more of a nuisance. At some point, declarations of the decade's most interesting, titillating, influential, offensive and creative began to blend together and lose significance.

So, instead of giving you another list, I'll give you my overall impression of this year in music: 2009 was all about reinvention. I enjoyed a handful of novel and exciting albums, but none of them came from novel and exciting talent. The most interesting and sincere music came from artists who were already established. The musicians remained same, but the music they put out in 2009 certainly did not.

This is because they all stepped outside of their comfort zones. Many joined new company, most tried on new styles and all tapped into different emotions. Jack White and Dave Grohl took up with new groups in which they reclaimed the drummer's seat (both started out on drums). The Yeah Yeah Yeahs tried Pop on for size. Ben Harper rocked out with a more bluesy band to create more bluesy Blues. And the Black Keys decided to break from the Blues and collaborate with several Hip Hop greats.

Reliable acts gave us none of the same, and the results were thrilling. This year, the cream rose to the top, and anything else...well, you can probably find them on somebody else's list.