The Wisdom of the Illiterati


	conflicted I've been tossing back and forth the last few days, trying to decide if it's worth commenting on this year's EMP Pop Conference schedule. I had already heard that most of the presentations this year would be about politics--the official theme is "Conflict", but the group who chose the speakers obviously decided that the only real conflict in pop music, or at least the only one worth talking about in an election year, was political conflict. That's a decision, even though it irritates me in the narrowness of its vision, I could live with, if it wasn't that so many of the panels, judging by a quick survey of the schedule, threaten to be not only political, but dusty, dry, and retro-political to boot. What I mean by retro-political is that most of the panels (though certainly not all) revolve around identity-politics, an idea that has its place and has resulted in great things in the past--particularly the 70s--but that, for the moment at least, has run its course, and does nothing now but add to the political and cultural divisiveness from which we so desperately need to break free. I have nothing against focusing on the cultural aspects of different forms of music and the way it serves and helps define those cultures, but to observe this process solely through the framework of identity politics not only warps the reality of the music, but diminishes and sometimes demeans it. Music is too broad in its cultural ramifications to be pinned down in such a narrow fashion. Besides, the most important thing about music in political terms isn't the way it defines community, but the way it expands the limits of community, breaks its bounds, and overlaps from one community to another. An imprecise and somewhat weighted term for this is "musical miscegenation", a process that identity politics not only decries, but actively seeks to prevent (an undertaking roughly equivalent to trying to bail out the ocean with a five gallon bucket: first, it's impossible, and second, why would you want to?). When I first saw the schedule I seriously considering skipping the conference this year (though I quickly decided that calling it a personal boycott would be both meaningless and pretentious), but the fact is that there are still presentations I want to see. I'm specifically interested in Robert Christgau's take on John Mayer's "Waiting On the World to Change", a song I have always hated, both for its apparent rationalization of political apathy and it's incorporation of changes borrowed from, of all people, The Impressions to make its point. Christgau seems much more sympathetic, and after seeing the reaction this winter to the Obama campaign, I'm beginning to feel the same way. Maybe what Mayer meant is that he was waiting for a leader, or a galvanizing moment. At any rate, I'm interested in what Christgau has to say about it, and I'm hoping that some of the other presentations won't be as bad as I fear they'll be (there are also a few things that I will definitely avoid, but I don't see much point in bringing them up here--especially since some involve people I have a good deal of respect for, no matter how mistaken I think they are in this instance). Perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised. But I suspect that overall I'll continue to be disappointed, frustrated, and occasionally enraged, by what goes on. \| [Archives] Search entries:		top ten 1966 top ten OTHER OCCASIONAL RAMBLINGS Hail Blogoslavia! ~~100~~ 45 or so things about JSM The Saga of the Lone Biscuit OTHER BLOGS Blogroll Me

conflicted

I've been tossing back and forth the last few days, trying to decide if it's worth commenting on this year's EMP Pop Conference schedule. I had already heard that most of the presentations this year would be about politics--the official theme is "Conflict", but the group who chose the speakers obviously decided that the only real conflict in pop music, or at least the only one worth talking about in an election year, was political conflict. That's a decision, even though it irritates me in the narrowness of its vision, I could live with, if it wasn't that so many of the panels, judging by a quick survey of the schedule, threaten to be not only political, but dusty, dry, and retro-political to boot.

What I mean by retro-political is that most of the panels (though certainly not all) revolve around identity-politics, an idea that has its place and has resulted in great things in the past--particularly the 70s--but that, for the moment at least, has run its course, and does nothing now but add to the political and cultural divisiveness from which we so desperately need to break free. I have nothing against focusing on the cultural aspects of different forms of music and the way it serves and helps define those cultures, but to observe this process solely through the framework of identity politics not only warps the reality of the music, but diminishes and sometimes demeans it. Music is too broad in its cultural ramifications to be pinned down in such a narrow fashion.

Besides, the most important thing about music in political terms isn't the way it defines community, but the way it expands the limits of community, breaks its bounds, and overlaps from one community to another. An imprecise and somewhat weighted term for this is "musical miscegenation", a process that identity politics not only decries, but actively seeks to prevent (an undertaking roughly equivalent to trying to bail out the ocean with a five gallon bucket: first, it's impossible, and second, why would you want to?).

When I first saw the schedule I seriously considering skipping the conference this year (though I quickly decided that calling it a personal boycott would be both meaningless and pretentious), but the fact is that there are still presentations I want to see. I'm specifically interested in Robert Christgau's take on John Mayer's "Waiting On the World to Change", a song I have always hated, both for its apparent rationalization of political apathy and it's incorporation of changes borrowed from, of all people, The Impressions to make its point. Christgau seems much more sympathetic, and after seeing the reaction this winter to the Obama campaign, I'm beginning to feel the same way. Maybe what Mayer meant is that he was waiting for a leader, or a galvanizing moment.

At any rate, I'm interested in what Christgau has to say about it, and I'm hoping that some of the other presentations won't be as bad as I fear they'll be (there are also a few things that I will definitely avoid, but I don't see much point in bringing them up here--especially since some involve people I have a good deal of respect for, no matter how mistaken I think they are in this instance). Perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised. But I suspect that overall I'll continue to be disappointed, frustrated, and occasionally enraged, by what goes on.