> One music critic -- can't remember who -- said we're
> in the "throwback" era of music,
Here's something at least one other lbo-ster has seen recently:
http://www.cultureby.com/trilogy/2006/03/american_idol_m.html
I am surprised to see how easy it is to make predictions. Everyone seems to know exactly who will win. And there is surprising agreement. Clearly, Kevin Covais will have to go just as surely (and for the opposite reason) that Santino Rice had to leave Project Runway. Kevin was too nice and Santino not nearly nice enough. (We want our icons, in music as in design, a combination of the two.)
But if we are truly a post modernist society, buzzing with variety and novelty, surely the American Idol confidence and consensus should be impossible. Surely, the whole thing should be playing itself out as a great mystery, with, say, performances of emo that shock and puzzle.
That there is confidence and consensus tells us a) we are mostly wrong when we talk about the new structural properties of contemporary culture, or b) there is something about American Idol that smooths the way for our confidence and our consensus. I am prepared to be talking into "A" but I have a feeling that the answer is "B."
After all, there are moments when watching AI where I find myself wondering what decade this is. No one has chosen a song penned in the 21st century. Indeed, as Randy, Paula, and Simon are often moved to observe, clothing and makeup choices often seem to harken back to another time. This is my way of saying that American Idol is a lie and perhaps even a conspiracy. It appears to be crafted to give the impression that American culture remains a mass culture, that happy time when every thing was known to everyone...
> where modern bands
> are judged in terms of who they're a "throwback" to
> (She Wants Revenge = Joy Division, Arctic Monkeys =
> The Jam, or whatever)
But wasn't The Jam a throwback to The Who? (And does this mean I ought to check out the Arctic Monkeys?)
> I'm pretty anti-nostalgia in this regard, and do not
> think really great, exciting punk or post-punk (or
> plain ol' rock 'n roll) quit being made in 1985, or
> 1990, or whatever, the way many seem to.
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