What I'm getting at is something that the 30+ year olds remember as 'selling out' doesn't really exist any more in the blog rock era, making things like urban outfitters and hot topic the countercultural emporiums of choice. Obviously there's a romance to the olden days of rummaging for amazing OOP records and cds etc, and Simon Reynolds and other critics have gone on about this for some time. But in the internet age w/ so many songs immediately at your fingertips, often for free, what's the point to spending that time when you might be doing something else?
Record stores used to be an occupational necessity for me and one I've long cherished. But as those stores die off, or more importantly, as the people I liked to see in those stores leave for jobs with futures [hi restaurants], I grow less nostalgic for major crate digging. Now I'm happy that people can hear records that I had to grovel to find.
The poptimist movement, for its faults, mainly its real lack of discernment, has gone a long way to democratize the way folks hear about music and the music they hear, lately with amazingly complex consequences for an industry already out of touch with its audience. I personally think it's wonderful to be able to have reasonable conversations with people about Beyonce AND Bad Brains and not have to feel like an impossible snob anymore. I mean, who really cares that 'Teenage Piss Party' was omitted on Pavement's 'Slanted and Enchanted' Redux? [O.k. I do. A little.]
So what statement's really being made if they're buying a Misfits t-shirt one place or another really? It's still a cheap consumer good meant to confer some degree of authenticity upon the wearer, right? I personally find UO objectionable not because they're selling overpriced rock tees made to look vintage but because they mass market racist paraphernalia and steal ideas from local designers for mass production.
[lastly -- and if you've read this far maybe you can help me: i'm reading persepolis now and i'm looking for a good political history of iran [if iran has an eric hobsbawm, that's what i'm looking for. so if anyone can make a suggestion, by all means do. thanks.] -- j t. ramsay music editor comcast interactive media 1500 market st., 18th floor west philadelphia, pa, 19102