notesdontmatter

Forum – Week 5 – Semester 2, 2008: “My Favorite Things (II)”

Politics in music is always a point of contention for me. On one hand I appreciate the potential for the medium and its message to reach a great many people, but I do wonder if it’s just preaching to the converted most of the time. That being said, Negative Land handles their agenda with a very original approach that seems less preachy and contrived than the lyrics of other politically motivated artists like Michael Franti and John Butler (Butler’s early attempts at songwriting made me whish he would take a hint from F. Zappa: “Shut up and play yer guitar!”).

However, for all its originality and punch, I feel no need to explore the music of Negative Land further. This type of extreme Concrete-esque manufacture strikes me as a novelty that wears off very quickly, no matter how clever the arrangement or serious the subject of satire. Also, I think my patience wears thin at the barrage of low quality audio that is forced upon the listener with music that engages in a lot of historic digging. Raising awareness of the past and having a will to prevent repetition of bad historical practices is a noble pursuit, but I feel there is little of reasonable fidelity to source from pre 1970, save for a few exceptions of course.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 5 – Semester 2, 2008: My Favorite Things (II).” Workshop presented in room 1004, level 10 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 28^th of August 2008.

Labels: Forum IIIB

posted by David J Dowling @ 9:26 AM