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- #1
- Posted: 05/11/2018 01:47
- Post subject: Articles on Scaruffi from Perfect Sound Forever
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I enjoyed reading these - generally I like Scaruffi's lists as sources for avant-garde album recommendations, but find some of his attitudes insufferable:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/pieroscaruffi.html
http://www.furious.com/perfect/pieroscaruffi2.html
| Quote: | Scaruffi's tastes were formed in a different era than our own; his likes and dislikes are an understandable reaction to the currents and anxieties in popular music's nascent era. But his criteria for great art posits popular music as a contradiction: it can only be great when it is no longer itself, when it becomes inaccessible, no longer fully human. Scaruffi assumes a world where the only art is High Art, where art is only such in its most heavily alienated forms, is sick only when its bargains away its own soul. His is a world where the high- and lowbrow do not coexist and nurture one another, but are forever embattled. To be clear: this is a world where art can no longer be met on its own terms; in short, a world ruled by prejudice and dogma. This is a world in which ninety-five percent of music lovers are too stupid for their own good, in which your friend's naivety in music choice is not simply misinformed, but categorically wrong. What I am suggesting is that for listeners and critics, especially the rising generation of critics, this worldview is unacceptable. In Scaruffi's world, Beatles fans are not allowed even the dignity of holding opinions- they're sheep. In this world, there is no conversation: by definition, they're wrong.
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Age: 40
- #2
- Posted: 05/11/2018 02:00
- Post subject:
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| Quote: | | This is a world in which ninety-five percent of music lovers are too stupid for their own good |
This is something that's a little bit common and bothers me a lot. Like the idea that music is a thing that billions of people engage with but only a small portion of people are doing it right just seems so misanthropic.
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- #3
- Posted: 05/11/2018 02:49
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I've heard Fantano is much better
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- #4
- Posted: 05/11/2018 03:09
- Post subject:
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| YoungPunk wrote: | | I've heard Fantano is much better |
Fantano and Scaruffi are two polar extremes, really - Fontano's a poptimist, and Scaruffi's an extreme rockist (rockism usually favours music that's "meaningful", but Scaruffi imposes the extra criteria of originality etc).
_________________
https://albumreviews.blog
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- #5
- Posted: 05/11/2018 03:11
- Post subject:
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| Tap wrote: | | Quote: | | This is a world in which ninety-five percent of music lovers are too stupid for their own good |
This is something that's a little bit common and bothers me a lot. Like the idea that music is a thing that billions of people engage with but only a small portion of people are doing it right just seems so misanthropic. |
On a website like this, too, we're kind of assuming that the album is the primary medium of music consumption, but for the majority of the population that's not true. We're kind of stuck in our little geeky world of album appreciation, while lots of people are into playlists and radio hits, and it doesn't mean we're better than them.
_________________
https://albumreviews.blog
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- #6
- Posted: 05/11/2018 03:12
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Don't really know much about either, I usually don't trust anyone besides myself
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- #7
- Posted: 05/11/2018 03:22
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| YoungPunk wrote: | | Don't really know much about either, I usually don't trust anyone besides myself |
I like to read lots about music - it's good to learn about new things. I think the best approach as a 21st century music fan with access to an overwhelming amount of music is to take recommendations from everywhere and form your own opinions.
I've been thinking a lot about poptimism, rockism, and Scaruffism (if that's a word) lately. In my late teens and early twenties, I was certainly a rockist, and insisted that all music needed to be meaningful, and concentrated on the canonical type albums you'd see in a Rolling Stone Top 100. It's been interesting seeing the rise of poptimism.
_________________
https://albumreviews.blog
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RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad
Location: Ground Control 
- #8
- Posted: 05/11/2018 04:00
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Thank God someone put that man in his place.
My favorite part:
| Quote: | | Barring that, it's all just so much snobbish condescension and pompous, unproven assertions. |
Also of course other people were doing/did things The Beatles were doing - it's not like they invented everything. It's a theory called New Historicism. There's a web of influence and it nearly never is a single entity that did the thing and it's nearly impossible to prove firsts. I think sometimes it's falsely attributed they did it first, and what I think 90% of what people mean by that when they say that anyway is they were the first mainstream band or they were the first to make it popular and fail to say those qualifiers or aren't realizing that's what's really meant.
But of course to completely dismiss the achievements they did accomplish is completely and equally ignorant. I think people get hung up on the semantics and while those are important, I think they miss the big picture altogether. Just because somebody did it first doesn't mean they did it any good.
I think what's key is they were a pop group and synthesized all these amazing things into their music. They established this ever evolving growth of musicianship - constantly wanting to push boundaries (for pop music) and go new places... and most importantly they excelled at doing them all. It's a pity when that's not appreciated. Especially when a one off effort "debunks" them as any good. Consistency is just as important to the aspects of a great artist, to me anyway.
And to be clear, I'm including George Martin behind all of this because I think what he added to the synergy was just as important. It really was that synergy. It seems like efforts by George Martin, or any of the Ex-Beatles were nearly never as good. (Maybe only John's lyrics got better, imo).
Random unorganized thoughts over.
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Gender: Female
Age: 40
- #9
- Posted: 05/11/2018 04:03
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The format supremacy is pretty silly. I feel like a lot of this stuff is people being insecure and needing some kind of assurance to fight away FOMOphobia (the fear of even so much as experiencing the fear of missing out). Poptimism too, there's some good ideas but it just ends up being "I am right to listen to the most popular things because they are popular and the people who don't like it just are inauthentic and if they would just let themselves like it they totally would".
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- #10
- Posted: 05/11/2018 04:37
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What has Scaruffi ever accomplished in music? Isn't he a scientist at a university in scientific dark age Italy?
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