Post subject: Musical Artists Everyone Seems to Hate That You Love
As an inverse to the Everyone Seems to Love thread, I was curious what musical acts people enjoy here that they feel others rag on just a bit too much. Forgive me if this seems too similar to Guilty Pleasures, but I think there's a distinction between an act being disliked just for being uncool or "trashy" and an act being disliked for myriad other reasons. Maybe we can even convince each other to re-evaluate some of our unfairly maligned favorites!
I'll kick it off by saying that I have come across very few people on BEA (actually, I think none is the correct amount, but that's possibly just that others aren't vocal in their affections, so I'm leaving the room for error) who like Polly Bradfield. I did this writeup for her on my Overall chart that covers all the bases of what I like about her and addresses some of the main criticisms I see:
Permafrost's Overall Chart wrote:
Divisive is probably the wrong word to use to describe Solo Violin Improvisations. For one, it is probably one of the most egregious understatements I could make about the record. For two, it's probably more accurately described as completely derided with occasional plaudits from a dedicated small fanbase. Instead of having two big camps shouting at each other about whether it is one of the best or worst pieces of music ever created, it's more often shunned completely by many. The criticisms I've heard of it definitely make sense. It is easy to view such music as intensely navel-gazing bourgeois excess. It is easy to characterize it as amateurish at worst and needlessly obscure if one is not on its wavelength going in and doesn't understand the versatility on display. I certainly don't look down my nose at people who dislike the album, and I don't condescend to them by saying I pity them. It is one of the most "different strokes" records I can think of. But I will attempt to explain away these criticisms and others as briefly as I can. Funnily enough, these main criticisms are completely contradictory in my experience - there is a group that hates this album for being too sparse and a group that hates it for being too much.
On the topic of its excess, I don't think it's completely inaccurate to view it as the assault on the senses it likely sets out to be. We're talking about a woman whose only other documented output is an album called Torture Time! here, after all. I do think, however, that it is inaccurate to put it at such a distance from lived experience. This is no transcendental, detached Teutonic meditation from on high. In fact, I'd argue it's one of the most earthy and American records ever made. The playfulness - and make no mistake, all that sawing and scraping and beating is much more playful than it is austere; just look at the visual gag on the album cover! - here betrays whatever high art bona fides are attached to it by listeners who don't typically engage with such material. If it weren't for the long gaps of silence (more on that in a moment), this would be the most sexless erotic album ever made. There's a constant energy on display here, a perpetual forward thrust. It seeks to completely break down the wall between artistic process and audience reception, taking improvisation past its logical constraints and into a direct, libidinous realm. Nothing has spoken more clearly or directly, or at least attempted to, since the jazz greats' most saccharine freak outs. This is not music meant to intimidate, but to excite. It is blueprints of a possible music to come. It is a synthesis of the indeterminate hyper-rationalism of the academic and "academic" avant-garde of the post-war era with the possibly more stripped-down and honest declaration of necessary personal expression that was articulated in modern jazz. If there is obscurity here, it is because Bradfield exposes herself too clearly and causes the same kind of knee-jerk revulsion that one gets when presented with too much personal information from someone in an early meeting. It's too clean, too simple that someone might bare their soul to you without you having to earn it. The lack of artistic distance is unnerving for those anticipating such, and it can be easily misinterpreted.
As for the sparseness of the record, the silences in particular, this is just a matter of your outlook on music creation in general. Silence used as framing device is not unique to Bradfield, but it can be difficult to penetrate. It allows her dexterous playing to come through even more brightly when its variety can be ensconced in such moments of free-fall. Trying to bridge the gap between some of her ideas would be an exercise in futility, so she leaves the gaps open wide. Again, we see Bradfield going to an extreme logical conclusion. I am out of space to write on this record, so I will conclude with this - this album contradictorily manages to completely demand the attention of the listener utilizing silences, and for that alone, it is an indispensable document.
EDIT: Just realized this was about artists, and not just albums. Should I talk to you guys about my love for Brokencyde or Pitbull, or have I talked enough about those?
I think this thread could've been made with me in mind. I'll start with
"Crunk is a music that causes a lot of problems for 'serious' critics, because it ignores the conventions of hip-hop, which often ignore the conventions of western music in general. It is music whose purpose is the beat and the atmosphere, and all vocals on top must succumb to the production or risk sounding too 'hip-hop'."
-Nodima, RYM user, "Flockaveli" review
Okay, I'm going to be completely honest here: I think of this album in the same way many on this site view The Low End Theory (which is only 24 seconds shorter than this album). It was the very first hip-hop album I ever bought with my own money, and now I'm convinced that it's my very favorite of all time. I used to think this was just a fun, spotty crunk album, but now my ever-regular plays of it feel much more like an urban Music For 18 Musicians. Many fans like Meghan Garvey see Way's influence on hip-hop purely in the context of marketing and "meme rap", but I think this album's greatest innovation is purely compositional.
As the above quote suggests, souljaboytellem.com is the avant-garde of the avant-garde, Surely much "better" crunk had come before it (along with the expected Lil Jon and Three 6 Mafia, I'd highly suggest Oomp Camp's We Too Deep), but it was Soulja Boy that finally merged this experimental sort of post-minimalist southern hip-hop with a pure outsider pop sensibility. If God is indeed an invention by man like atheists say, then the Based God must have started from this 2007 blueprint.
While you can point to genre peers like Lil Jon or fellow outsider artists like Wesley Willis or The Shaggs when asked for a reference point, when I hear a masterpiece like "Report Card", the first name to come to mind is Tony Iommi. In crunk, the only two things that matter are rhythm and melody; Without need for overly complex beats or thoughtful lyricism, Soulja Boy dug into something so much more primal than anything at the time (though it may have been one-upped by Flockaveli). As Soulja Boy crafted all the beats himself from age 13 on, he was able to play around as much as he wanted; if he liked a 5-second snippet from his 808s, he could loop it through a whole song, much like I used to do with my band Charlie N. George. Terry Riley would be proud, and as the great Morton Feldman said, "now that things are so simple, there's so much to crank".
Moreover, the album just has so much joy oozing out of every track. Songs like "Donk" and "Booty Meat" may seem like crass objectification at first, but then you realize that Soula Boy sees these women as outsiders artists with their dances just like he is with his music. I especially love how at the end of the former Soulja is simply elated to how this body could move, and compares it to the sick beat that's playing over it.So many of the songs on here Way made just for local parties on Friday nights, and it's almost like the whole album is about that love of music in its simplest form. And in a world where hip-hop needs to be "conscious" or "ironic" for white kids to take it seriously, this is as beautifully unpretentious as it gets.
Last edited by Applerill on 09/11/2015 00:14; edited 1 time in total
I gave that Polly Bradfield album a spin after hearing about it a few times on here, it's a cool one. Need to give that another listen.
For me, I think the issue is mostly that people don't give a shit about a lot of the music I'm digging. Plenty of stuff that's only seen a chart and rank from me, but if other people were given the impression that they were supposed to have an opinion on it, there would probably be a lot more ratings on the lower side of things to offset my high ranking. For example, one of my favorite albums of this year, to the point where I've put it on my overall (which I'm in the process of doing a huge revision on but it will still be on there), is Rie Nakajima - Four Forms. I added it in early February and had it high up on the year and decade charts. And so it ended up pretty high up on the site's overall 2015 list, since people aren't usually so quick to add to the decade charts and there weren't so many albums out. And so I feel like some people saw that and were given the impression that this is something they would probably enjoy, and then understandably had a very very different reaction. And so it currently has a score of 69/100 (aka best score). But even then I wouldn't say everyone hated it, it seems like a few people ended up digging it and a lot of the other ratings seemed more reflective of indifference, with only 2 people going on the one and a half star rating for it.
But yeah if people all of a sudden started rating Florian Hecker in droves I'd probably have something to actually add here, but that's not going to happen.
Aquarium has a 64/100 average rating on this site and I really dig that. And I'm sure everyone I've mentioned to on BEA has disliked Caramelldansen (u all suck) and I like a ton of radio pop that's hated on the internet but I mean I know there's tons of people on BEA who are huge poptimists so that's not much of a thing... I'm a fan of Bed Intruder Song as well, don't like the meme but the song itself is catchy asf and you shouldn't be ashamed to like it (((((: _________________
As for me, Keane, Snow Patrol, a lot of that soft Britpop stuff from the early 2000s I'm sweet on and a lot of others aren't. Oh also Goo Goo Dolls and Panic! At The Disco, both of whom I've actually seen live even.
Less "everyone hates" so much as "everyone on here seems to hate" _________________
to be fair, this is less funny than Pitbull is musically quality. i'll at least nod along to a Pitbull song, but this clip made me feel like nodding off.
secretdad wrote:
Rie Nakajima - Four Forms and Florian Hecker
i don't usually give you shouts out 'cause i do it somewhat rarely at the moment (working through all said about 100 discs to finish up my massive box set backlog is a project i've been doing for two or three weeks now), but i've really taken to a lot of the stuff i've checked out on your overall and will continue to cull recs once my "new listening" queue frees up a bit. i'll likely start with that rec.
SuedeSwede wrote:
Aquarium :
was on my overall for a bit and might make the revamped one. pretty turned off by the whole ~poptimist~ thing lately since it seems to have circled back on itself and stopped being discriminating in quality, but that doesn't mean i don't still have lots of affection for actually good pop albums, this one being no exception
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