the hipster events a decade ago were diff. it was still pretty small, interest-wise. it was there, but the scene was less interested in/aware of outsiders. or rather, the 'outsiders' were less important. saying outsiders seems wrong though. it just means the audience isnt who it used to be. i think its just that theres a lot more fans of it (prob starting around the time instrumental grime became a thing and you got all those singles in the charts)). and most of them are outside the working class base it used to be. and when that happens, youre always going to get people liking the novelty/otherness of it.
comments like this though are idk, just stupid -
The middle-class university students who attend live grime shows now, in 2015, probably don’t even recognise the form of cultural appropriation they’re actively taking part in: wearing a North Face snapback to a rave and singing along to Stormzy probably doesn’t sound out any alarm bells - but it should.
whats the alternative? people sitting there reverently like theyre at some sort of anthro-musicology conference?
if youve ever been to a hip hop show, where the rapper invites white ppl to rap along to the n-word, youll know this sort of thing can be awkward. and theres obv some things that white m/c fans should be aware of, that goes without saying (expecting them all to be however, is going to be a bit of a struggle -most people dont care about paying that price of admission). but people are so quick to pull out the cultural appropriation card these days, and engaging in this sort of over vociferous cultural policing, the phrase is soon going to start losing all meaning.
Through art, we have the ‘Army of Instagram’ that sees no issue in taking #VSCO shots of council estate tower blocks, even though they’re not derelict symbols of an old Britain, but the homes of thousands.
what, like this?
anyway, obv grime is working class music, but i think that independent piece sort of tries to state its political credentials harder than most of the musicians would (or perhaps be confident in explaining). poppy strikes me as one of these middle class students she spends the whole piece criticising, except shes just trying to show she knows better, and is more culturally aware than the next middle class student. she wont be caught engaging in call and response at a grime show unless its something spoken in standard english. though ok, i suppose its nice shes trying to make them aware of some of the social barriers they might not be aware of.