Ivan Polygon
Member
Dizze Rascal (no doubts about this one)
Animal Collective
Devendra Banhart
The Streets
Wilco
Animal Collective
Devendra Banhart
The Streets
Wilco
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Who are the most 'important' acts of today?
- Thread starter Buick6
- Start date
Ivan Polygon
Member
and Kanye West.
The question of 'importance' and 'canon making' is a very interesting one. I think nobody has mentioned yet the issue of people living in a country which 'traditionally' has been outside the scope of direct influence of English-speaking countries (I hate using the term traditionally, being so ideologically charged as it is, but it very well underlines my idea of relationships between English countries and non English speaking countries as being radically altered by the emergence of tradition in the Englit environment), I myself live in one such country, Spain. Here we receive a canon (note the ideology behind a 'received canon') which comes from England or the US and we are supposed to have to take it for granted, this has always been so with Shakespeare, and I´m afraid it still very much is like this. The same happens with music. Until the emergence of internet as an alternative community-maker, we had to wait for the Spanish magazines to echo what happened in England /US, and when that happened, we received the information that this (The Smiths, Oasis, etc.) is what we had to listen to, that this is important because it is what the English-speaking community has 'chosen' to be important. Of course we could always be helped by the friend-who-had-just-came-from-London for information about what was important, but then this info was alwasy third hand, because what they usually did was to buy the NME and buy the LPs with best reviews. Yes, there was a time when doing that was enough for you to claim to be an authority on importance in Spain, silly as this argument was. However, this proved to be an essential aspect in the evolution of Spanish pop during the post-punk era, when Spain, and especially Madrid, echoed with a scene of its own what happened in London and New York.
As I see it now, canon is always a question of power, England and the US had the cultural power, and it was very difficult for Spanish bands to fight against that 'received' knowledge'. Fortunately, there have always been exceptions (some name dropping could be good here: Sr. Chinarro, Veneno, Sisa, Camaron...).
With the arrival of internet, its being easier for Spaniards to subvert certain limitations, and this explains, for instance, last year's success among the underground kids of The Arcade Fire, even though their album wasnt published until this year, or the increasing number of people following Animal Collective's music.
However, I would like to say that canon making is all the time self-renewing itself, maybe the relations of power change and the 'tradition' is consequently affected by this, but it seems to me that there will be a hegemonic canon for a long time still. Internet is clearly subverting our conceptions of Importance, but it is difficult to see where they will lead us, but as long as social relationships take place, there will always be a series of canons overlapping for a period of time, fighting for the hegemony. This doesn't necesarilly mean that we have to submit to one of them, but our own perception of music will be shaped by our relation to one or several of these canons.
The question of 'importance' and 'canon making' is a very interesting one. I think nobody has mentioned yet the issue of people living in a country which 'traditionally' has been outside the scope of direct influence of English-speaking countries (I hate using the term traditionally, being so ideologically charged as it is, but it very well underlines my idea of relationships between English countries and non English speaking countries as being radically altered by the emergence of tradition in the Englit environment), I myself live in one such country, Spain. Here we receive a canon (note the ideology behind a 'received canon') which comes from England or the US and we are supposed to have to take it for granted, this has always been so with Shakespeare, and I´m afraid it still very much is like this. The same happens with music. Until the emergence of internet as an alternative community-maker, we had to wait for the Spanish magazines to echo what happened in England /US, and when that happened, we received the information that this (The Smiths, Oasis, etc.) is what we had to listen to, that this is important because it is what the English-speaking community has 'chosen' to be important. Of course we could always be helped by the friend-who-had-just-came-from-London for information about what was important, but then this info was alwasy third hand, because what they usually did was to buy the NME and buy the LPs with best reviews. Yes, there was a time when doing that was enough for you to claim to be an authority on importance in Spain, silly as this argument was. However, this proved to be an essential aspect in the evolution of Spanish pop during the post-punk era, when Spain, and especially Madrid, echoed with a scene of its own what happened in London and New York.
As I see it now, canon is always a question of power, England and the US had the cultural power, and it was very difficult for Spanish bands to fight against that 'received' knowledge'. Fortunately, there have always been exceptions (some name dropping could be good here: Sr. Chinarro, Veneno, Sisa, Camaron...).
With the arrival of internet, its being easier for Spaniards to subvert certain limitations, and this explains, for instance, last year's success among the underground kids of The Arcade Fire, even though their album wasnt published until this year, or the increasing number of people following Animal Collective's music.
However, I would like to say that canon making is all the time self-renewing itself, maybe the relations of power change and the 'tradition' is consequently affected by this, but it seems to me that there will be a hegemonic canon for a long time still. Internet is clearly subverting our conceptions of Importance, but it is difficult to see where they will lead us, but as long as social relationships take place, there will always be a series of canons overlapping for a period of time, fighting for the hegemony. This doesn't necesarilly mean that we have to submit to one of them, but our own perception of music will be shaped by our relation to one or several of these canons.
Last edited: