Well finally, that's the spirit!
yes. exactly. Poptimism was dreamt up by writers like Tom Ewing because they felt invalidated by Genp, Moscow, Kingston and São Paulo. You see Indie isn't conservative because of its sonic properties necessarily, but because it situates the student and thereby the critic as luddite. You are correct to note that poptimism in this respect comes out of indie rock here more than it does rnb, notwithstanding its jennuflection to pretending to be in tune with contemporary musics. If you look at Finney's recent posting on ilx, it''s very much in an insufferable middle aged aussie mould. But of course this was inevitable, he was never going to follow drill religiously.
But for me, pop is only interesting as a field of conflict and contestation. Pop as pure pleasure matrix is all welll and good, but it's no different to rhapsodising about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or BFG. Where Luke, Benny and even the late Fisher went wrong was to think that pop as stasis is interesting because its mass culture, petit-bourgeois inanity. If you say you are not into underground or arty wank music, then you have already conceded. A real poptimist would have had no need to check out the junglistic or grime pirates. They would have been happy with kws, pete tong tedium.
and in fact, this is why even the poppiest of hardcore anthems (sl2 - on a ragga tip) could not get to number 1. It was edged out by
this stinking pile of crap.
@blissblogger, I've thrown down the gauntlet, sort these reprobates out!