Middlebrow - confessions and definitions

Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Possibly very few people/no-one, which is again part of what I wanted to inquire into. I think it's often used a knee-jerk reaction to things that fall outside of your sphere of taste, or perhaps more accurately your sphere of 'what music is supposed to be all about'. But that hasn't stopped me using it at times.
 
nomadthethird

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
Tentative Andy said:
Possibly very few people/no-one, which is again part of what I wanted to inquire into. I think it's often used a knee-jerk reaction to things that fall outside of your sphere of taste, or perhaps more accurately your sphere of 'what music is supposed to be all about'. But that hasn't stopped me using it at times.
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Andy, I wouldn't worry about using the term, I think it makes perfect sense.

There's a middlebrow in music, just as there is in anything, because there is a bourgeois sensibility, a "coffee table book" crowd that thinks it stands in for the rest of us and declares what passes for good enough in matters of taste.
 
Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Oh I don't worry about it, I was just thinking aloud.
I wonder if there is any middlebrow music, esp currently, that I really hate. Nothing is actually springing to mind right now.
 
nomadthethird

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
Tentative Andy said:
Oh I don't worry about it, I was just thinking aloud.
I wonder if there is any middlebrow music, esp currently, that I really hate. Nothing is actually springing to mind right now.
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Well, I can think of some that I don't like. Swears already mentioned Vampire Weekend.
 
Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Yeah, I'm coming to the conclusion that they're generally a bit naff.
Oh, I just realised who is the absolute epitomy of middlebrow (can't believe it took me this long really) - MOBY.
But even then, you can't really argue with the greatness of Go, can you? And personally Thousand always really thrilled me too. But I would be quite happy to never hear anything from Play ever again. :mad:
 
O

Ory

warp drive
to me it has something to do with really quite ordinary/everyday music striving to be sophisticated. I don't think someone like Burial who comes from a 'ardkore/garage tradition fits that.. nevermind how his music has been reappropriated.
 
Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
That make me think, actually - I wonder if the kind of things you get on the Jools Holland show are a good example of middlebrow? Very comfortable, but with apparent musical merit? I haven't watched the show in while though, not sure quite what you get on there now.
 
C

Chris

fractured oscillations
Tentative Andy said:
But for me middlebrow signifies stuff that has at least some pretentions toward art status, respectability, critical approval and so forth, wheares middle-of-the-road is more stuff that seems to be deliberately unimaginative and unexciting, the appeal is that it's something comforting and familiar.
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I was going to say... what about stuff that is just blandly, safely innoffensive... not trash... but not going for any depth or artistic value? So Middle-of-the-Road would be: Foo Fighters, Oprah, Friends, Sting, U2 (though I guess they, as much as I hate to admit, weren't complete shit at one point)...

and good Middle-Brow (to mine eyes) would then be; The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Daft Punk, Air, Beck, Stevie Wonder, hell - all Soul, Pink Floyd, M83, the Cure, Prince, Depeche Mode, anything Jim Henson, Star Wars IV-VI (yep, UNTOUCHABLE :)), LOTR (hey, I like it :slanted:), Lost...

mid-tier Middle-Brow; hmmm... Nirvana, Radiohead, CSN&Y, Spike Jonze, a few John Hughes films, a couple Wes Anderson films

shit-tier Middle-Brow: Tool, the Mars Volta, Muse, Juno, Little Miss Sunshine



what about stuff that doesn't really aim for or end up initially in the Middle-Brow, but turn into sacred cows/critical darlings/cult influences... Led Zeppelin, Kraftwerk, Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, etc?

what am I saying, of course that stuff is middle brow.
 
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Alfons

Alfons

Way of the future
I like this thread. Am also quite fond of some of the artists mentioned. Trip hop fan from back in my teens Massive Attack, DJ Shadow, Portishead and the very few rock bands I get into in later years would probably be from this camp too, interpol springs to mind.

Who is making these distinctions is interesting to me, are we frowning upon the middle-brow because they are confidently, but ignorantly, frowning on low brow stuff. Im guessing there is a big middle-brow - middle class connection to be made? Music that's safe, aspires to being intellectual without being alienating etc?


Chris said:
what about stuff that doesn't really aim for or end up initially in the Middle-Brow, but turn into sacred cows/critical darlings/cult influences... Led Zeppelin, Kraftwerk, Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, etc?

what am I saying, of course that stuff is middle brow.
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Interesting how middle-brow might be tied to this, was a long thread about critics sacred cows a few weeks back.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Middlebrow I like:

Prefab Sprout, for sure (Steve McQueen is a humdinger of an album)
Fleetwood Mac are the definitive answer to this thread I think - who can listen to 'Sara' or 'Storms', or indeed 'Dreams', without a bit of a lump in their throat?
Massive Attack
 
Jonesy

Jonesy

Wild Horses
msoes said:
you cant define music as middlebrow, only listeners
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I agree. I don't think you can define any music as middlebrow. It's all about your attitude to the music.

If you believe that your taste in music defines your level of intelligence then you can fall into that trap - "I like Radiohead therefore I'm smarter than the person who likes James Blunt". Just as bad though is "I like John Zorn therefore I'm smarter than the Radiohead fan".

I hope I largely avoid this (though I think we're all guilty to some degree). Without meaning to sound like a pomo twat, I get pleasure from Britney's 'Blackout' AND Evan Parker but don't believe that either reflect my intellect.
 
N

Numbers

Well-known member
From an almost classic, sociological perspective (principally Bourdieu), all electronic music, rock and even neo-classical music (think Glass) is middle-brow as it's mainly listened to by the new middleclass (the design sector, the various therapisms, etc.). It's all music that requires little to no knowledge to appreciate (in contrast with avantgarde, which is territory of the cultural elite) and is easily accessible from an economic point of view.

Anyway, that is the classic thesis. Recently, there has been a shift in data and analysis based around the notion of cultural omnivorism, which alludes to the fact that -especially among young adults (-40 yrs.)- having a broad (musical) taste gains one more distinction than knowing only the high-brow stuff.

If you'd be interested in this, I'd recommend reading the paper Cultural omnivorousness as a combination of highbrow, pop, and folk elements: The relation between taste patterns and social integration. The draft of this paper can be found on the net.
 
M

mms

sometimes
portishead, massive attack etc were quite radical in their approach when they were on the scene, every kid around my age from the westcountry who was into hip hop etc wanted to be like the wild bunch/massive attack, it was more in the breadth and the stance. Also i listened to portisheads first album in the pub yesterday, it was odd cos that guy James Brown, the loaded publisher was in there too and i half expected goldie to walk in.... anyway, it sounded great, i'd dismissed it a while back but the songs i wasn't into then i'm still not. They were definitley a weird band to be so popular, utterly miserable at all times.=, half their popularity was being on that lawyer programme. Burials really radical i think, utterly strange music, its a real miracle he's as popular as he is.

Middlebrow would more likely be faithless or morcheeba in this instance, moby, almost all US indie that has been built up over the last few years is very middlebrow, especially that kind of country inflected americana, there is little to get excited about there, it's just reconnecting indie to country with nods towards the kind of cohen brothers film career etc, the cohen brothers being the ultimate middlebrow film makers.
Also peter gabriel, kate bush, beck, probably the ultimate middlebrow band are steely dan no?
 
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Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Now we're talking! Some great points being made, off to get some food now but will reply properly in a wee minute.
 
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