Rip It Up and Start Again

My thesis keeps evolving. It's no longer just about the "rock star" because, well, there is so much more to talk about. Now I'm getting worried that my topic is too big for my own britches, and that I may only be able to skim the surface of my intended idea. But you know what? I think that's important too. We need to break the surface before anyone can delve deep into the subject.

One book is really helping me formulate ideas about what to cover (and what not to cover) – that being Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up and Start Again, which I mentioned in my last post.

This text talks about a neglected time in music, the post-punk era. It's not neglected in musical interest, but in coverage of it. Reading about this time is forcing me to make connections between what is going on now in the music world and what happened back then. The splits into independent labels, managers, producers, fanzines, etc. helped to vary the market back then, and the same is happening now, but with viral medias. (Think of blogs instead of fanzines, for example.) But, of course, these similarities are formed through different cause/effect combinations.

According to Reynolds, the end of punk/beginning of post-punk led the music world to a sort of "Where to now?" feeling, whether that be of worry or forward-looking ambition. Sound familiar, music industry? Musicians? And as Reynolds says in the Prologue to his book, "The by-product of all this division and disagreement was diversity, a fabulous wealth of sounds and ideas that rivals the sixties as a golden age for music." (pg. 11)

Perhaps the age of the viral medias provides another catalyst leading to this diversity, this "fabulous wealth of sounds and ideas." But I'm not going to argue that today is the newest "Golden Age" for music...yet.

And now a break from serious thought: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – "Young Adult Friction"



And check out another video by the band (also shot on a Super 8 camera) called "Everything with You".

Bands

So looks like I have some cooperating bands! I will be meeting up with some of the folks from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart soon, and I hope to get some good coverage from them. I also recently got some photographs of a live show by A Place to Bury Strangers, so I can post a sneak peak of those soon. And then I am still it talks with a band called teenagersintokyo, an Australian group that lives in London.

Other bands might come into play, and I hope they do. The more points of view I get, the better it will be for the final presentation.

Book list slowly but surely being formed as well.

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The Almighty Defenders – Jihad Blues