still trying to throw your arms around the world son?
Monday, May 24, 2010
Sophisti-pop (thanks comments box!) is an odd bit of retroactive genre codifying. I can't imagine Reynolds or Stubbs ever hated on The Blue Nile, or ABC, and I'm certainly not going to accept Steely Dan sharing a pigeonhole with Level 42!
The tag seems to be more tailored towards the audience than the bands, who are (like you said) retroactively roped under the aegis. No doubt there are certain acts that cynically customized their sound/look to target that market, but it looks more to me like these bands were hand-picked by the listeners to complement their own self-congratulatory "good taste." (See also: Vampire Weekend, both as condescending post-globalisation ethnomusicologists & as reward to "savvy", "independent" cultural consumers.)
I doubt Huey Lewis ever imagined his core audience being composed of Reaganite huns like Patrick Bateman, but to hear Bateman explain Lewis' appeal is to witness an artist owned by his audience.
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The tag seems to be more tailored towards the audience than the bands, who are (like you said) retroactively roped under the aegis. No doubt there are certain acts that cynically customized their sound/look to target that market, but it looks more to me like these bands were hand-picked by the listeners to complement their own self-congratulatory "good taste." (See also: Vampire Weekend, both as condescending post-globalisation ethnomusicologists & as reward to "savvy", "independent" cultural consumers.)
I doubt Huey Lewis ever imagined his core audience being composed of Reaganite huns like Patrick Bateman, but to hear Bateman explain Lewis' appeal is to witness an artist owned by his audience.
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