Print 
PDF
okay so I'm normally about either writing useable game notes, cool pictures or adorable monsters made from pants, and I figure that's what you are interested in too if you are visiting this blog on a regular basis. So just saying this here is an opinion piece and IT IS AN ANOMALY BUt I gotta get this off my chest before I stain my dress:
I think Grimes will save the world. WHo?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtH68PJIQLE
And she's doing everything , like the beats, the instrumentation, the production and the directing of the video.
and touring like a motherfucker.
And watch that video, there's something reaaaally interesting going on (and not just how many times your heart broke watching it). There is subversion going on, like the sports culture is being re-appropriated as a backdrop for this arty video, which is totally awesome zero budget DIY tactics, but it's empathizing and celebrating with the subjects of the video at the same time as portraying the alienation of anyone not part of the culture and more faggy/arty/fringe and the friction between the two.
The obvious cop-out would be filming the sports event to look like thugs and animals, but instead going these are people they are having fun, this thing they are into (and society expects you to be into to) is actually this awesome thing and and it's weird and strange.
Like the version of this I grow up with would be "JOCKS ARE DICKS DEAD BABY DEAD BABY UNREADABLE BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOCOPY WAR ALSO HEROIN"
I'll repeat myself , the friction is still there but while it's shown as a challenge to be this Other thing, Grimes is quite quietly winning in this utterly sublime way.
You see I come from the school of "alternative", were your reaction to the perceived flaws of society was to be "alternate" from it. Reflexively rejecting anything "mainstream" and attempting this "true purity of character", through art expression, weird diet restriction, not having a job, never having any money, substance abuse, "freaky" sexuality, esoteric politics and all that noise.
ANd then 20 years rolled around and everything was commodified or shown to be riddled with the hypocrisy and power abuses that it was supposedly rejecting. Or just the sheer pretension of automatically claiming your own special category as not-one-of-those-other-human-beings.
So .. irony happened, and passive ironic consumptionism and pop culture "re-appropriation" (I guy I know made this t-shirt, it was like the no fear eyes with the nike swoop as a mouth. It was the most pointless piece of shit I have ever seen) and vice magazine why-are-you-even-trying mentality.
And it was so massively and epically boring and devoid of any and all merit.
Then.. Grimes (as a representative of a mentality which I'm arguing for is for reals), and this thing, which is saying "DO your crazy thing", but with this.. truth and joy and .. realism? and the same time as a childlike why the fuck not? It does not seem to shy away from calling bullshit, but like the most effective new ideas, it does not waste it's breathe explaining the mistakes (propaganda 101 , never acknowledge your enemies world view yo) just sweep on through with the bright fragile thing you believe in, and befriend the fuck out of anyone in your way.
Also someone just showed me this blog which I have not scoured yet but Seems so Straight Up Motherfucker/ MAgic is fucking real ,Cunt that I already love the shit out of it
http://www.thestylerookie.com/
x
scrap princess
YyyyyyYYyyyeah um, Scrap, we call that "skatepunk" and it was invented in like 1982
ReplyDeleteThough the music was louder
see my point about "riddled with the hypocrisy and power abuses that it was supposedly rejecting"
DeleteGo easy there Zak, we're 2 hours ahead and 20 years behind.
ReplyDeleteAnd like, its not my point at all, like refer me to anything about 1982 skatepunks but my impression is that it's dudes not giving a fuck.
ReplyDeleteDudes not giving a fuck is like a huge force in every creative and cultural field, but like its 2012 , the movie rights have been sold, the parties over and its all back to the lowest common denominator and SAMO.
I'm saying this to me is something more than just not giving a fuck.
To me "skatepunk" was a (largely west coast) "hey relax we're all kids here, even the jocks" reaction to much more militant and politicized and aggressive british punkpunk. skating was a cultural middle ground between punky stuff and jock stuff.
DeleteThe main thing was: all you wanted was a Pepsi. The rest was details.
I find the point you're making about Grimes personal involvement in the totality of her artistic production - something like the anti- Jeff Koons (Whose real art may be lawsuits)to be compelling and potentially uplifting - the ease of technological creation help individuals realize art in previously unavailable ways.
ReplyDeleteI think what you're saying about recognition that the goons at sporting events are not goons, simply normal folk in a different subcultural space is essential to being in the world.
I am going to say Grimes is part of a long line of pop singers with whisp voices and her aesthetic is very very North West US/BC coastal metropolis with everything (including 80'- 90's skate punk) that implies.