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Our Band Could Be Your Life
ScrambledGregs:
--- Quote ---Its historical context value is suspect given that it focuses so ass-kissingly on certain people or concepts...
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This is what I was talking about. And complaining that it ignores 95% of the 80s underground makes sense given that the book isn't called "The 80s Underground."
As for your dismissal of Beat Happening, their importance and influence on the twee genre is pretty much concrete even if you think twee is garbage, which you are well within your right to think.
The "tone" of your initial post smacked of the same anti-indie/underground elitism that I get frustrated with. It's fine that you didn't like the book, and while it's admittedly not a perfect book, it's valuable for people my age who want to understand what the 80s underground/indie scene was like and what it was about even if it isn't comprehensive.
Jackie Blue:
--- Quote from: ScrambledGregs on 16 Dec 2007, 11:50 ---This is what I was talking about. And complaining that it ignores 95% of the 80s underground makes sense given that the book isn't called "The 80s Underground."
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Um. It is subtitled "Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991". And the book does not address more than a couple of major movements out of at least a dozen or so.
Even if you like the book I cannot see how you could be so in denial that it is basically a primer on understanding the forces that led to the 90s alternative/grunge explosion. That really is the focus. It opens talking about Nirvana and mentions them constantly throughout. His two previous books were about Nirvana and the Seattle scene. It is clearly a book which is meant to be exposition on the context and history of how The Nirvana Effect came to be, about how a certain segment of independant punk/post-punk evolved into a mainstream phenomenon.
Whether you like the book or not, you'll have to try pretty hard to convince me that it's anything other than that, especially given that the author basically declares that's what it is in the intro.
Jackie Blue:
--- Quote from: tommydski on 16 Dec 2007, 12:48 ---It is an exemplary introduction to the independent ethos itself
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Possibly, sure. But you're arguing apples when I'm saying oranges. Is it more than a primer on what led to Nirvana? Yes. But it is also a primer on what led to Nirvana. And what I contend still stands and is undeniable: it focuses on showcasing the "independtant ethos" in a very narrow spectrum of bands and even a narrow spectrum of ethos. There were other independant underground musical movements which executed their agenda in vastly different ways than the bands in the book did. We could start with everything from Camper Van Beethoven, Scruffy the Cat and Nice Strong Arm to Pigface, Nine Inch Nails, etc.
I don't see how the narrow scope can be denied no matter how much anybody enjoyed it.
Jackie Blue:
No matter how well-worded, the age-old retort "If you don't like it, why don't you do it better?" used in every form of artistic criticism holds no more water than it ever did. It's a meaningless placeholder for a real dialogue. People who aren't musicians write about disliking bands all the time.
a pack of wolves:
I really don't see how a broader focus on more bands and genres would be workable unless it was to become a gargantuan tome. The subtitle makes it pretty clear that it isn't a comprehensive history, it claims to be presenting only 'scenes from' the underground not the whole thing.
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