Rock Music and Culture
Posted by Socrates in rock music, rock music industry at 3:25 pm | 
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“‘Rockism’ didn’t falter in its evaluation of Bob Dylan, The Band, Buffalo Springfield, Van Morrison, The Who, and Neil Young. It faltered when it pretended Patti Smith was a major talent or Kate Bush amounted to anything. By far the worst product of this kind of theory-obsessed and ideology-driven ‘rockism’ was the massive hype of punk music. While punk, like any musical genre, produced its share of memorable songs, it was showered with far more attention than it deserved on the basis of intellectual conceits of the critical community.”
Just like the modernists had to pretend to like Alban Berg, the ‘rockists’ convinced themselves that LONDON CALLING is the greatest album of the 80s. (At least, the Clash was one of the few punk bands one could listen to with some, if not much, pleasure.)”
Yes. I’ve seen 136 “rock music experts” (most of whom live in New York City, of course) claim that the Clash’s “London Calling” was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Not! Romanticizing niggers (Jamaicans, in this case) doesn’t equal “great.” The Clash was led by the part-Jew, Joe Strummer.
Punk rock was all about anger directed against “the establishment.” And anger should not have been elevated to “genius” level since it was emotion and little else. The Sex Pistols were pretty good, in my opinion (for one album, anyway), but hardly musical geniuses on the level of, say, the Who. Anger isn’t genius, it’s just being pissed off.