I usually argue that we’re waiting for a reaction in popular culture, that American Idol and the ongoing overdose of chewing gum pop will lead to people’s eventually being fed up and starting to dig deeper. I like to predict a slow-food movement within music that leads to noisy ambient and endless drones reach outside the inner circle of enthusiasts. I think Pan-American just disproved me.
I usually over-interpret the signs. Like morning daily’s writing full spreads on The Field, or the popularity of intelligent shows like “The Wire” or “Lost”, or that small-time experimental producers can go on world tours. Humble world tours, but still world tours.
Recently, I did an interview with Mark Nelson, more known as Pan-American, and I had to ask him about this, hoping he too saw the signs and could confirm this. I fished for arguments I could use next time I tried to make this point. Mark said:
“I think that as things are more stressful in peoples lives the more likely they are to return to what they know and trust already. There’s a small growth in quiet music or subtle music yes, but at the same time there’s a huge growth in reality tv shows and movies about comic book heros from the 50’s and 60’s! The speed with which culture is consumed is crazy. Most people have access to everything all the time and it’s a weird cultural wild fire, always needing more fuel to sustain itself. I expect at some point a reaction to this, but it also takes quite a bit of effort to surround one self with less. I’ve always felt that the listener was responsible for at least half the work to enjoy my records.”
Uhm, well. I don’t think my argument is valid anymore.
