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Originally Posted by Genteel Death

That article is the definition of rubbish music writing. [...] how ''cutting edge'' hip hop is these days.

it may be ‘rubbish music writing,” but the point that it makes about the party having moved on elsewhere is pretty obvious.

i don’t know about the cutting edge of hip hop really—i don’t know 3 shits about hip hop—but if anything, the fact that this genre is getting all these prizes from stolid cultural institutions might be a sign of its impending demise. soon we’ll have severian complaining about how “back in his day...” and shaking his fist at whatever comes next.

which would put the rockist crowd... 2 generations behind already? yeah. i’m ready for the grave, but i’m going under without tears.

one thing is to listen to a certain kind of music because you like it. another very different is to listen to music because it makes you believe you’re one of the special chosen few and therefore people owe you some kind of deference and worship.

whatever is “special” changes with time. if you’re in it for the status, you’re just a hipster.

which of course ties with the other article you linked:

Originally Posted by Genteel Death

The same guy who wrote that article is the author of this gem: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...ticle37455129/

LOL. Ageing, posh geezer trying to fit in with the hip hop/grime kids innit?

well, everybody ages, and we all die in the end, but i read it differently.

i read it like he knows he can’t fit in with the kids anymore (he does describe his daughters’ behaviors as alien to him), and that he feels sorry that his special mandarin status is now a thing of the past.

and while i don’t agree with his conclusion that somehow it was better when it was harder, some of the self-awarenes and self-deprecation in the article was very funny.

the guy demonstrates he knows two things about himself: that he’s obsolete, and that he misses the loss of status pre-internet scarcity allowed him. well, three things: that snobs are obnoxious is the actual first one.

and with this awareness comes a sort of liberation, no? he’s fading into the past, his function is becoming irrelevant, the kids are taking over, but at least he has a sense of humor about it, so his nostalgia doesn’t come across as bitter (or worse).