old Mudd!  

ноември 14 2006 DA CAPO CAPER, or Joanna Newsom and The Whites

How is it that the notion of a CD containing "The Best Music of 2006" would be preposterous while the idea of book collecting "The Best Music Writing of 2006" is readily accepted?

Is it due to qualitative differences between music and writing? Does authority swoop down in the gap separating (source) art and (secondary) reportage? Is writing about music easier to rate than music itself? What rhetorical techniques does music journalism employ to gain understanding -- or at least the appearance of semiotic control -- over sound?

For example: imagine if dance, rather than writing, was considered the main mode of music criticism! Rhythm, response, realtime -- bodies on the line, first-person present, no third-person with its anonymous voice of authority. And it's true, watching a good dancer can help you understand the music, how it operates and inhabits us.

Back to the best. When do we use 'the best' as a primary category of anything cultural?

-What type of music do you listen to?
- The best.
- "The Best"?!

Best Music of 2006, the album. Such as CD, mass-marketed as the Best Music of 2006, is more or less unthinkable. Such a book exists. (I know because I'm in it-- included as a commentor on Wayne Marshall's piece).


You wouldn't buy a "Best Music 2006" CD for at least 2 reasons. First: because you probably wouldn't like most of the music on it. Music fans divide up the world of sound by genre, geography, scene, sound, and so on -- only after everything else has been whittled down do 'best' considerations i.e. 'this band is better than that band' enter into it. 'Best' is -- at best! -- a secondary category of music appreciation.

The second reason you wouldn't buy such as CD is slightly more subtle -- the lack of discernment that it implies. People who claim they like "good music" usually don't, oddly enough.This is why I silently groan whenever a stranger finds out that I DJ and then say "you're a DJ, that's so great! I LOVE music!"

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And yet you might buy that book. The reasons cited above for not buying such a CD don't translate. What is different? An anthology of 'Best Music Writing' makes sense, somehow. How?


What is the nature of this transformation from art to art criticism? The body of journalism feeds off music but births something else entirely. What happens in the guts?

Music criticism is a machine (taxonomical, hierarchical, expository) that transmutes music and musical culture into words, narratives.

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I'm not trying to criticize the inclusion/exclusion aspect of creating any anthology. I'm just wondering how this machine functions. And besides, Jeff Chang already did that in his essay on the Da Capo series:

"Half the essays were about rock. Only 2 were about hip-hop. None of the writers were of color... Da Capo's Best Music Writing series demonstrates the old problem that activists of color, feminists, and gay and lesbian activists raged against during the 1980s. A very particular kind of worldview – in this case, one that favors white, male, English-only, New York-approved, rock-centric writers and writing – is passed off as the universal standard of excellence... Canons are never accidents. They get made."

Return of the White Noise Supremacists - Jeff Chang

His argument, however instructive, is a bit misguided. If you debate inclusion/exclusion from a critical canon, then you are not debating the idea of a canon itself: you are reifying it, acknowledging it as a site from which Big Meaning flows, underscoring the significance of its power to exclude you in the first place. It's easy to walk through walls if they don't exist -- and as it turns out, they often don't. I feel all minority criticism should start from there.

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That said, I sympathize with Chang's piece (particularly enjoy his breakdown on how the guest editor thing works). But rather than see SPIN do cover stories on Imazighen pop written by Najat Aatabou, I'd prefer music journalism which investigates the standard U.S. pop-heroes but f%cks with the organizational logic underpinning cultural assumptions. Imagine: an essay on 'world music' profiling the few artists with truly global reach: 50 Cent, Shakira, The Rolling Stones. Ethnographic sheen optional!

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Or, better yet, imagine a piece on Joanna Newson, Devendra Banhart, and west coast freaky folk in relation to the demographic shifts which have made white people the ethnic minority in California State. How long can 'white' music remain untouched by the forces which (rightfully?) require every serious reggaeton article to employ demographic data and musings on ethnic identity? Just as examining reggaeton's popularity without linking it to the Latino population boom would be considered sloppy journalism, so too is discussing freaky folk's rising fame while allowing its relation to whiteness (real and imagined) to pass in silence, as the unreferenced norm.

You could even do it as a visual essay!

*

Everywhere music fans gather you'll find music criticism. It may not be formal, buyable, or 'the best' -- but it'll be there. Perhaps in the form of good dancers.

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derek () (URL) - ноември 14 2006

Very, perhaps even painfully, on target, Jace. As usual. But let's not forget that one result of the raging 80's activists was that one's own "whiteness" could not be discussed in certain circles in anything but apologetic tones.

Certainly, the only "white" music I see nowadays taking on issues of "whiteness"--neofolk (the other volksmusik), extreme noise and some threads of Black Metal...an un-funky bunch to say the least--tend to wrap it up in Celtic fairy tales, Viking horns, funny-looking brown shirts and a kind of cultural seige-mentality which requires assertively shoring up one's ethnic identity in the face of perceived opposition. In some ways, however, these are even borrowed tactics from the same raging (60's, 70's) 80's activists who put ethnic identity on the American map.

So it doesn't suprise me in the least that New White Weird America glosses over these kind of sociopolitical issues in favor of a retreat into the inner, imagined self. Melancholia over lost dreams, lost dogs, lost loves, lost drugs or lost minds makes for better folksongs than melancholia over lost opportunities at better race relations, ethnic awareness and multi-cultural understanding. Or are we just racing backwards to the 1950's at warp factor 5, phasors on stun?

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matt () (URL) - ноември 14 2006

thought provoking words. here's to discovering the real reasons for the resurgence of garage rock.

i'd never read the da capo collection until i got one as a xmas present a few years ago. the writing hit a high standard, but i found it strangely detached from its subject (and focussed on a whole other league of music). that's why i was impressed to see wayne picked up for this one - sure he has the academic background to get the collaters excited, but he's writing on a blog, about reggaeton. rather than some esteemed rag about rock.

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billy g (URL) - ноември 14 2006

well. said. "best of" anything is always a sales tactic or a load of filler, and the resulting list is indicative of the system that creates it. Jace you've got a number of good points here that deserve expanding (so many having to do with the troublesome perspective of the "best of"ers). but could you please continue the photo essay? the Banhart pic (w/ appropriate caption) was spot. on.

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da wayno (URL) - ноември 15 2006

well said, jace. glad that you could make these points. hard for me to without seeming, well, ungracious (though i did link to jeff's piece as a subtle way of registering these concerns). ah, if i could only dance my dissertation defense. that'd be a blast!

btw, not that it contradicts necessarily (as you're not selling an anthology or anything), but i should point out that you did refer to my "so many snares" piece as the "best" thing you had read on 'spanish reggae' way back when ;)
http://www.negrophonic.com/words/pivot/e..

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AK () (URL) - ноември 15 2006

It's Banhart, actually (apparently), not Barnhart, Bernhardt, nor Beefheart. One could code him also as a musician from Houston (please see Wikipedia link), along with Billy Gibbons of Z.Z. Top, the Geto Boys, and DJ Screw.

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Oh well, for me, "Da Capo" will always be, more than anything, an album by Love.

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jace (URL) - ноември 15 2006

wayno! i wasnt criticizing Da Capo at all really, just trying to think out loud about 'the ordering of things'. it struck me as curious how some stuff can easily be collected under the banner of 'best' while in other areas that would seem completely inappropriate.

Da Capo MUST be good, since it contains the BEST SPANISH REGGAE AKA REGGAETON PIECE I've EVER read in it, (en cualquier idioma!) that statement is superlative but its hyperbole free; in fact your inclusion in there makes me think that they know whats up, although unfortunately i havent had time to read the other stuff yet.

also funny how times have changed in the few years since Chang's critique -- the very first line of the publisher's description (linked above) is "Whether you count yourself a member of the hip-hop nation..." which suggests to me both the editors and the marketing division has gotten hip to hiphop.

i only wish Da Capo had a spanish-language editor -- in my excited haste as commentor, i misspelled the spanish word for 'wisdom' (sabiduria), an error which survives intact, alas, in book form. -- Jimmy Wisdumb

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jc - ноември 15 2006

thanks AK, Davinche Beefheart mizspellings corrected. I'd fire the MuddUp editor but I dont think he exists.

re: Houston -- isn't Texas (along with CA, Hawaii, and one other) a state where whites are now the minority too? jus sayin'.

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billy g - ноември 15 2006

"re: Houston -- isn't Texas (along with CA, Hawaii, and one other) a state where whites are now the minority too? jus sayin'."

I think that stat is truth. but the artsy Williamsburg apartment (are you sure it isn't a "loft")?

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hal () - ноември 15 2006

I'm not sure if your complaint is more with the title's claim of superlativity, or the idea of omniscient scope, or the issue of subjectivity... probably all of these things. Well, c'mon, it's [just] marketing. There's a whole series of these things by writing format and/or genre - Best American Short Stories 2006, Best Essays 2006... they'd like us to take it literally, but it's a brand.
I've bought a volume or two of this book, and I've enjoyed it, though I can certainly get behind Jeff Chang's concerns, and have passed on it several times because I didn't have a lot of faith in the scope of the guest editor's view. But of course the scope of the contents will be less than infinite. The annuality imposes an arbitrary timeframe right off. Some accountant imposes an arbitrary page count (or would a half-length book be "The Best Best Music Writing"?). And then some guest editor known for (probably) something other than music writing has a hand in choosing the stuff. So the promise of the title is subjective. But they have some time to consider the prospective content, and I have to think there's not much commercial pressure on what to include or exclude. Everything's already been published, and there's minimal competition for reprinting.
Anyway, as far as what's in there, the books I read were hardly straight-up criticism. There's biography, interview, and memoir. I've enjoyed it because for I'm a nerd for music-related info, and I've dug reading about things I've never heard, about musicians whose art I don't like, and sometimes about music fans and their fandom. That it's writing, removed from the format of music itself, actually gives the book the space that you seem skeptical to allow. There could be some pretty cool dancing to some music that you hate.

Uh, that might be the point for me to stop at.

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jc - ноември 15 2006

"I'm not sure if your complaint is more with the title's claim of superlativity, or the idea of omniscient scope, or the issue of subjectivity.." actually its none of those things -- no complaint, esp. not with Da Capo! (i mean, beyond the fact that MY CHECK HASNT ARRIVED YET).

just questions, and basic ones at that, about the nature of superlatives across different types of expression -- the Da Capo got me started thinking about it but i could have used other things, like those Best American Short Stories series you mention.

I could have written the post from another angle -- asking people to imagine what a Best Music of 2006 CD would or should be like...

i was trying to point out how its not *just* marketing since a 'Best Music' CD would be unmarketable, unbrandable at that level (without at least throwing in genre). the fact that it would be unmarketable while a 'Best Music Writing' book is successfully marketed makes me wonder about why that might be. perhaps the answer isnt very interesting!

and yes, "There could be some pretty cool dancing to some music that you hate."

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[Blackmail] (URL) - ноември 17 2006

You may not recall the article, but Christian Hoard's Village Voice review of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was something of a revelation in this regard. He treated Wilco like just another band within pop, noting that it wouldn't mean very much to bhangra fans, etc. I found it refreshing to read someone who wasn't [David] Fricke-ing out about it.

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jb (URL) - ноември 17 2006

"You wouldn't buy a "Best Music 2006" CD for at least 2 reasons. First: because
you probably wouldn't like most of the music on it. Music fans divide up the world
of sound by genre, geography, scene, sound, and so on -- only after everything
else has been whittled down do 'best' considerations i.e. 'this band is better
than that band' enter into it. 'Best' is -- at best! -- a secondary category of
music appreciation.

isn't "Music Writing" some kind of (general) division of writing, like reggaeton one of music?
ie. wouldn't the music analogue of "Best Music Writing 2006" be "Best Reggaeton 2006"?
"Best Music Writing 2006" becomes marketable because it is broken down into a category, from a writing point of view. Who would buy a collection of just "Best Writing"?

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jc - ноември 17 2006

yes, exactly -- but while music writing is a genre of writing, isnt it attempting to tackle 'music' as its subject? i think one could claim music writing is an extension of music itself almost as easily as saying that it's simply a critical genre of writing in general. almost.
of course you're right-- it's "broken down into a category, from a writing point of view".

i was trying to put that into tension with the idea of music writing as an endeavor potentially as cultural 'big' as music itself (from a music point of view), writing as a reaction to music and not quite a tidy category of writing anymore. abstract thoughts... not too important, really.. probably better to talk about Newsom!

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AK () (URL) - ноември 17 2006

I was perusing the new wares for sale at turntablelab.com, and I was chuffed to see that they had a record with "Strictly the Best of 2007"! (Please see link) Apparently, all the best music of 2007 will be reggae-based, and one of the songs is by Movado. So forward-looking!

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stricktly the jest (URL) - ноември 17 2006

'Strictly the Best' only deal in Reggae....

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Bob (URL) - ноември 17 2006

Regarding the analysis of "white music," do you really think its a practical critical framework to employ at this time? I agree in theory--treating minority artists as if they're subject to these demographic/social forces, and then implying that white artists have complete agency by not discussing these things at all, is a bad double standard. And it's also dishonest to the subject matter, we could learn a lot more about freak folk and death metal if we talked about whiteness.

BUT do you think that minority positions in the music industry are secure enough that we can start talking about the importance of whiteness? I don't know, I just think the rhetoric could be misinterpreted, and thus do some damage. These artists' whiteness might just be a subconscious racism--while I know some of these artists may appreciate minority cultures but simply chose to pursue the more, uh, "white" path, I'm also pretty sure that some are creating music in opposition to the minorities, or at least in dismissal of minorities . Plus, what is the value really of this reactionary isolationism?

I think that this sort of framework can be used in certain circles (like this one), but if it ever were to find its way into mainstream music crit, a la Da Capo, I'm afraid it would just justify a bunch of hipster bro-dudes to keep on with their Motorhead-schtick and completely ignore/dismiss rap, reggaeton, etc.. Maybe in a more enlightened, hopefully not too distant, future.

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[mosca] - ноември 17 2006

think it was elvis costello who first said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. fair point i guess. it gets to me when music writing (generally reviews) is much better than the music itself. but it sells units baby.

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dacks () (URL) - ноември 18 2006

good post, Rupture. these are subjects which are often on my mind.

one suggestion - why not just have a Da Capo DJ showdown? let's see if critics can put together a music, non-literary representation of what they consider to be 'the best' or their favourites of the year. one should be able to make one's POV(and biases) about music clear by attempting to link music together in a coherent, or at least interesting, flow. then the dancers decide, just like on American Bandstand.

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AK () (URL) - ноември 18 2006

According to this sensibly-written web-page (please see URL link), Elvis Costello may have said it for publication first, but he doesn't think that he originated it, and might have reiterated it from something that Martin Mull (painter/songwriter/actor) had said. Dancing about architecture is not necessarily absurd, in my view, or at least any more absurd than dancing about swans, or toys that come to life. One need just look at the work of Anna Halprin to see that DAA is possible, and possibly useful.

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P.S. Speaking of architecture, it is interesting to note that both the Da Capo Caper and Reggaeton Megawattage, the piece that discussed and big-upped Wayne Marshall's reggaeton piece both refer to walls and the possibility of walking through them or eliminating them.

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jc - ноември 18 2006

aside: dancing to architecture makes sense to me. it has since i first heard that quote (mis-attributed to Eno i think). architecture is all about the inhabited space, bodies in motion, volume, etc -- a building is in large part its lived uses, and dance seems a neat way of condensing & expressing that.

then again, writing about music makes sense to me too...!

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Sluggo () - ноември 19 2006

Give a thought to us writers, friends. We're working in the trenches of a moribund art, because, well, it's a calling, ain't it? And some of us who write about music don't always get the assignments we'd like, etc.--and even more weirdly, sometimes the best writing turns out to be about some kind or example of music we're normally less passionate about than others. (It's often hardest of all to write about what you truly love.) And all these collections are subjective, selections made by one human with blind spots and allergies. And above all, they're fundamentally *much* *more* about writing than they are about music.

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[mosca] - ноември 21 2006

AK- yeh i read that article as well, but regardless of the first person to say it, my point was the actual quote, which i took to imply that DAA was LIKE WAM- not that either was particularly absurd or impossible, but drawing a humorous comparison between the two. i think it just simply bolsters the fact that there's a divide between all four arts. if you agree with sluggo, it's 'fundamentally *much* *more* about writing than they are about music.' personally sluggo- i totally get you on average music as occasional catalyst for above-average writing, but doesn't this just underline the quote?

i guess if you think about it D and A are two very primitive human concepts so yeh it does make a degree of sense. maybe WADAA is where we went wrong...

coffee-fuelled p.s. think it might have been dave tompkins who used to write hiphop (sorry HipHop) reviews for the wire which were, to be honest, at times almost incomprehensible but inspiring to read. thing was, the wire used to review some distinctinctly under-par hiphop, regardless of blind spots and allergies, getting me all worked up over, i dunno, black-eyed peas or summat...

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AJ - ноември 21 2006

Without googling i am positive that "dancing about architecture" was Zappa. If his intention was also to illustrate the absurdity of music criticism then i think his sentiment when coupled with his frequentely expressed (and dated) hatred of disco means he is too biased to take seriously. He'd clearly benefit from a posthumous education on the joys of PARTY in what could well be a wretched hive of scum and villiany with an environment specific grime / reggaeton / bailefunk /breakcore (etc.) soundtrack which is probably just angrier disco twenty years later anyway. Frank may hate music writing but unfortunately i fear he hated dancing too, so for this i say screw him. As for the current middle class whiteman garage punk 3-chord myth making bullshit at least we have Lil Jon's Bad Brains T-Shirt to inspire us in a way that the a thousand emaciated kids posing with fender jaguars and CBGB tops never will. (myself included) What i'm desperately trying to eke out of my tiny little mind here is that the links between all these cross genre / race / geographical complexities is too much for any overworked music writer to comprehend..... whether you're Frank Zappa or some scumbag hack, and the only 'best of' is the one that exists inside your own head........

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Matos W.K. () (URL) - ноември 21 2006

I actually disagree about "Best Music 2006" CDs because comps like that proliferate widely. They just don't say "Best"--they say "Hits." DJ mix CDs certainly have a place there too. Of course, the thing I miss most about my old job as a weekly music editor is asking a dozen people to make their own "Best Music 2006" mix-CDs for the year-end issue.

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lefty leftentant - ноември 23 2006

i ain't read these comments yet but the juxtaposition of "joanna newsom" and "reggaeton" - which i presume is a rare one outside of spambot test recombination tanks - compels me to link to some fellows i know who made a massive mash up of them two available at: http://www.certifiedbananas.com/exclusiv..

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Cam - ноември 28 2006

Interesting discussions are going on here, but I believe that an important fact about the Da Capo "Best Music" series is missing.

That whole series is about the "best" music writing ACCORDING to the edition's editor and celebrity guest editor. It works by having Da Capo's editor select several articles all published in a particular year and then present them to the guest editor who then picks his or her favorite pieces. Obviously, everything is completely subjective. I mean, most of guest editor/Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart's picks mainly dealt with country and blues (suprise).My favorite Da Capo "Best" book was when Dave Eggers guest-edited the "2002 Best Non-required Reading" book and had a writing class of kids pick their favorite articles.

My complaints about the "Best Music Writing" series is lack of online and underground zine articles (where the best music journalism now stand,) and the dominance of pieces from mainstream rags and the usual suspects like Greil Marcus, Lorraine Ali, Joy Press, Christgau, etc.

Anyhow, has there ever been a "best of" list or music compilation that made everyone happy? I mean, come on.

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