Seriously, Why Do People Make Fun of the Decemberists?

According to Rolling Stone, their new record is "a twisty, fantastical story about a woman named Margaret who is ravaged by a shape-shifting animal; her lover, William, who is desperate for the two of them to be reunited; a forest queen; and a villainous rake."

How is this bad? What is wrong with people?

Why Progress is Hard

Katy Perry is on the cover of Out Magazine's "People of the Year" issue, presumably on the merits of "I Kissed a Girl," despite its portrayal of homosexuality as a viable way for a woman to piss off an ex-boyfriend / increase her chances of snagging a new one. And despite its portrayal of homosexuality as an act of rebellion. And despite it's assertion that homosexuality is "not what good girls do."

Richard Lawson wrote about it at Gawker, and he makes some fine points:

Sure, OK, Out isn't exactly the arbiter of gay culture it sometimes seems to fancy itself, but still! The bulk of the little bit on Perry is pretty praising (though they do at least mention the fact that some gay activists aren't happy with the song or Ms. Perry—who also has a song called "Ur So Gay" about a po-mo/homo ex-boyfriend who like, drinks wine and drives a hybrid) and that, I think, is pretty embarrassing for the magazine. Harmless fun is only fun when it's, well, harmless. This kind of co-opting of a hard-fought cause does, I suspect, do some damage.

Both of her geigh-themed ditties are kind of "jokes" in that way where they actually aren't jokes at all but the problem is that people who are smart enough to "get" "it" (common idiots, out of work chimps) are also smart enough to, you know, not like her music. It's her impressionable teeny bop fan girls who I worry about. I worry, frankly, that when they are of age... they will go wild.

I wonder if we're maybe giving Katy Perry a little too much credit as a comedian here -- just because non-idiots have to laugh at something in order to keep from jumping off a bridge doesn't necessarily mean it's a joke. 

UPDATE: Oh man, I just read the article in Out. Here's my favorite part:

"Yet even after a year of fielding tough questions about the divisive singles, Perry maintains she is simply espousing self-exploration and open-mindedness. 'I think certain parts of the world—especially in the U.S.—are just dying to be offended,' she says. 'I get a lot of journalists in Europe who are like, ‘What's the big deal? People are OK with hip-hop videos, where there are strippers and drugs and gangs and guns, when you're singing about an innocent kiss?' I'm aware of people's opinions, but it won't change how I express myself as an artist.'

You're right, Katy. Between "I Kissed a Girl" and "Ur So Gay," you're really making us search long and hard for something to be offended by. 

Most People are (Bad) DJs

Someone in my office just put the Strokes' First Impressions of the Earth on the stereo. We made fun of him, obviously, with cries of "TOO SOON!!!!" and "Whoa, this sounds like Television!" But I've always liked this record a lot more than most people. Probably just because of this verse, from "On the Other Side,' though:

"I hate them all, I hate them all.

I hate myself, for hating them.

So I'll drink some more. 

I'll love them all. 

Then I'll drink some more. 

I'll hate them even more than I did before."

Aw, Julian, you're alright in my book. even still.

I Was a Skeptic at First, But These Miracles Work

I'm going to fulfill all of my deep, dark, rockist fantasies tonight, when I go see the Hold Steady and the Drive-By Truckers at Terminal 5. At other shows on the tour, they've been doing a joint encore, and they've reportedly done covers of Jim Carroll's "People Who Died"  and "Burnin' For You" by Blue Oyster Cult. Either of these would be fine, but I'm holding out hope for "Rockin' in the Free World," because, duh. 

For the first time since I college, I just made a list of all the records I want to buy. I remember when I used to carry one around all the time, badly creased from being in my wallet for so long, and covered in illegible scribbling -- things like, "Pavement -- Watery something?" or, my personal favorite, "Dylan -- Ten of Swords," as if I was just going to stumble upon the $1,000 collector's gem at the local Tower Records or something. Idiot. Anyway, like I said, I just made another list, but this time it's in an impeccably designed Word document, which I emailed to myself so I can always have it on my iPhone. I'm supposed to be mourning the loss of some sort of innocence, I think, but I absolutely am not. 

Lee Hazelwood: Bored

My favorite part of this video of Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra doing "Summer Wine," from the super-awesome Nancy and Lee album, happens at about 40 seconds in. No human being has ever been less enthused while singing the words, "whoa, whoa!" But then again, I guess it's to be expected, considering a strange woman just got him drunk and stole his spurs and some cash. 

Flyover Rock: Now a Real Thing?

In response to Marc Hogan's succinct, insightful blog post about Ann Powers' LA Times piece on what she's calling "Flyover Rock" (defined loosely as the rock music that's voraciously consumed by middle-America: Nickelback, Daughtry, David Cook, Puddle of Mudd, etc.), Idolator's Mike Barthel asks the question, "Is it ultimately more condescending to dismiss Nickelback because they don't sound like the music you like, or to try to appreciate them because that's what 'real people' listen to?"

My answer, in a nutshell, is that neither is particularly condescending. I dismiss Nickelback because I don't like them. Because their songs are informed most obviously by the first wave of post-grunge bands that I also didn't like, albeit for very different, admittedly more personal reasons. And because the production of their records is unpleasant to my ears, over-compressed and far too polished, or, to use a slightly outdated, or at least frowned-upon, term, radio-ready. And because I find the earnest, hyper-emotional delivery of high school-grade poetry to be laughable. 

On the other hand, I also don't really see anything wrong with trying your best to see in this music what so many others see. There's a difference, though, between understanding how others feel and why they feel it, and forcing yourself to feel the same way. 

Here's a snippet from the Idolator post:

Powers writes: "Since the days when former art-school kids the Rolling Stones declared themselves exiled on Main Street, populism has served as a normalizing counterpoint to rock's freaky bohemian tendencies." And that was great when freaky bohemian bands were selling lots of records and getting lots of attention. As Howes [co-writer of hits for Puddle of Mudd, Daughtry, Cook, et al] points out, however, "The people in Middle America seem to still buy records. The other folks -- consumers of what we might as well call "blue-state rock" to be consistent -- don't so much. If all we care about is continuing to hear music that sounds like it's trying to be freaky and bohemian, that's fine. But if we care about music as a cultural force, it's a problem.

Only, again, I don't think it's a problem at all. Just because some music critics don't have any interest in listening to David Cook during their free time, it doesn't mean they're incapable of recognizing and speaking critically about the impact his music has had on the culture as a whole. Now, if they're not willing to engage in that dialogue, then it's a problem. 

So going back to Hogan's initial point (that the glorification of dumbed-down middle-American ideals is about to come to an end in the world of politics, but not in music critic circles) as it relates, in my mind, to the role of the critic, there's nothing wrong with Powers wanting to write this piece -- it's just that it would have been a lot better if she'd considered the possibility that the tunnel-visioned people she was covering were as misguided as the tunnel-visioned media elite she was so willing to let them attack.