have you seen this stephin Merritt article?

[turnbullac]

http://www.slate.com/id/2141421/nav/tap1/

[DrAwkward]

Yup.

[tipcat]

Frere-Jones' rants against SM are typical of the PC crowd. Crap.

[tmidgett]

http://www.slate.com/id/2141421/nav/tap1/

Ah, white guilt.

Hysterical, scattershot, bitchy white guilt at that.

Lastly, I resent being called a journalist. I'm not.

No. Kidding.

[gio]

Wait, are Hopper and Frere-Jones homophobes?

[dabrasha]

Frere-Jones' rants

Worst critic going?

Makes me miss my NYer subscription; I enjoyed my anger at those Frere-Jones' pieces...

[Rimbaud III]

Lastly, I resent being called a journalist. I'm not.

No. Kidding.

She prefers to be credited as a 'textual engineer'.

[clocker bob]

...

[steve]

Flash! Jessica Hopper is a reactionary idiot! Sasha Frere-Jones is a New Yorker critic!

Having had a distaste for hip hop since its earliest days, I have run afoul of this mentality for twenty-odd years. If you are involved in contemporary music, it is presumed that you appreciate hip-hop, or are at least deferential toward it as an arm of black culture.

Since I have no taste for this profoundly stupid genre I have been called a racist on occasion. I am not bothered by this. I know that as a white man in the US I am directly and indirectly benefitting from genuine racism both specific and institutional. I have done so all my life, and I am ashamed of it. There is no uglier part of our culture, and I believe it influences almost everything in the public sphere. It may have had some dilute influence on shaping my tastes unbeknownst to me. I am even ashamed of the possibility of that. This is an attempt by someone else in my position to express and distance himself from this shame, and I understand it.

I have equivalent genre distaste for almost all heavy metal (hip hop's culture-mirror equivalent), pastiche production pop music like Brintey Spears, Beyonce, Avril Lavigne et al, the REM-U2-Radiohead axis of millionaire dabbling, trash auteurs like Outkast, Beck and the Beastie Boys, teenager fake punk, and melismatic divas like Celine Dion. This is less in service of elitism than in making it possible for me to walk directly to the part of the record store where the good records are. I know what kinds of music speak to me the least, so I don't spend my energy combing through them looking for exceptions.

Does this mean I limit myself? Certainly. I don't listen to as much bullshit as other people do. I am happy to carry this limitation. The groaning of the shelves under my record collection indicates that I am not wanting for variety in my listening because I don't own have either a Garth Brooks album or a Kool Keith 12-inch sitting there unlistened-to.

Picking on a tiny Southern queer for his music tastes and calling him a "cracker" is about as stupid as criticism can get.

[clocker bob]

No one who expressed a dislike of polka would ever have to defend his attitudes toward Poles.

[Gramsci]

So in the US liking Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah makes you a racist? I would have thought burning a cross would have been more of an indication.

[sunlore]

His music is witty and tender. He plays the ukulele. He named his Chihuahua after Irving Berlin.

wtf.

[the Classical]

His music is witty and tender. He plays the ukulele. He named his Chihuahua after Irving Berlin.

wtf.

why wtf? My Chihuahua is named after Henry Miller. Naming Chihuahuas after mid-20th Century culutural icons is cool, dawg.

[Ally In Exile]

Picking on a tiny Southern queer for his music tastes and calling him a "cracker" is about as stupid as criticism can get.

yeah, no shit! it's especially ass-backwards given that most hip-hop culture is unabashedly homophobic. also, in addition to being a gay "intellectuall" from the south, Merritt is totally Jewish!

golly gee... i wonder why he doesn't own a cassingle of Brand Nubian's "Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down", or that one Mad Professor record that samples Lewis Farrakhan?

i guess we'll never know.

tards!

[sunlore]

His music is witty and tender. He plays the ukulele. He named his Chihuahua after Irving Berlin.

wtf.

why wtf? My Chihuahua is named after Henry Miller.

Henry "lo behold this enthralling life I lead" Miller?

I repeat, wtf.

[Gramsci]

My friend confused the hell out of a record shop monkey when he brought Bad Brains and Screwdriver at the same time...

[Major]

My friend confused the hell out of a record shop monkey when he brought Bad Brains and Screwdriver at the same time...

What the fuck do you mean by "monkey", cracka??!!

[poolboy]

Jessica Hopper, I think you are the racist here by sort of suggesting that all it takes not to be called one is to publicly approve of a certain musical genre. Hip Hop is, probably like any other, not a unifying genre, even among African Americans. Sorry I have to call you a stupid, ignorant cow.

[geiginni]

His music is witty and tender. He plays the ukulele. He named his Chihuahua after Irving Berlin.

wtf.

why wtf? My Chihuahua is named after Henry Miller. Naming Chihuahuas after mid-20th Century culutural icons is cool, dawg.

Does your Chihuahua refer to his schlong as "John Thursday" too?

[the Classical]

His music is witty and tender. He plays the ukulele. He named his Chihuahua after Irving Berlin.

wtf.

why wtf? My Chihuahua is named after Henry Miller. Naming Chihuahuas after mid-20th Century culutural icons is cool, dawg.

Does your Chihuahua refer to his schlong as "John Thursday" too?

I dunno what he calls it, but I would bet Miller would be jealous of his ability to lick it