Although I actually quite like Jet, I enjoyed reading this despairing cry from some anonymous critic, written directly onto a poster for Jet’s new album, Shine On.
This band is boring. If their music was an exam paper they’d fail on grounds of plagiarism. doesn’t anyone listen to the Stooges anymore? c’mon people!I’m quite sure I couldn’t count the times I’ve whined something similar while sitting around watching Rage on a Saturday morning, bemoaning the state of contemporary popular music.
I particularly like the “C’mon people!”; as though he sees our potential and knows we can do better; knows we can find a world of passion, authenticity and originality just beyond this veil of carbon-copy mediocrity, if only we’d stretch out and try.
Well, I haven’t heard Jet’s new album, but if, as rumoured, their sound has been heavily influenced by their recent touring companions, Oasis (and speaking of plagiarism), then things can surely only be looking good! Hehe.
And notice how the first line is in texta, while the rest is in pen? I find that curious. A bold heading with some copy in a regular weight is not the sort of detail you’d expect for some hastily scrawled graffiti. I wonder what it says, if anything, about the person who penned it?
Posts
Am I being too cynical when I think "viral marketing" ? As you say, the bold headline followed by normal weight text raises the suspicion that someone professional was involved somewhere...
ReplyDeleteSo who's commissioning the VM? The Stooges? (Who are they, anyway?) Jet? Both?
The Stooges were Iggy Pop’s first band. Which is what makes me suspect they’re not responsible. If Iggy was involved, the text would have been written in blood or peanut butter.
ReplyDeleteCould it be possible that one person wrote the 'This band is Boring' then some poor student (must be a student comparing things to exam papers) who think that their opinion is right and all else should follow, pet hate of mine... followed up with the rant in pen?
ReplyDeleteChoice people! Just because some looser who prefers to scream their opinion on others posters, does not mean that the band should not exist. Perhaps they are worried that the choice which Jet is providing people is being liked more people than they think should... and why should they think that X number of people listening to this group is bad.
I get frustrated by opinionated people, just because ones tastes differ from those of their own.
Max - I know you know Iggy because he's good friends with your mate, Tom Waits!
ReplyDelete(Triple J and CK, click that link at your peril. Re-viewing a scene from Coffee & Cigarettes might finish you off this time.) :-)
Bomber, I think you might be on to something there with your two author theory. Looking closer, the two samples of text have a number of differences beyond just texta and pen. These differences include style (block/cursive); quality (messy/less messy); dots on the ‘i’s (missing/present); and tone (superficial/nostalgic). Which just makes it all the stranger for me, though. That two people felt compelled to express their feeling publicly by writing directly onto a poster in the street. Very odd.
ReplyDeleteAnd Bomber, I reckon that music’s no different to food, in that there’s fast-food and there’s gourmet food, and once you’ve had the best, you wonder why so many, many people content themselves with the worst. Sure, there’s a place for the Junior Burger, but not for every freakin’ meal! C'mon people! :-)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bomber. There's a difference between having an opinion and thinking that your opinion needs to be shared with the unwashed masses.
ReplyDeleteThe second block of text is most likely written by some student that thinks that because he listens to music recorded before he was born - by a band few people his age have heard of - he is somehow better than those shallow, mediocre losers who make up the rest of the population of this cruel, cruel world which is an unfair and unbearably harsh place for sensitive individuals with sophisticated tastes in music.
I am willing to bet that black clothing is involved.
In fact, reading that illegible scrawl, I could hear TISM's "Morrison Hotel" playing softly in the background, and my mind was cast back to my time at Xavier College where - I can assure you - I knew more than a few Kents.
Troph, I'm also not convinced that the graffiti was the result of two hands. Sure, there are differences in style between the two; but there are also differences in - for example - the way the same letters are formed even within each block of text.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that the differences between the two blocks can't be put down to the difference between writing with a pen and writing with a marker pen. (I also wrote more than one essay in my schooldays in cursive with a non-cursive heading at the top.)
But, granting for the moment that it was the work of two people...
Which just makes it all the stranger for me, though. That two people felt compelled to express their feeling publicly by writing directly onto a poster in the street. Very odd.
Not odd at all, I would have thought. The second person feels able to chime in with his less profound, more opinionated, less pithy and more self-important drivel only because the first person has broken the taboo...
Troph, the problem with the food analogy is that none of the music being discussed here even comes close to being gourmet food.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between Jet and The Stooges is the difference between a Junior Burger and a Quarter Pounder.
Even if we could reach a consensus on which is which, we're still well short of pate du fois gras. (Which only makes the lack of perspective demonstrated by our graffitazzi all the funnier.)
Bomber the person/people that wrote on the poster aren't telling the audience to follow their mindset. Neither are they saying Jet should not exist.
ReplyDeleteMax, I read the comment the same way Bomber did. The writer is at the very least annoyed by the fact that his personal, subjective, opinions are not shared by more people.
Me, I like music by Cold Chisel, Frank Sinatra, Nirvana and Johnny Cash, among others.
Oddly enough, I don't feel the need to go out and anonymously scribble this information on posters for Radiohead, Oasis, Coldplay or other bands that leave me cold but that I know lots of other people like.
Amen Brother JJ. Agree 100% with you on this one. Good TISM reference also.
ReplyDeleteAnd Max, I know your opinions and tastes, if we have a discussion together, sharing what you like is not opinionated... but writing them on a wall, pleading with all who read it to see the light is.
"I'm also not convinced that the graffiti was the result of two hands."
ReplyDeleteNo, neither am I. The 'n's in particular seem distinctive and (relatively) consistent (see 'band' and 'doesn't'), and the open 'b's and 'p's in both lines also suggest the one writer. Although, why writing at a larger size would make you forget the dots on your 'i's, is beyond me.
"I'm not sure that the differences between the two blocks can't be put down to the difference between writing with a pen and writing with a marker pen."
I think they'd stem from the size at which the person is writing, not from the implement they're using.
"(I also wrote more than one essay in my schooldays in cursive with a non-cursive heading at the top.)"
Well, top marks for presentation, Triple J, but this is not a school essay submitted for marking, so I don't think your analogy holds.
"Which just makes it all the stranger for me, though. That two people felt compelled to express their feeling publicly by writing directly onto a poster in the street. Very odd."
"Not odd at all, I would have thought. The second person feels able to chime in ... only because the first person has broken the taboo..."
Well if it's so natural and everyday, surely TWO people breaking the taboo would've opened the floodgates and the poster would've been covered with criticism? One following the other might be expected behind the locked door of a public toilet perhaps, but I'd still maintain that scrawling on a wall in full view of passers-by is another thing altogether. The Berlin Wall a Jet poster is not.
"In fact, reading that illegible scrawl..."
ReplyDeleteCan't have been too illegible then. :-)
"...I could hear TISM's "Morrison Hotel" playing softly in the background."
Ha, ha. So true. Now, if the person had written, "Jet. Boys. You're a crock of shit!" across the poster, that would've been gold! (And sorry, but it'd be remiss of me not to point out it's 'Hostel,' not 'Hotel'.) :-)
"Troph, the problem with the food analogy is that none of the music being discussed here even comes close to being gourmet food."
ReplyDeleteI know. I wasn't applying it to this situation; I was making the point that I could relate to the attitude behind the message, as I am constantly amazed that so many people are so into so much crap.
"Max, I read the comment the same way Bomber did. The writer is at the very least annoyed by the fact that his personal, subjective, opinions are not shared by more people."
So do you all think there is or isn't objectively 'good' and objectively 'bad' music? Is everything relative and purely subject to taste, so that good music is whatever you happen to believe is good music?
Because I have no problem saying that the music of Thelonious Monk is BETTER than that of, for example, the Young Divas, and that there is a clear difference in value between the derivative, insubstantial fluff of the Divas and the challenging, complex, extraordinary genius of Monk. I'm not going to go and scrawl, "Seriously, you airheads, why are you not checking out Thelonious Monk," on a Diva's poster, (you'd probably not be able to read it anyway) but I believe it nonetheless, and I think it's a shame so many set their satisfaction levels so low. Does that make me a snob? An elitist? If so, then put me with good old Robert Hughes:
"When I say I’m an elitist, I don’t mean I’m an elitist in the social sense. You know, I don’t believe in, you know, social snobbery or any of that stuff but I do mean simply that I’m one of that class of people who prefers well-made things to badly-made things, who prefers articulate speech to mumbling. All those kind of skills and capacities add up for me to elitism. You know, it’s a preference for the best you can do or get."
Nice. :-)
Can we make objective judgments about food, even though taste is mostly subjective? Can we say a McHappy Meal would not prove to be a superior dinner to Crisp Roasted Duckling with caramelised quinces and rosemary flavoured roasting juices? A supertaster might not think so, but surely there’d not be many others? And if we grant that, might not it also be possible to make objective judgments about music?
ReplyDeleteAnd further, if someone had eaten nothing but Junior Burgers and dry Weet-Bix for their whole life, is it wrong to want to introduce them to the wonders of international cuisine? Wouldn’t we be doing them a favour?
Hmm, what is the sound of one keyboard tapping?
ReplyDeleteI think they'd stem from the size at which the person is writing, not from the implement they're using.
ReplyDeleteWe quibble over terms. The point is that the different styles do not necessarily indicate a different hand.
Although, the size of the writing is itself at least partially dictated by the implement, surely? I mean, letters written with a marker pen would need to be larger and more spaced out to remain legible.
Well, top marks for presentation, Triple J, but this is not a school essay submitted for marking, so I don't think your analogy holds.
Analogy? I wasn't making an analogy, just observing that using different styles for header and body is hardly unusual.
And surely the point of teaching the little bastards how to write documents with headers, layout and suchlike is so that they'll do it correctly when writing letters (or graffiti) in later life.
Well if it's so natural and everyday, surely TWO people breaking the taboo would've opened the floodgates and the poster would've been covered with criticism?
Ah, the fallacy of the excluded middle rears its ugly head...
Ha, ha. So true. Now, if the person had written, "Jet. Boys. You're a crock of shit!" across the poster, that would've been gold!
ReplyDeleteI think you misunderstand.
I wasn't trying to identify the scrawler with the declaimer of Morrison Hostel (thank you for the correction); rather, the scrawler is Kent from Xavier College; although it's Iggy Pop rather than Jimbo who he elevates to the level of William Blake.
It was confirmed at Lunch today... Habby wrote it!
ReplyDelete"Although, the size of the writing is itself at least partially dictated by the implement, surely? I mean, letters written with a marker pen would need to be larger and more spaced out to remain legible."
ReplyDeleteNot this large. The writing done by pen was large enough that you could have traced over it with the texta with no loss of legibility.
"Analogy? I wasn't making an analogy, just observing that using different styles for header and body is hardly unusual."
So, because you did it on your essays at school, it's common?
"Well if it's so natural and everyday, surely TWO people breaking the taboo would've opened the floodgates and the poster would've been covered with criticism?"
"Ah, the fallacy of the excluded middle rears its ugly head..."
Well, given your own logical fallacy: I did it, therefore it's "hardly unusual," I guess you'd know.
"Ha, ha. So true. Now, if the person had written, "Jet. Boys. You're a crock of shit!" across the poster, that would've been gold!"
ReplyDelete"I think you misunderstand."
No, no; I was just agreeing that you were right to recall Morrison Hostel, and then made a different point. Perhaps I should have started a new para for my "Jet. Boys..." bit?
"It was confirmed at Lunch today... Habby wrote it!"
ReplyDeleteOh no! Ugly heads are rearing up everywhere! Run for your lives! Bomber, just because Ahab and our anonymous critic feel the same way about Jet, it doesn't therefore mean that Ahab is our anonymous critic!
And I might also note that as he acquired the album through means whereby he didn't sacrifice money for it, and as we tend to value more highly the things that we pay for, his poor review doesn't carry much weight. :-)
Don't be silly. You were there... You heard the confirmation. Accept that this baby can be put to bed and move on.
ReplyDeleteTell us something about Connex... something about the text message you received when the copper wires were removed by gangs making the most of the increased copper price...
I must admit, I had to laugh at this one. Working in the mining industry I am up to my elbows in copper sales and copper pricing. The way it was reported was that the price had doubled over night and that copper wire was in shortage. Not quite case. Amusing for us in the know however.
Bomber, you really do enjoy hearing about Connex, don't you? What I can tell you is that I received four text messages from them on the morning of the Great Copper Crisis, but none of them did me any good as I'd left my mobile at home. Can't blame Connex for that one, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, the first two were general warnings that Epping and Hurstbridge trains would be experiencing delays, but said nothing about ALL trains going no further than Clifton Hill. The third message told me my train had been cancelled, even though it hadn't, and even if it had, the message arrived 37 minutes after the train was scheduled to leave. The fourth message arrived at 9:22 to tell me everything was back to normal, although by that stage I'd already walked to work from Clifton Hill. Hilarious.
See, that is a blog entry in itself! I wonder what Connex next add is going to be? No more giant chickens... just gang youths electrocuting themselves on power lines as they attempt to wrestle them off their attachments...
ReplyDelete