Boards
So the Wolf Eyes thread got me thinking.
Even though it's ridiculous to accuse all fans of a band of being scensters, especially when its obvious a lot of people have a great love and appreciation of said band, I could see both sides of the argument.
There does indeed seem to be a certain sect of the underground music scene that places the weirdness and extremity of a band above its musical value. There is a definite sense of a competition to see who can listen to the weirdest music. This is perhaps exemplified by an article in the wire several months ago, the headline was:
'No Melody
No Rhythm
No Compromise'
To be fair that doesn't sound particularly appealing to me, I don't necessarily want both rhythm or melody, but one or the other would be nice. The point is that said headline was fetishising the extremity of the music, rather than saying 'hey this guy makes great music, although it's a bit extreme so some people may not like it' it appeared to be saying 'Whoa this guys so extreme I don’t care what the music sounds like it must be good.'
Now for me the role of music, and art in general, is to overcome the Alienation I feel from society. Now music can achieve this by making want to dance, by making be want to cry, or by making me go 'hey, I feel that too' et cetera. The problem with a lot of noise is that it seems to be doing the exact opposite, it further my alienation, in fact the actual purpose of a sheer wall of noise is usually alienating. So if that's the case why do people listen to such music, what do they take from it? To a certain extent I can appreciate the technical prowess and sheer physicality of such music, but those things can be achieved with emotional content as well, making it all the better. My point, I think, is what role do people see noise music playing; is it the same as other music, or perhaps is it just extremity for extremities stake? DIScuss, preferably with out calling each other names and being cunts.