Apparently on one of the many shows with which Ryan Seacrest is associated, he features what he calls Green Room performances by popular acts. I happened upon this clip of Vampire Weekend performing their first hit, ‘A-Punk,’ in that setting.
I really love the music these guys make, though I can understand the urge some people have to punch them in the face. They’re just so cute and preppy and precious. A bunch of hyper-literate Ivy League types playing African-influenced chamber pop… yeah, that sounds like a group that needs to get their asses kicked.
But I like them all the more because they embrace that image unapologetically. I mean, don’t we need trust fund musicians just as much as we need rastafarians, punk rockers, metalheads and Lilith Fair types? I’ll make allowances for a little WASP-rock when the music is this good.
The Hudson River all filled with snow
She spied the ring on his honor’s finger
Oh oh oh
A thousand years in one piece of silver
She took it from his lily white hand
Showed no fear she’d seen the thing
In the young men’s wing at Sloan-Kettering
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say oh!
His honor drove southward seeking exotica
Down to the Pueblo huts of New Mexico
Cut his teeth on turquoise harmonicas
Oh oh oh
I saw Johanna down in the subway
She took an apartment in Washington Heights
Half of the ring lies here with me
But the other half’s at the bottom of the sea
Meet Me In Montauk 
So who else would you lump into this hyper-literate category? Any white guy who sings something other than pop music? Sting? Ben Folds? Paul Simon? They didn’t all attend Ivy League universities but clearly they share the qualities that might earn these guys a punch in the face. Natalie Merchant? Or does she belong in another category because she is a woman? Do you have to be white to be in this group? Or could Seal or John Legend potentially get their asses kicked, too?
I know you didn’t mean to start a whole discussion about categorization (or maybe you did!), but I find the whole notion to be offensive on so many levels. They’re good musicians, writing and playing the kind of music that interests them. Why do they deserve to be punched in the face for that?
I get what Clay is saying, as I am the one amongst us most often calling out certain artists, hell people, as pretentious. But, as someome (Clay, I think) once pointed out to me, being pretentious generally includes “pretending” to be something you are not, or, even if you are naturally gifted, intelligent or sophisticated, laying it on so thick and purposely so as to be downright obnoxious.
The corollary to this is to say, quite simply, “It ain’t bragging if you can back it up” And so, if you are Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Sting, etc…you get a great deal of leeway with me when the music is so clearly great that they can get away with the hyper-literate references.
With Vampire Weekend, they easily could fall into the “punch in the face” pretentious mold for the reasons you describe–and yet, dammit if they aren’t just REALLY talented–and so while I may have had that fist out and ready to punch when I first heard of them or first listened to thei songs, that fist unraveled once I realized that these guys had the chops to back up the hype.
But if you want to see that fist tighten up….just try playing some more of that jackass Morrissey:)
Dana articulated what I’m getting at quite nicely.
And I would pay to see a fistfight between him and Morrissey!
okay, okay… but do you ever want to punch a black male or white or black female musician in the face for the same reason? Is this an anti-white man thing as much as it is anything else?
Well, first of all, I said that “some people” have the urge to punch them in the face. I didn’t say that I do. On the contrary, I’ve always been fully in Vampire Weekend’s corner.
But I’ve seen quite a lot of vitriol aimed at them for the reasons I mentioned in this post and I admit that I can understand where those people are coming from. I can see where similar derision aimed at Morrissey and Belle and Sebastian comes from as well, though I don’t share it in those cases either.
Now, all three of those examples are white men, but there are certainly countless white men who don’t elicit that sort of response. Are you asking if one has to be a white man in addition to all that other stuff to become a target? I don’t know. I think most artists like that are white men, but most artists in general are white men.
As for non-white men who are potentially ripe for slapping, these come to mind:
Tori Amos
Stew
Alanis Morrisette
Joanna Newsom
Kanye West
Thank you.
And who the hell is Joanna Newsom?
She’s an indie musician who puts out 3-disc albums played almost entirely on the harp.
Oh, yeah….fist is tightening ready to belt Newsom!:)
I believe Prince was similarly criticized as being smug and pretentious back in the day, and I’m sure he didn’t help matters when he changed his name to a symbol.
But yes, generally, it is harder (or at least less common) to be viewed as a preppy smug artist if you are from a historically repressed group, whether it be a woman or black person.
I so wanted to punch Prince when he did that! Great example, Dana.