a word here if you don't mind

Okay here is the deal. Our new cool hip Internet-driven bloggy-mountain-breakdown everyone-is-a-critic thing is great in theory but it has led to a very strange dynamic in terms of rockism.

Oh crap now I have to define rockism. I'm going to say here that it means this: "The notion that that music appreciation, no matter the genre, has to follow a 'rock aesthetic'; to wit: 1) music is best if it is somehow 'authentic' and 'real'; 2) that there are certain records or songs that form an accepted and acceptable canon that just about everyone agrees on; 3) that records or albums that do not fit this aesthetic are somehow inherently bad; 4) that this all actually matters; 5) that it is okay to think along these lines." I know this is a crummy definition but so what.

So here's my problem: we're all so desperate to avoid this kind of thinking (because we're modern don't you know, we're hip and happening, future moving a mile a minute etc.) that we have no patience anymore for the transitional record. Case in point: the new Over the Rhine record, due out in March. I like this record and will be reviewing it, but it only makes sense in the most gross "rockist" terms: a.k.a.: it tells the story, basically, of the couple that makes up this band,and how they have decided to save their relationship by scaling back their ambitions, it's a whole re-connection to each other thing, etc. NONE OF WHICH will make any sense to people who don't know that they're married to each other, that they almost broke through to a big audience last year, that they almost broke up in the course of their tour, etc.

We used to care about details like this: this song must be to this ex-girlfriend, this sound is a new one struggling for air so we thought we'd try it out for a bit, this album mourns a war that the singer hates, etc. Now these biographical / career-history details are irrelevant. It's all about PLEASE US NOW, ENTERTAIN US, knives out, worst.album.ever, etc. Maybe this is a good thing, in fact probably. But I'm going to miss growing along with a band, judging records by earlier sounds and efforts (without being beholden to the past or anything), being able to appreciate something using my memory instead of just my snap critical judgment WHICH IS ALWAYS RIGHT etc.

Oh well. C'est la vie.