[Severian]

Originally Posted by guest

but severian doesn't your being so insecure about this stuff at least to some degree highlight the issue? like half the time I do this for a piss-up, but I think speaking truthfully something like nine inch nails is (to me) so ideologically antithetical to not only a band like sonic youth but indeed so much of the stuff you post about on here

Hmm. Well. I see where you're coming from, and certainly I do come from a kind of "punk" background and philosophy which has informed a lot of my views about music today. But... man... I'm not an ideologue. My main thing about music is this: If it makes my brain feel good, fuck everything else.

it's a dilution and commodification of that sense of 'outsider'-dom/alienation which strips the power from that form o' expression, and for someone to whom that element of singularity is so fucking central in enjoying music and who in some cases has taste that lines up with your own I'm sort of bemused by how we can be drawn to the same thing for such different reasons

Ok, well... listen man. Good for you and stuff, but "'outsider'-dom/alienation" is absolutely not "fucking central" to MY "enjoying music."

Fucking hell man... I'm closing in on 40. This isn't high school. I don't even remember high school.

You know what I listen to a fuck ton of? Unwound, Keiji Haino, Vladislav Delay, Fennesz, Fugazi, yeah... all of these... Know what else I listen to?

Fucking "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes. Seriously. Love it. I love some LAME ASS SHIT. Some horrifyingly poppy music that is as far from cool, alienated punk as you can get.

I also have a thing for Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan (some, anyway), certain RRALLY lame McCartney solo albums (have you ever heard Flowers in the Dirt? No? Welcome to the world. But it's got some bangers).

I have my "core" musical identity, but I also just love music. At this point in my life it has nothing to do with sensibilities, philosophies, etc. I know... Thurston would think I'm a dick. Actually I don't think he would, but yeah -- this whole "alienation being crucial to the way you enjoy music" thing is a way in which we are entirely different.

Did you forget that Kanye West is pretty much my favorite current artist? I listen to TONS of music that is diametrically opposed to TONS of other music I listen to.

Again, if the music makes my brain feel good, all is well. Doesn't mean I'll listen to Twenty one Pilots or whatever, but I'm not going to deny my ears and brain pleasure on some dated need to be an outsider. Fuck that.

like I might listen to a lot of broad music but I think it's bound by something, some sort of purity.

That sounds incredibly naïve to me, and a bit pretentious. But whatever floats your boat, man.

Nin's cover of Trent and Pigface's "Suck" is a synth rock storm. Sorry you don't like it, but I already explained that I liked it when I was young, and it stuck with me. Surely you understand nostalgia. Not that that's all it is that keeps me interested in NIN.