Jeff Sharlet: "keeping it unreal" - the concept of "authentic" pop music


	Jeff Sharlet: "keeping it unreal" - the concept of "authentic" pop music

enbar

5-16-2007 10:02 PM

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tags:

music, popular_culture, criticism, post:tumblr

enbar says:

Interesting review by TheRevealer.org's Jeff Sharlet of a new book critiquing the concept of "authenticity" in popular music and culture. Most of what we think of as "authentic" (for example, Delta blues) has complex roots and has been carefully shaped for a market.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/3eba3176-526a-4681-95b4-cd8edbe79923/0DBE7092-CA75-458A-B751-46FCFB7A9428/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.newstatesman.com/200704160044" href="http://www.newstatesman.com/200704160044" style="font-size: 11px;">www.newstatesman.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newstatesman.com/200704160044"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.newstatesman.com/img/D84DAA89-2D9F-4662-A0BE-ECC5227DC520" alt="New Statesman" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newstatesman.com/200704160044"><H1 class="size32">Keeping it unreal</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newstatesman.com/200704160044"><P class="size22"><A class="greytext" href="http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/jeff_sharlet">Jeff Sharlet</A></P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newstatesman.com/200704160044">We consider the "primitive" music of blues singers such as Leadbelly to be more authentic than that of the Monkees. But all pop musicians are fakes</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newstatesman.com/200704160044"><P><STRONG>Faking It: the quest for authenticity in popular music</STRONG></P><P>Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor <EM>Faber & Faber, 288pp, £14.99</EM></P><P>ISBN 0571226590</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newstatesman.com/200704160044"><P>Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor, two publishing professionals who have turned out their personal record collections to produce a persuasive defence of inauthenticity as the defining characteristic of great popular music, borrow the title of their book, <EM>Faking It</EM>, from a suicide note - the most authentic, and also the stupidest, genre of all. "The fact is," wrote Nirvana's singer Kurt Cobain shortly before eating the muzzle of a shotgun in 1994, "I can't fool you, any one of you . . . The worst crime I can think of would be to rip people off by <EM>faking it</EM> and pretending as if I'm having 100% fun." (The italics are Cobain's.)</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newstatesman.com/200704160044"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.newstatesman.com/img/75128C4C-3655-48E1-8AE2-C43C50264CDC" alt="" /></div></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/0DBE7092-CA75-458A-B751-46FCFB7A9428/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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