H∆SHAG$ RBMA series

Been watching these today, they've been fairly interesting overall. Instead of wordy meta-commentary or worthless summary written by bloggers and journalists this is literally artists expressing their thoughts and feelings of the genres and scenes they've become associated with.

The sincerity and overall vibe you get from the musicians of each "genre" varies so much - for example the "post-dubstep" and LA beat scene episodes were pretty positive in tone and coherent whereas the one about tumblrwave actually pissed me off at one point. They included some fucking obnoxious probably trust-baby 20-somethings saying idiotic shit about 90s culture and living in a 1890s house next to interviews with actual musicians like Le1f and Ultrademon. Anyway, I know many if not all of these genre and labels have been oft discussed on watmm, so surely someone else would find these worth checking out.

Here's the preview, they've made 6 episodes so far and a few extended interviews with a few musicians.

Yeah I watched a couple of these. I generally enjoy stuff like these (even if I don't like the music) just because I like to see what sorts of directions music is taking.

Matmos once said something about trends that has stuck with me to this day: influences are inevitable but buying into trends will stamp a date on your music and make you sound like a ton of other artists. Alot of the folks showcased on Hashtags are extremely original but then there are swarms of followers who just recycle the existing aesthetic palette.

  On 3/26/2013 at 10:54 PM, LimpyLoo said:

Yeah I watched a couple of these. I generally enjoy stuff like these (even if I don't like the music) just because I like to see what sorts of directions music is taking.

 

 

Matmos once said something about trends that has stuck with me to this day: influences are inevitable but buying into trends will stamp a date on your music and make you sound like a ton of other artists.

Yeah that's how I felt about vaporwave and chillwave especially - lot of good ideas to be brought out of those still, even if so many imitators emerged. But that's always been the case, even genres and scenes from decades ago always had waves of imitator artists and even corporate-driven copy-cats vying for a quick buck and some success.

I think what I find interesting with these interviews is how they handle the labeling and popularity. Almost all of it is warranted but I'm a lot more sympathetic to many of them. There seems to be a sense of maturity with those less bothered by their situation or at least have a better grasp about it. Zombelle (the "seapunk" girl with Ultrademon in the interviews) seems upset that people "misunderstand" her art and/or have utilized it in different ways or flat-out trivialized it. And yet that's something you have to accept when you put your ideas and artwork out there: your art will be criticized, satirized, and subjected to re-appropriation itself. Hell her art is itself very much based on re-appropriation among her overall influences of nautical things in general. She seems picky on who she feels can "share" that expression. Le1f on the other hand seems a lot more upfront with trying to get his voice out there and in my opinion he's probably struggling with a lot more online bullshit in doing so as a gay rapper, not to mention his dilemma is being lumped into a genre he didn't think he belonged to.

Compare her to Zombelle or that Black Diamonds producer (they guy who says "like" every second), most of the dubstep or beat scene producers and it's obvious they are focused on moving on as artists. I dunno, as a fan who went through a period of frustration and then gradual acceptance of what occurred with "dubstep" I can related to that mentality more. I've noticed too Flylo going from mentioning "being copied" in older interviews whereas now he's moved on by having a new rapping alias. They're not untalented at all (the Black Diamonds guy has some nice tracks) but I'd be curious to see them interviewed in say, 5 years.

haha is that artist name for real? holy fucking god

  On 3/28/2013 at 12:45 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

haha is that artist name for real? holy fucking god

lol which one? I still can't get over the ridiculousness of 3:47 in particular. Someone said it sounded like a fucking Portlandia reference but honestly I really just think they're that fucking obnoxious. I heard a college hipster couple (ones trying really hard anyway) today in a record store and I swear one of them was having a real fucking dilemma on whether or not to admit he liked Pocket Full of Kryptonite when they were browsing for "ironic" cassettes.

'anyone who's good at tumblr has seen his work before'

jesus christ I feel like an old man, this is insane

  On 3/28/2013 at 6:44 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

'anyone who's good at tumblr has seen his work before'

 

jesus christ I feel like an old man, this is insane

Don't worry

that whole scene will be forgotten about in 6 months.

I am absolutely loving a lot of this new rap, it's like the notion of the genre has collapsed and been brought back artistically uninhibited, plus it's so druggy and dark, there's a strong element of grunge to it.