I'm really not sure what to make of these performances, or performers. Frankly, they are hard to take seriously, although I wouldn't want to try to evaluate their worth.
It's interesting how the commentator praises their authenticity. Is it any more or less authentic than other genres in popular music? Again, I'm not sure...
Interestingly Chusid seems to take back some of what he put out there in his book. For one, in a later interview with Mungbeing, an online magazine, he casually referred to Outsider Music as merely a marketing category. Further, he devalued his own creative work, and perhaps the genre itself by stating that he was asked by his editor to include bigger names like Sid Barrett and Captain Beefheart in his book because "nobody wants to read a book about Jandek, B.J. Snowden and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy."
Woops! Greenishtinge is me, but my profile isn't public. Here I am as me...
OK. After rereading this interview, I'm taking back some of what I said. Chusid doesn't say it was merely a marketing category. What he said was:
"it's a journalistic and marketing convenience. I would never argue that."
It's not quite the same. I do get a sense that he was questioning his previous work though. In addition to this, the artists whom he chooses to write about, he writes about because there is sufficient material to write about, as a journalist. Interestingly, perhaps the result of Chusid as a gatekeeper is that true "Outsiders" are left out because they haven't had the wherewithal or the means to get there work out there in the first place. Outsider Music is also just as much about the artists who make the music as it is about the music itself, and there is sufficient knowledge (or at least speculation, as is in the case of Jandek) about the artists mentioned in Chusid's book to write about. That said, I truly believe that the mythology surrounding OM and its contributing artists is partly what draws us to it initially--and of course the human tendency towards voyeurism.
There could be issues of exploitation here.
ReplyDeleteI'm really not sure what to make of these performances, or performers. Frankly, they are hard to take seriously, although I wouldn't want to try to evaluate their worth.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how the commentator praises their authenticity. Is it any more or less authentic than other genres in popular music? Again, I'm not sure...
Interestingly Chusid seems to take back some of what he put out there in his book. For one, in a later interview with Mungbeing, an online magazine, he casually referred to Outsider Music as merely a marketing category. Further, he devalued his own creative work, and perhaps the genre itself by stating that he was asked by his editor to include bigger names like Sid Barrett and Captain Beefheart in his book because "nobody wants to read a book about Jandek, B.J. Snowden and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy."
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWoops! Greenishtinge is me, but my profile isn't public. Here I am as me...
ReplyDeleteOK. After rereading this interview, I'm taking back some of what I said. Chusid doesn't say it was merely a marketing category. What he said was:
"it's a journalistic and marketing convenience. I would never argue that."
It's not quite the same. I do get a sense that he was questioning his previous work though. In addition to this, the artists whom he chooses to write about, he writes about because there is sufficient material to write about, as a journalist. Interestingly, perhaps the result of Chusid as a gatekeeper is that true "Outsiders" are left out because they haven't had the wherewithal or the means to get there work out there in the first place. Outsider Music is also just as much about the artists who make the music as it is about the music itself, and there is sufficient knowledge (or at least speculation, as is in the case of Jandek) about the artists mentioned in Chusid's book to write about. That said, I truly believe that the mythology surrounding OM and its contributing artists is partly what draws us to it initially--and of course the human tendency towards voyeurism.
Oh, and here's the interview...
http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?page=42&part=1
Enjoy!
Oh, Michael, Here's the book details...
ReplyDeleteBad Music: The Music We Love to Hate. Ed. Christopher Washburne and Maiken Derno.
They have it at SMIL but it's on reserve. :-(
Ehem... here *are* the book details...
ReplyDelete