Having not heard either of the candidate songs currently tipped for the Xmas No.1 this year, I am ideally placed to comment impartially on the unedifying scramble between X Factor winner Simon Cowell and Rage Against the Machine.
“There is a lot of smugness in the certainty that they own the No 1 spot. We want to wipe that smug grin off their faces." says Tom Morello, of RATM, sounding more like a pro boxer than a musician.
So in the blue corner we have one over-hyped, TV promoted single from X factor's Joe McElderry and in the red corner another, over-hyped, Facebook promoted single from RATM.
The facebook crowd seem to think that by taking on the Cowell machine they are somehow striking a blow for "real" music over the "bland mediocrity" (Morello's phrase) of X-factor fodder. But who is defining their music as "real"? A bunch of self-appointed members of the general public who spend time on facebook and who happen to dislike the tastes of another section of the general public who prefer to watch telly with their families. They are using the RATM single as a symbolic rallying flag to make their point.
Whoever first said the often-repeated saying "There are only two types of music, good and bad" was both arrogant (in presuming to know the difference) and wrong. There are three "types" of music - music you like, music you don't like and music you haven't heard yet. And "liking" is a subjective judgement made by each listener, influenced by mood, timing, familiarity, purpose. It is also likely to change over time as people themselves change. Any attempt to apply an objective "quality" test is doomed to failure.
The race for Christmas no. 1 is just an amusing sideshow - a measure of how various media methods can effectively combine to rally groups of people into buying singles to score points, with making money as a side-effect. It has little to do with music at all.
Saturday 19 December 2009
Friday 4 December 2009
Shame on you, Gordon Brown!
Gordon Brown has re-launched the class war. He thinks that sneering at the Tory Leadership about their "Etonian" background is an appropriate way for a national leader to behave. Shame on him.
Brown is pandering to the worst instincts of the voter, playing on popular prejudice to stir up animosity against a group of people who cannot change what they are. He thinks this is a legitimate tactic to win votes.
The BNP uses similar tactics against what it perceives as "non-british" people and is, quite rightly, loudly condemned by all mainstream politicians for this racism. Is Brown any better?
The danger from racism is recognised - we all know about what happened when Hitler was allowed to move against the Jews (& the homosexuals and the mentally ill) in Nazi Germany. It must never be allowed to happen again.
But a little bit of class warfare - that's harmless, isn't it? No-one ever died because of class prejudice?
I think the upper and middle classes of Stalinist Russia might disagree - it wasn't just the parasitic aristocracy that were removed in the revolution and subsequent years, but many of the educated and/or middle classes - teachers, intellectuals, politicians, affluent peasants (kulaks). Anyone who disagreed with the leadership was labelled an enemy of the workers and whipped off to the Gulag.
I am not comparing Gordon Brown to Stalin.
My point is this: "a little bit" of class warfare is no more acceptable in a just society than "a little bit" of racism. It is the responsibility of politicians to create a just society without prejudice where all voices can be heard.
Gordon Brown has displayed unjust prejudice in his desire to score political points against his opponents.
Shame on you, Gordon Brown!
Brown is pandering to the worst instincts of the voter, playing on popular prejudice to stir up animosity against a group of people who cannot change what they are. He thinks this is a legitimate tactic to win votes.
The BNP uses similar tactics against what it perceives as "non-british" people and is, quite rightly, loudly condemned by all mainstream politicians for this racism. Is Brown any better?
The danger from racism is recognised - we all know about what happened when Hitler was allowed to move against the Jews (& the homosexuals and the mentally ill) in Nazi Germany. It must never be allowed to happen again.
But a little bit of class warfare - that's harmless, isn't it? No-one ever died because of class prejudice?
I think the upper and middle classes of Stalinist Russia might disagree - it wasn't just the parasitic aristocracy that were removed in the revolution and subsequent years, but many of the educated and/or middle classes - teachers, intellectuals, politicians, affluent peasants (kulaks). Anyone who disagreed with the leadership was labelled an enemy of the workers and whipped off to the Gulag.
I am not comparing Gordon Brown to Stalin.
My point is this: "a little bit" of class warfare is no more acceptable in a just society than "a little bit" of racism. It is the responsibility of politicians to create a just society without prejudice where all voices can be heard.
Gordon Brown has displayed unjust prejudice in his desire to score political points against his opponents.
Shame on you, Gordon Brown!
Thursday 3 December 2009
Introduction
Hello
This is my Soapbox. From time to time, I will use this Soapbox to put my thoughts on paper. It will not be a diary, but a reflective blog which I shall use to clarify my thoughts and occasionally to give vent to my frustrations.
I have no pretensions to great literary style, wit or originality of thought. And I reserve the right to contradict myself and change my mind from time to time. After all, I'm just thinking out loud, not running for parliament or planning world domination.
I welcome any comments, but reserve the right to remove those I don't like without having to justify myself. This is my Soapbox, after all :)
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