forced indoctrination

[larry@csccat.cs.com (Larry Spence)]

In article <9208021911.AA27917@cadence.Cadence.COM> cadence!woodruff@uunet.uu.net (Ken Woodruff) writes:
>
>By the end of the summer I had made 5 copies of Y Kant Tori Read,
>and couldn't get a single friend to listen to and entire side
>of a Kate album.

So your friends have different tastes than the average gaffan.  No
problem.  If they want an album to grab them immediately and make them
move, Kate's probably not going to be their favorite (although you 
might try playing "Ken" for them next time). 

>By now you may asking me why the long, convoluted story?  Well it's
>because I take some umbrage at the people in this group who are 
>dismissing Tori's first album with such haste because it doesn't
>fit in with the image they first learned from her newer album.

I don't like _any_ of the recorded Tori that I've heard very much,
although I thought her live performance here was outstanding.

>It is a fine album, it was very accessible, and I never quite
>understood why it never received note in the group.  

I dunno about anyone else, but the _YKTR_ lyrics made me laugh out
loud -- lots of really, really cliched "baby/sex/oohyeah/dangerous" 
type lines.  I wish I'd copied the lyrics from the one I bought for
unnamed netters, because they were (IMHO) a scream.  Sort of what I
would expect a female equivalent of Spinal Tap might do... as far as
"fine album," that's utterly subjective.  My main gripe was that she
seemed to be taking the "rock babe" thing seriously at the time, with
all the "I'm your dangerous sex-toy" type trappings.  Even _Tori_
is embarassed by it now...

>What is it about 
>Kate and other "erudite" musicians that inspires among their most
>avid fans this utter contempt for music which might be appreciated 
>by those with more mundane tastes?  Why is it that music must have
>an aura of "inaccessibility" before it is discussed in this group?

I don't know about "inaccessibility."  I think a lot of the music
discussed here tends to be stuff that doesn't immediately make you
want to dance, put on MTV clothing, or brandish swords like phallic
symbols. %)  More like "sit down and listen intently while reading
the lyrics" music, at least that's what I do.  There's a lot of 
stuff that's far more inaccessible than Kate, et. al., such as Lydia
Lunch, Diamanda Galas, Karen Finley, etc., who are only rarely mentioned 
here.  Kate is not exactly inaccessible atonal thrashing noise, and
there was nary a yam to be seen in the Hammersmith video...

>Have any of us stopped to think that if we could open ourselves
>somewhat to more mainstream music, more mainstream folks might listen
>to Kare et. al. 

I think most people in gaffa listen to lots of different things.  The
other stuff gets discussed in the other newsgroups.  Seems logical to
me.  Do you think that gaffa contributors listen to nothing but Kate,
Sarah McL, Happy Rhodes, Cocteau Twins, etc. all day long?  I sure don't.

>People are offended by our pretense, 

It does get pretentious here at times, but pretense is nothing to be
offended by, just to be snickered at, maybe.  

>and close
>their minds to music they might otherwise enjoy simply
>because we make such a point of telling them what garbage they are
>for not liking our kind of music already.  

Where did this happen?  Are you referring to specific incidents, or 
just some vague idea of what gaffa folks listen to?  But in the same
way that your friends listened to _The Dreaming_ and went "ehhh," I
reserve the right to listen to, say, Mariah Carey, and say, "ehhhh."
You could just as well say that people stereotyping Kate Bush fans as
snobs or elitists turns Kate fans off to more mainstream music. 

Also keep in mind that some of your friends may have open minds, and
not refuse to listen to something simply because of prejudice about 
"the kind of people who like that stuff," yet they may simply _not like
Kate's music_.  Or, like myself, they may only like _some_ KB music.
When I first heard "Wuthering Heights," I had pretty much the opposite
of IED's reaction, and thought, "my gawd, what an annoying voice, how
insufferably precious."  I think you're assuming a consensus where none
exists when you refer to "our kind of music."

-- 
Larry Spence
larry@cs.com
uunet!csccat!larry or sun!texsun!csccat!larry