Posted by Matt on 3/20/2012, 4:12 pm, in reply to "Re: I'm talking about the "classical" definition of a hipster, I guess"
192.193.171.151
You do nothing here but present straw man arguments. It's not my burden to decide what Tom Waits should be doing. I speak of what he s doing. What I am saying is that adopting a fake persona for going on 40 years and schticking his way through the business is no different than professional wrestling, and emotionally bankrupt. Since his music has little merit to it insofar as creativity or skill, it's the emotional content of the songs that must carry them. But it's just not there -- it's all a big fake.
I would expect easily-impressed kids to buy into his nonsense, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find that there are plenty of fans people in here.
--Previous Message--
: Obviously, what matters is wether the music
: feels "fake" or not, which
: naturally is largely subjective. I'm not
: gonna sit around listening to
: "Alice" and say, you know, these
: songs are pretty good, but I feel I would
: enjoy them a lot more if I had documented
: proof that Tom Waits was an alcoholic.
: I mean, if you go down that road, what's
: next. Chastising Muddy Waters because he
: wasn't actually born the seventh son on the
: seventh day, despite his phony and
: hipster-baiting claims to the contrary?
:
: I do admit though, that Tom isn't exactly
: (or doesn't feel like one, I don't know much
: about his private life) a
: "confessional" artist, but trying
: on different personas and impersonations.
: Which is fine by me, as long as it's
: convincing and emotional (and really, what
: is this idea that an artist can only be
: truly emotional as long as he's singing
: about himself? Are we that narcissistic and
: introverted a culture? Isn't one of the
: primary functions of the artist to emphasise
: with other people's feelings?
:
: And anyway, what kind of person would like
: every album in the world to be like
: "Here My Dear" or "John
: Lennon/Plastic Ono Band"?
:
: --Previous Message--
:
:
: Tom Waits' whole thing is an act -- the
: whole late-night, boozy, loungey,
: down-on-your luck jazzbo urban beatnick act.
: NOTHING he writes about or sings about is
: sincere, nor is the manner in which it is
: performed or sung. It's all a put-on. His
: voice, for example, doesn't actually sound
: like that. He's not really a drunk or a
: depressed night owl. There isn't a shred of
: artistic integrity to anything that he does.
: He is as genuine as a show-tune. If you
: like that kind of theatrics in your music,
: then I guess you'll like Tom Waits. But I
: don't give a lot of credibility to costumes,
: personas, and the like.
:
: I'm not saying that his music is horrible,
: just that it isn't worth the time to even
: make that evaluation, because it is not
: honest. Kind of like Alice Cooper.
:
:
:
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