Posted by Anton J on 3/20/2012, 4:49 pm, in reply to "Re: I'm talking about the "classical" definition of a hipster, I guess"
83.187.159.78
But just because I'm curious, what would, in your opinion, constitute a good, non-fake, emotionally rich artist?
--Previous Message--
: 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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