Blue Vomit - Page 2

Pangloss62 · 12-06-2006, 05:53 PM

OK. Let me start by saying that I already know that I'm an arrogant SOB. Really, I know that. But after what I saw the other night I must post.

I never liked the category "World Music." What the fuck music is not of this world? Why don't they call it what they really mean, which is "Non-Western Music?" I ask this because the other night I took a heaping, sticky-sweet and self-induced dose of Billboard Magazine's top World Music group: Celtic Women.

Jesus H. Christ! What a load of ersatz-mystical-New-Age bullshit. You gotta give the guy who put it together, David Downes, credit for hitting the schmaltzy nail on the head. He also worked on that Riverdance spectacle that never seemed to go away. You see, this is why a lot of people hate me; what they really like and think is "brilliant" and "inspiring" I find nearly intolerable. How can that many people like this crap?

The entire performance was like a bad "Mystical Moods of Ireland" calendar you might see in the discount bin after Christmas. It got really painful when they trotted out the Irish pipe player to add "authenticity" to the machine-generated misty veil of Irish fog that wafted over the fake heath. Oh my goodness. You should have seen the audience in awe of the spectacle, all smiling and mouthing the words to songs so incessantly positive and "uplifting" that I nearly puked. Why did I keep watching? I must be a masochist.

But I conclude, that like a whole bunch of this "World Music" shite, it's not really Non-Western at all. In fact, with all the theatrics, bombast, and overproduction, it was quintessentially Western, a product of a shrewd business plan that tapped into the sentimental and historically myopic minds of the great middlemass (think Yanni). It was held on the grounds of an Irish castle for Chrissakes! "Times must have been so great in the Dark Ages" I said to myself. "Everything was so blue, so beautiful, and so electrically amplified back then."

And the shame is that their voices were not so bad.

It's gonna be on PBS a whole bunch, so be forewarned.

12-06-2006, 05:53 PM	#1
Pangloss62 Lecturer Join Date: May 2006 Location: Atlanta Posts: 768	Blue Vomit OK. Let me start by saying that I already know that I'm an arrogant SOB. Really, I know that. But after what I saw the other night I must post. I never liked the category "World Music." What the fuck music is not of this world? Why don't they call it what they really mean, which is "Non-Western Music?" I ask this because the other night I took a heaping, sticky-sweet and self-induced dose of Billboard Magazine's top World Music group: Celtic Women. Jesus H. Christ! What a load of ersatz-mystical-New-Age bullshit. You gotta give the guy who put it together, David Downes, credit for hitting the schmaltzy nail on the head. He also worked on that Riverdance spectacle that never seemed to go away. You see, this is why a lot of people hate me; what they really like and think is "brilliant" and "inspiring" I find nearly intolerable. How can that many people like this crap? The entire performance was like a bad "Mystical Moods of Ireland" calendar you might see in the discount bin after Christmas. It got really painful when they trotted out the Irish pipe player to add "authenticity" to the machine-generated misty veil of Irish fog that wafted over the fake heath. Oh my goodness. You should have seen the audience in awe of the spectacle, all smiling and mouthing the words to songs so incessantly positive and "uplifting" that I nearly puked. Why did I keep watching? I must be a masochist. But I conclude, that like a whole bunch of this "World Music" shite, it's not really Non-Western at all. In fact, with all the theatrics, bombast, and overproduction, it was quintessentially Western, a product of a shrewd business plan that tapped into the sentimental and historically myopic minds of the great middlemass (think Yanni). It was held on the grounds of an Irish castle for Chrissakes! "Times must have been so great in the Dark Ages" I said to myself. "Everything was so blue, so beautiful, and so electrically amplified back then." And the shame is that their voices were not so bad. It's gonna be on PBS a whole bunch, so be forewarned. __________________ Things are never as good, or bad, as they seem.

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