philip sherburne

The real deal is: talk to a British music fan--they don't like grime either. The vast majority of Brits see grime as less of a blip on the radar than UK garage was. And I'm speaking of music fans who very passionately supported both scenes, but now find grime to be for the most part a sad,m saturated, male-dominated pissing contest. So no one is "missing out" on this music masquerading as British rap. Also, grime is another "context" music--if you don't experience it in the context it originates from ( ala baile funk in the favela) then about 90% of its original impact is lost. Lastly, a song has to be a good song, period. I believe that's why Jay-Z gravitated towards Sov. Her music is surprising, witty, hooky, clever. Most grime is formulaic, poorly arranged and produced fodder from novice producers bashing about on their first laptop. Nothing against novices mind you. But there's a huge difference in mind between an 18-year old Mike Paradinas reconfiguring techno and jungle, and most grime producers f-ing about on video game consoles.

Also, grime is another "context" music--if you don't experience it in the context it originates from ( ala baile funk in the favela) then about 90% of its original impact is lost.

I was just discussing this with a friend last night! I think this is a strange symptom not only of colonial adventurism and orientalist novelty, but the internet's lack of time and space. The immediacy with which these subcultures manifest themselves via the internet far outpaces the ability for more common methods of buzz and distribution, making it difficult for casual listeners to "discover" musics like these before critics have given up the ghost.

"...but deemed unworthy even of critical attention, as social phenomena (the "only Euroweenies like them" dismissal I've heard from more than a few editors/writers) and musical productions alike."

This might have something to do with prevailing cliques / social networks that ensure that only "in crowds" dj & discuss this music .. it's a scene like anywhere else, and now that it is endangered, it strives to protect itself like it's under siege against any critiques & questions & reflections on its process, history or aesthetics. This isn't ranting, I may post a direct example of what I mean, this "Are you with us or against us?" logic that manifests locally here in Montreal under the patronymic structure of "are you with The Family or not?". (Of course reflection in Quebec, not to mention critique, is also a false start, due to Quebecois nationalism ensuring that differing opinions are silenced from the get-go.) Bound to fail, such logic, it leaves no room for the proliferation of weirdness that generates the music to begin with. And in MTL, the purveyors of such sound -- djs -- are absolutely ignored by the same. Wasn't it two years ago now if not more that someone raised the point at MUTEK that the festival bemoaning falling record fails still refuses to acknowledge its underground djs beyond the neverending German/Hawtin/Villalobos camp (I love em, but yawn)?

_t

I strongly agree with Blackmail's comment, and what Anonymous alluded to is true: many critically neglected subgenres regularly outsell grime (even only looking at UK sales) -- from minimal techno to breakcore and beyond (including dubstep, i reckon..)

Since there exist hundreds of local pop / popular / populist musical genres all over the world, this myopic emphasis on grime tells us more about which media narratives the journalists and bloggers covering it prefer than any other thing.

The same can be said for the ongoing boom in funk carioca -- whose high visibility is due in large part to the press-appeal of its media narrative (drugs! scantily clad women! guns! brown-skinned people dancing in poverty!). This voyeuristic visibility helps maintain international invisibility of other Brazilian styles, equally or more popular -- but, crucially, not as easy to sensationalize.

American major labels have enough purchase power to convert US hits into worldwide pop, but few if any other countries do. The question is if US coverage of non-Western pop can be anything but mistranslations and gloss wherein a simple backstory substitutes a culturally specific, linguistically nuanced context.

Some of the most exciting *and* weirdest music in the world is nonWestern pop, yet attempts to put local pop in the spotlight may mask it w/ a cartoon version.

For many Americas untranslatability is a hard concept to accept.

I strongly agree with Blackmail's comment, and what Anony. alluded to is true: many critically neglected subgenres regularly outsell grime (even within the UK) -- from minimal techno to breakcore and garage and beyond (including dubstep, i reckon..)

Since hundreds of local pop / popular / populist musical genres exist all over the world, this myopic emphasis on grime tells us more about which narrative conventions the journalists and bloggers covering it prefer than any other thing.

The same can be said for the ongoing boom in funk carioca -- whose high visibility is due in large part to the press-appeal of its media narrative (drugs! scantily clad women! guns! brown-skinned people dancing in poverty!). This voyeuristic visibility helps maintain international invisibility of other Brazilian styles, equally or more popular -- but, crucially, not as easy to sensationalize.

American major labels have enough purchase power to convert US hits into worldwide pop, but few if any other countries do. The question is if US coverage of non-Western pop can be anything but mistranslations and gloss wherein a simple backstory substitutes a culturally specific, linguistically nuanced context.

Some of the most exciting *and* weirdest music in the world is nonWestern pop, yet attempts to put local pop in the spotlight may mask it w/ a cartoon version.

For many Americans untranslatability is a hard concept to accept.