incroyabluh

wat is Die Antwoord?

there’s a new music sensation destroying certain corners of the ol’ interwebs, called Die Antwoord, and it’s hard to know exactly what to make of it.  the group is an Afrikaans rap/rave outfit made up of three people, technically, but mostly just two: Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er.  they identify as “Zef,” which supposedly means something approximating “Redneck,” and they have pretty ridiculous (and ridiculously crude) lyrics.

the whole thing, especially they’re premiere video, seems like the most brilliant satire ever — greater than Johah from Summer Heights High, greater than Ali G, even — at least concerning hip-hop and lowbrow culture.  but the thing is, the more you watch, and the more you look into it, there are no clear signs of any satire.  that’s not to say that there isn’t some deliberate showmanship, or that the image and “culture” they’re channeling isn’t deliberate and self-conscious, but it seems as if they are fully devoted to it and fairly serious.  they don’t seem to ever break character, and no one has yet pulled back the curtain.

for the most part the music isn’t much more than mildly entertaining, and it’s the novelty and bizarre nature of it all that strikes you, but this song actually has something unique to it (though the refrain is fairly dumb and embarrassing).

in any case, whether satire or serious, it gives pause for thought.  and worry.

**UPDATE**

definitely crafted (dare I say brilliant?) personae, as the two were formally involved in Max Normal (or Max Norma.tv).  not that they haven’t always been a bit crazy, though…

how low can we go?

I just saw Rihanna’s new video, and I am immediately reminded of a Salman Rushdie excerpt (and then-relevant video) that I posted about a while back:

…so low have we sunk in our ability to suggest.

I mean, I’m not one to bang the drums of cultural critics and screeders, and I believe that there are merits to pop culture and pop music, but I have to ask, can we please have something intelligent now and then?!  don’t get me wrong, sometimes you just need dumb music and an embarrassing dance party (preferably with the curtains drawn) — and Rihanna might sometimes be welcome somewhere in that mix — but what about innuendo, double entendre, subtlety?  does it always have to be so blunt and inane?  at least Lady Gaga has the decency to acknowledge it as farce.

at least I learned about the SNL “giraffe” sketch from this.

creative movements

ugh, I have been neglectful ever since starting the LIS program — which I should at least write about, non?  in the meantime, a not-too-new video from Bat for Lashes, a fairly good musical troupe that likes some experimental dancy type things in their videos.  it’s called “Daniel.”

awkward magic

so this is what I’m jamming to today.  the videos don’t quite live up to the songs, because (1) they’re super low budget (but that’s OK, it’s cute) and (2) the artist, Ladyhawke, is clearly uncomfortable on camera.  no one is having fun on set.  I saw a brief interview (when learning about the artist) in which she said her character (Ladyhawke) was a way for her to come out of her shell a bit.  if that’s the case, I can’t imagine what she’s like inside the shell … but to be fair, her performances don’t look half bad.  and she’s pretty talented overall.  anyway, enjoy.

for the glory

why does listening to music like this make me want to do battle with an ax?  or use good ol’ OE words like helm?

is it all conditioning, or is it rooted in the structure of my brain?  maybe Oliver Sacks knows…

sweet somnolence

on this rainy, dreary morning, a beautiful cover that is sure to be stuck in my head all day.

Scandinavians dominate my playlists, especially the Swedes.

toe-tapping in absentia

so sometimes I blog a ton, and then I blog a’none.  I guess sometimes I have more important things to do, such as dream up all the tattoos I can’t afford to get.  in the meantime, here’s a video of Blind Pilot, another folksy band that Emily and I have been listening to lately.  it’s catchy and sure to make you happy.

also, Emily “accidentally” made about three dozen amazingly delicious chocolate chocolate-chip cookies yesterday, so I may be swinging to the higher end of my weight range these days.  oh well — at least they’re vegan, so they could be worse for us.

article review: “The Age of Mass Intelligence”

a few weeks back, I reviewed Susan Jacoby’s brief article titled “The Dumbing of America.”  it’s hard to argue with some of her points regarding the apparent mindlessness of much of mass culture.  after all, Glenn Beck has not one but several best-selling books in stores and online.  god help us.  however, as I noted then, I’d want to see figures and numbers regarding rates of literacy and book consumption, among other things.  some of that is presented in the article under review by John Parker, but this time to make the opposite case, namely, that intelligence is not decreasing but increasing.  or rather, that interest in “intelligence things,” those things typically associated with the higher culture supposedly gasping for air, is on the increase.

one of the first things Parker cites are increasing rates of museum attendance in several Western countries.  numbers have been rising steadily in the last decade, partly due to renewed efforts to reach out to new audiences (along with the fact that museums are now free in England — though not special exhibits, which are also on the increase), but also due, he argues, to a vigorous interest in culture and in learning.  in a similar vein, surveys conducted at a British book festival revealed people from all sorts of backgrounds and professions.

another significant area to consider — as Jacoby has — is book sales.  “One of the commonest complaints by cultural doomsayers,” he says, “is that nobody reads good books any more.”  as already mentioned, the top sellers on, say, Amazon.com usually leave much to be desired in the way of intelligence.  do we really have anything to learn from Glenn Beck?  Steven Harvey?  does Dan Brown’s blunt writing really do much for our literary sensitivities?  (not that we can’t be entertained, of course.) why are diet books always doing so well, while we keep getting bigger and more preventable-disease-ridden — nutrition isn’t actually that hard to figure out!

despite this, however, Parker points out, among other things, Oprah’s book club, which as recommended a number of really great modern books, along with some classics like Tolstoy and Faulkner.  the ensuing sales were substantial.  similarly, a bookstore in London asked some modern writers to set up tables of recommended books, many not the easiest to read, and sales jumped by over 1,000% for those authors.

although the majority of the population may not be aware of the major literary awards in their country, not to mention those of other countries, there are still major audiences awaiting the announcement each year of the nominees for the National Book Award, the Pulitzer, the Man Booker Prize (in England), and the Prix Goncourt (in France), among many others.  literary festivals are also on the rise.  (on a frustrated note, Boston had one a week or two ago, which would have been awesome to attend if we were still living there…)

what about other forms of entertainment?  take TV, for instance.  while there is “no shortage,” as Parker puts it, “of chewing gum for the eyes,” there are also a number of really smart shows out there — in terms of dialogue, plot, or overall writing — with impressive ratings.  but then again, it’s sort of hard to overlook the endless lineup of reality-show trash with perhaps even more staggering numbers.  the same can be said for podcasts: while there are certainly some stimulating examples, the overwhelming majority is fluff or worse.  if nothing else, a case could be made that intelligence isn’t dying or that we aren’t all dumbing down, regardless of what we end up saying about to what extent mass culture remains dumb.

but Parker is making the case for “mass intelligence,” not just a pocket of elites.  he next moves on to figures for classical music, specially for Classic FM, which are impressively on the rise.  however, to what extent are audiences really versed in this genre (is that the right word?) of music?  there are any number of “intro do” and “for dummies” books on this and a number of other topics.  how familiar with the canons of classical music or, say, literature must audiences be before we label them intelligent — or better, cultured — or not?  (and is this really a marker of “culture” and intelligence anyway?)

essentially, the case Parker is making with this is that an interest in things traditionally associated with “culture” in the West — things bemoaned by many as on a steady decline — is actually steadily on the rise.

a final area under review is higher education, which, obviously, has been on the rise throughout developed countries.  he first points to this (somewhat feebly) as positive evidence in his argument, but then he moves on to examination the extent to which this rising standard of higher education has contributed to the increased interest in things like museums, music, and other traditional culture indicators.

education is tricky, as much of the demand for more degrees is due to economic reasons, and there’s a case to be made (and plenty of people to make it) that the standards are being lowered with educational spread.  but this gets into debates about educational standards and curricula, none of which is covered here (and which I’ll save for another day, maybe).

as a final thought, I think it’s worth admitting how difficult this issue is.  what standards do we hold up for measure culture and intelligence?  the traditional Western canon?  if so, why?  there’s much to be praised about that canon, of course, but there is so much more.  I hope that there aren’t too many people who would make the claim that literature from other cultures, and especially literature from minority cultures working under the radar at a given time, doesn’t have any place in this picture (and whatever people there are, I don’t really want to know them).  African American writers and musicians are as essential to an appreciation of American culture as an Enlightenment thinker, as is the history of feminist writing in this country.  we need subversive and counter-cultural literature and music.

but all of this relates to the issue of what are the cultural “standards” by which we have a discussion about rising or lowering (non)intelligence levels.  if nothing else, Parker has added to the debate by offering a statistical look at some of those traditional areas that are often used as indicators of a decline in intelligence today.

next up: Jacoby takes on Tim de Lisle, the editor the magazine in which the present article appeared, in order to hash out some of these issues in a debate hosted on The Economist‘s website.

wicked blood

I cringed when I first learned of the various artists that were going to be featured on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack, as a few of them are artists I adore.  as it turns out, the album itself isn’t that great, but the songs by the artists I love — namely, Thom Yorke, Bon Iver (+ St. Vincent), Lykke Li, and Grizzly Bear — are really great.  there is one artist, however, that I hadn’t listened to previously and am now a fan of.  and that’s Sea Wolf.  here is a performance of the opening track of their album White Water, White Bloom:

who wouldn’t guessed there’d be a guy with a beard in the band?!  that never happens in indie rock.