Yet more indie rock 'n' roll

[petronia]

Re-reading Nana from the beginning, to the surprise of absolutely no one... I hafta go buy the damned album so I can rip it, there's honestly no way around. It's too inextricably woven into the fabric of the series. ^^; Also I should just to keep from destroying this tape of mine, which is like a humourous time capsule artifact. (The liner paper reveals that it was lent at approximately weekly intervals continuously between 25 Jul. 1978 and 27 Oct. 1978, after which it was, ah, presumably taken out of circulation.) As it is I play it through each time both sides, out of fear at what would happen if I tried to rewind it. ^^; I think I haven't bought the CD so far purely out of a sense of puzzlement, as when pressed I call myself Not A Rock Fan (tm), let alone a punk fan. (The music. The symbolic position the original punk movement/ideals/aesthetic occupied in my childhood psyche is a whole 'nother weirdness. But I suppose it prepared me well for dealing with a shoujo mangaka's Sex Pistols obsession. ^^; An essay could be written using Nana as a prime example of how the Japanese always seem to adopt musical movements visual signifiers first, actual music second and associated ideals... distant third if at all, but this ain't my major.) Part of it is horrible confusion brought on by the fact that I learnt to identify global genres at a time when I really was Not A Rock Fan, and anything in which the guitar bits were too scratchy for me to hear a melody got filed under "punk" or "metal". So of course now I put on a Clash song or something, and the melody is right there, and I'm like "...huh?" and am actually completely incapable of telling the difference between aforementioned and, say, Blur's Modern Life Is Rubbish album. Although possibly there is no difference, and you're just punk if you say so. Like art!

(It's not limited to punk. I'm bad with rock subgenres in general. This trait is good for making mixes, actually - less preconceptions - but not so good for writing clever blurbs about the mixes.)

Of course, to be perfectly clever what I need isn't "Seventeen" from off the album, but a cover thereof by someone else - it doesn't even have to be "good", as the word is only applicable to the original with a certain amount of license. ...Or I could stop before I drive myself to drink.

Comments

[serendip.livejournal.com]

I don't consider myself to be a rock fan either, but that doesn't mean you can't like rock. Same with punk, etc. I mean you like Queen, and I would classify Queen as rock definitely.

And frankly, mangaka is published fanfiction, to a certain extent. (though if I say why I think so, I'm going to wander back into that stupid debate about brit-picking and HP fanfic, and I'd rather not return to that XD)

I don't think that I would write an essay using Nana as a prime example. True, Ai Yawaza watched Velvet Goldmine a wee too often and hearts Vivenne Westwood, which at best gives her a rather stylised understanding of the punk movement, don't you think? Also, the difficulty with music is genres will have waves and reintrepretations. Take ska, for example. Three waves of ska, all which are connected but definitely different. Same with punk. Punk's evolved over the years, with its various waves. I mean lord, if Blink 182 passes for punk, why can't Nana?

I'm trying to be all deconstructive and it's making my brain hurt. Argh. And covers roxx0r. <3333 Am sure someone has covered it. Go to coversproject.com and j00 will find one, am sure, am sure. ^_^

[jantalaimon.livejournal.com]

*grumbles* yes, if someone hasn't labeled it on the coversproject site all wrong...XD

to a certain degree, punk is more about attitude than music. but it depends upon whose interpretation you're taking---there are, of course, people who will argue otherwise. there's all sorts of subgenres of punkist music as well, but the main important thing seems to be a need for a lack of rules, a lack of formal training...the idea that anyone can pick up instruments and bang something out of them that someone else will get something out of. although, of course, if you asked many of the people involved, they probably wouldn't want to admit that they're really doing it for anyone else anyway. cos that's really bourgeois, isn't it? XD

if we're going for pure anarchy musically (again, more with the interpretation), wouldn't free jazz be more punk than "punk" anyway? XDXD this is why i say genreising, while sometimes useful and helpful (and believe me, it took a damn long time for me to get round to grudgingly agreeing that this is so), is generally useless. it's all a load of musiccrit bollocks, really. there's too damn many variables to take into account, particularly with something like punk. i dunno what angle Nana's looking at it from (and that feels weird to me to say, since one of Mariam's nicknames for me is "nana", in fact XD), so amnae much help~~~! XD

and, yanno, i dunno which offends me more: Blink182 as "punk" or Avril Lavigne as "punk." XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

[serendip.livejournal.com]

Why is doing something for someone else considered bourgeois? I understand doing something for money as being bourgeois, or doing it for some sort of gain, albeit power, status, etc. But I thought anarchy was more about destroying hierarchy. (I'm not really much of an anarchist. I'm too enamoured with structure and prolly too much of a realist to embrace something that won't be happening for a v. v. v. long time. Anarchy actually calls for a lot of organisation/social training, which is not quite the same as hierarchy, but because that means power differentials or unequal power distribution, right? XD)

Genres are fun but more as sort of guideposts, not as ultimate qualifier, no?

*is in stats hell* Bloody funding requirements. h888888

[jantalaimon.livejournal.com]

...i sort of thought of it in the sense of supporting hierarchical notions of existing for others' entertainment, winning their approval, etc. and also the selfish notions so inherently espoused in being an "entertainer." the sense that if you're not actively subverting the hierarchy, you're supporting it. although it depends on the music one is playing, i suppose. XD

yeah, anarchy isn't all random intermittent stone-throwing and smashing of public edifices. i don't think it's a concept very well thought out by many who profess to support it as an end goal, quite honestly. XD

*nodnod at the genre comment* precisely. they're helpful when dipping one's toes in, but definitely not as any sort of serious guide once you've got even an ounce of clueage. i also <3 how in most general rekkid stores, anything that doesn't fit recognisably into another genre ends up in the "pop/rock" section. XD

*is in claiming and editing hell* bloody retarded WRONG prediction patterns. --;;; *fills with h8, though not so much since she just ate way too much nyummy Chinese food*

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Good ol' genre. XD You see I'm inclined to heart arcane classification systems by nature, and there's the practical application whereby I have to sort my music into folders somehow, and if I don't go by genre and sub-genre I'd have no hope of remembering what all these outfits by whom I only have one or two mp3s do. ^^; That being said I've also got ears, no indie cred or any real interest in achieving such, and no social allegiance to go along with my music. So quite often I can't see why a band is slotted into the one and not the other, because it tends to depend on external social (historical?) context to which I consciously try not to pay attention.

And yes, I have no end of trouble finding schtuff in record stores. XD Looked everywhere for the last Basement Jaxx album before finding it tucked away under "House".

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I always thought that punk when it appeared was the new jazz. XD Nana is really with the DIY band aesthetic, but not the anarchy or social subversion in any way - it's shoujo manga. They have fans, basically they're trying to make it, get signed by a major, beat Trapnest at its own game. ^^; (Though this is much less because Our Band h4t3s Trapnest than because they're semi-dating Trapnest members. Trapnest BTW isn't punk in any sense of the word, which makes Ren's position interesting - he churns out hit after hit but he writes the music the way Takumi tells him to. Takumi also tells Reira how to write the lyrics. And then he takes the combined result and produces the heck out of it, so basically it's all him. =_= Naoki is just there to drum and be dumb and cute.

I need to shut up or write a long entry about the characters and get it out of my system.)

Basically I call something punk if everyone I know calls it punk, and I'm a bit disturbed by that. XD;; As for Avril Lavigne, d'you catch the last Tommy heavenly6 single? Apparently the video is comedy gold. XD

[jantalaimon.livejournal.com]

i have that TH6 song in my iTunes, and have listened, but haven't seen the video. would v. much like to, though...had heard that about it as well. XD should listen to the lyrics...didn't really the first couple times i heard it. XD

so essentially you're saying Nana would fit in well with the Misfits (of Jem fame, not Glenn Danzig fame XD)? XD

hrrm, may have to pick up at some point. although the bandage still didn't make me read Kaikan Phrase, but /\ucifer did make me enjoy the anime a bit. XDXD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Yazawa has a sense of humour about her dumb m00z1k fangirliness anyway. It all gets carried over into the character of Nana K. XD The scenes when she's trying to convince Nana O. to let her play the tambourine, or revealing to the band that before she started hanging out with them she didn't know anything about punk except from having watched "Sid and Nancy". (All present: "......")

I like Queen because sororial unit infected me with her insanity, curses. <33 And the punk I tend to like is usually from the errr pre- post-punk period (haha), or bands that started off in the late 70's anyway. Basically I go at it ass-backwards; I like the shambly what-is-this-thing-you-call-production spareness of it, to me it just sounds like post-punk/no-wave/etc. with the early synths taken out. I don't like most 90's punk but I don't like most 90's rock period.

[jantalaimon.livejournal.com]

well, the thing with a lot of '90s punk that pisses me off (but is more a social issue than strictly a musical issue...but then again, i thought part of the initial purpose of "punk" was to make a social statement, so XD) is the idea of upper middle class white kids slumming for their amusement. i know it gets a bit personal here, cos it reminds me of too many tards i knew who had no clue that gee, sparing for change when your rents are putting you through high school and your college is basically paid for is a really fucking ridiculous thing to do. there are exceptions---not just with people like Ian McKaye and Fugazi, who have been going since the beginning of time and just won't stop. regardless of whether or not i agree with his politics, i admire the fact that it isn't just a posture for him. it's a musical war he's attempting to wage on apathy, and i have nothing but respect for that. but then, i think i definitely think more of punk as mindset than style, if that makes sense. i know there are
newer bands which have the mindset as well rather than just aping the style, or glamming it up for poptastic radio results (hello Billie Joe Armstrong), but. XD i mean, using Knox gelatin + green Kool-Aid to do your hair does not make you punk, really. XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, punk is easier to pin down as mindset at that. XD Actually I rather like Fugazi, though typically of me I don't know a thing about them other than the music itself. (Maybe I should put them on the FST? XD;;) The thing is, if one grows up vaguely thinking of punk as equalling Green Day or some such - well, bands like Fugazi and the Clash don't sound remotely like that, even. They get pretty guitar-noisy, but they also get experimental in all sorts of directions. I'm constantly reevaluating my tastes, this is just one example.

Well, aping the style without the mindset leads us to April Lavigne (though it's not exactly difficult to refute her "punkness" from her songs either :/), so much for that... but yeah, assholes exist. I'm only hung up on "sound" because (like I mentioned) I have a tendency to not know the first thing about bands I listen to. ^^;