tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26803842.post4427831958561017695..comments2023-09-12T10:28:00.525-04:00Comments on mincetapes: criticasters!K. Ross Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07153047422374716535noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26803842.post-67510918314353776592007-04-15T13:50:00.000-04:002007-04-15T13:50:00.000-04:00By which I mean, yes, if Amy Winehouse was somehow...By which I mean, yes, if Amy Winehouse was somehow an anti-Ashlee or an anti-Britney, I might be interested in how her "authenticity" works. But she's clearly NOT intended as such; I'm not sure what she intends herself to be or what her audience perceives her to be (if this can even be generalized; in Lily's case I don't think it can, just a bunch of smaller sources of appeal that add up into a big but ambiguous audience).Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13148394237957464053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26803842.post-53692080587946505352007-04-15T13:48:00.000-04:002007-04-15T13:48:00.000-04:00i actually think it's very easy to listen to wineh...<I>i actually think it's very easy to listen to winehouse without worrying about authenticity and especially race - just listen to and enjoy the music.</I><BR/><BR/>I do too, which is why I don't necessarily agree with Josh's review, but I also don't think there's much in it (it being pretty darn short anyway) I strongly disagree with (aside from the minstrelsy bit). I just think he's kind of griping about non-issues. <BR/><BR/>Amy Winehouse definitely creates her own context, audiencewise (and yeah, in that sense the Lily connection is pretty strong, though I wouldn't put Lily in quite the same camp as Amy...maybe have their own individual camps?), but this also makes it hard to understand why anyone would get extremely <I>upset</I> about what she was doing (ditto the knee-jerk negative reactions to Lily, which tend to make all kinds of weird assumptions about what the people in her audience <I>must</I> love about her, or what everyone <I>should</I> hate about her).Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13148394237957464053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26803842.post-27633650830362593302007-04-15T01:18:00.000-04:002007-04-15T01:18:00.000-04:00yeah, i agree that there's nothing that exceptiona...yeah, i agree that there's nothing that exceptional about the piece. it didn't really merit this lengthy a discussion, i'm just incapable of keeping my comments brief.<BR/><BR/>i actually think it's very easy to listen to winehouse without worrying about authenticity and especially race - just listen to and enjoy the music. especially in ABM-ish territory (which is how much of the album seems to function), genre traditionalism doesn't require personal experience-qualified "authenticity." i guess what you're saying is that those issues are relevant if we're interested in her pop-star persona.<BR/><BR/>apparently, joss stone is making a popward shift - not britney maybe but at least beyonce - among other things, making a bid for a younger audience.<BR/><BR/>honestly i think the reason people are so captivated by winehouse is that she appears to fulfill a different niche that we didn't know existed - sort of like lily allen. and that's what makes me want to like her too - but i feel like what she actually <I>does</I> is not nearly as interesting as what she <I>is</I>.K. Ross Hoffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07153047422374716535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26803842.post-54478255036292848522007-04-14T20:16:00.000-04:002007-04-14T20:16:00.000-04:00Only if it leads to more head-shaving.Y'know, I th...Only if it leads to more head-shaving.<BR/><BR/>Y'know, I thought I was going to have more to say about this when I read it and snarled etc., but I don't. Still puzzling/fuming/racking my brains over Sam Ubl's humor thing in Stylus last week; it really got to me (not really in a bad way, but in a way that made me want to have a conversation in the same universe as his that didn't include anything in particular that he said, which is very frustrating). Whereas this, by comparison, is just pretty much run-of-the-mill idiocy.<BR/><BR/>Josh Love definitely pulled a Pfork-style "political" statement with the 0 (though with Pfork, you never know exactly where the politics are coming from, because controversial reviews tend to be discussed before they're applied). <BR/><BR/>But the key sentence is <I>It's hard to approach this album without running headlong into issues of authenticity, caricature and especially race.</I> I think he's right, if we're looking at Winehouse in the same sort of context as Ashlee and Britney (which, as a poptimist or at least poptimist sympathizer, he does...he's talking about "recent pop memory"). Problem is, as you say, I see Winehouse filling a niche much closer to, say, Joss Stone. Anyway, the ideas are there, but unexplored...and minstrelsy connection is ridiculous. More later?Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13148394237957464053noreply@blogger.com