Paradox
A while back I went to this truly excellent New Wave/80s pop/rock/indie dance party. A few minutes ago I was listening to She Wants Revenge, which I reviewed before, and I decided that my first impressions were exactly right: it really is a strange thing when a bunch of hipster geeks get it in their heads that they want to play dance music.
The reason the sound is so bizarre is because it's an anachronism. Back in the 80s, when that dance pop sound had its first heyday, the listerners weren't rejects with no rhythm, but regular people who went to real dance parties. But these days the only people who would listen to the whole New Order revival thing are nostalgic intellectuals - whose natural habitat is NOT the dance floor. This became clear to me when I went to the New Wave party. It was still very excellent, because nostalgia attracts a wider crowd than hipsterhood alone, and for whatever reason there was also a solid queer contingency; but it was clear that a third of the crowd, the hipster part, was there to see and be seen. Even I would have to agree that it would have broken their cool to join in with the dancing...clashes with their mission statement.
I'm totally down with this beautiful mezcla of poses - which is kinda MY mission statement; and hey and good party is a good party - until the cool intellectual hipsters attempt to MAKE dance music. They're just not in their element then, and the result is this weird techno-rock sound that you can't actually dance to if you tried (She Wants Revenge).
* * *
The paradox also has symmetry on the other side. So rhythmless hipsters are drawn to this sound and scene that "regular" people would consider nostalgic dance pop. The "regular" people, meanwhile, go out dancing to places that spin contemporary pop and hip-hop. They are convinced that these are the hottest spots, and they turn their noses at places that spin "techno" as being boring, unsexy, and undanceable. What most of them don't realize - and I've observed this often - is that the this undanceable sound is far closer to what the real, serious dancers are into. I'm not totally up-to-date on this last scene (those who take dancing as a lifestyle), but I do know that at least 4 years ago, jungle house-type stuff was what real B-boys and B-girls were following. Isn't that funny? What most people regarded as rhythmless noise was the soundtrack for the crowd with the most rhythm.
The reason the sound is so bizarre is because it's an anachronism. Back in the 80s, when that dance pop sound had its first heyday, the listerners weren't rejects with no rhythm, but regular people who went to real dance parties. But these days the only people who would listen to the whole New Order revival thing are nostalgic intellectuals - whose natural habitat is NOT the dance floor. This became clear to me when I went to the New Wave party. It was still very excellent, because nostalgia attracts a wider crowd than hipsterhood alone, and for whatever reason there was also a solid queer contingency; but it was clear that a third of the crowd, the hipster part, was there to see and be seen. Even I would have to agree that it would have broken their cool to join in with the dancing...clashes with their mission statement.
I'm totally down with this beautiful mezcla of poses - which is kinda MY mission statement; and hey and good party is a good party - until the cool intellectual hipsters attempt to MAKE dance music. They're just not in their element then, and the result is this weird techno-rock sound that you can't actually dance to if you tried (She Wants Revenge).
* * *
The paradox also has symmetry on the other side. So rhythmless hipsters are drawn to this sound and scene that "regular" people would consider nostalgic dance pop. The "regular" people, meanwhile, go out dancing to places that spin contemporary pop and hip-hop. They are convinced that these are the hottest spots, and they turn their noses at places that spin "techno" as being boring, unsexy, and undanceable. What most of them don't realize - and I've observed this often - is that the this undanceable sound is far closer to what the real, serious dancers are into. I'm not totally up-to-date on this last scene (those who take dancing as a lifestyle), but I do know that at least 4 years ago, jungle house-type stuff was what real B-boys and B-girls were following. Isn't that funny? What most people regarded as rhythmless noise was the soundtrack for the crowd with the most rhythm.
posted by Rex at 3:38 PM
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