May 24, 2004

About A Toy

Everything I needed to know about Nick Hornby I learned from this paragraph in "Songbook":

I once presumed that nothing good - nothing great, anyway - could come out of the mixing and matching and scratching and cutting and pasting, and this was true while the approach of the cutters and pasters remained essentially plagiaristic: the contribution that say, Eric B and Rakim made to their version of "I Know you Got Soul" is minimal - it's Bobby Byrd bassline and beat the define the track.
And any musical response that you might have to Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" is actually a response to the Police's pretty riff. To create music - to create any art - is surely to pull something out of thin air, to produce something where there previously was nothing.

This passage hit me just like Hornby's Times piece hit Keith Harris, as so severely detached that compassion was the only appropriate response. It was like that heartbreaking moment when you're talking to an elderly relative, struggling to understand how they could be so wrong-minded, and then suddenly your frustration melts into pity as you realize they are just no longer capable of lucidity, and all you can do from now on is smile and nod politely as they drift away from the world.

I would elaborate but I've got work to do (takin care of business, bloggers can't you seeeee), and this has pretty much been covered.

(I do like his novels, BTW)

Posted by jsmooth995 at May 24, 2004 8:08 PM

Comments

Maybe you should relax and not take it so personally. Outgrow that hip hop persecution complex.

Posted by: a guerrero at May 24, 2004 10:13 PM

*smiles and nods politely*

Posted by: Jay Smooth at May 24, 2004 10:24 PM

Sasha is crazy. LOL. She said: there is no greater spokesbaldy than Nick "Mojo Magazine Invented Me In a Diabolical Laboratory And Now They Can't Kill Me" Hornby. Please, follow the newest and most astonishingly serpentine path of doo-doo butter.

Posted by: quimby at May 25, 2004 3:33 AM

Jay, you hit the nail on the head. Just slide it on.

Posted by: sleepnotwork at May 25, 2004 10:00 AM

Oh OK. I thought Nick Hornby was going on about Mariah.

Posted by: Jeff at May 25, 2004 11:05 AM

compassion was the only appropriate response.

ouch.

The soft bigotry of low expectations.

Posted by: patrick at May 25, 2004 12:01 PM

You know, a lot of these anti-Hip-Hop quotes you've been posting can be attributed to a general musical ignorance amongst "music critics" and musicians. Cutting and pasting can't be art? So Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray weren't artists? Collage is a well established form. Also well established are Musique Concrete and tape loop music, Minimalism and related genres- all of which cut and paste and make noise, but often with less success than a good Pete Rock or Premier track.

Posted by: Super Elastic Bubble Plastic at May 26, 2004 2:43 AM

Collage was the prominent art form of the 20th century, but it doesn't follow, then, that it was all of a piece, a mere "cutting and pasting." Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray were all very different from one another.

Obviously, you can create music "out of thin air" by cut and paste techniques (but I'd argue that copyright laws have sort of killed this proposition and innovative hip hop has been forced, ironically, to be more Hornsby-like).

However, none of this contradicts Hornby's assertion that "any musical response that you might have to Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" is actually a response to the Police's pretty riff."

That, in fact, is patently obvious.

Posted by: DC at May 26, 2004 1:41 PM

DC- What about Duchamp's ready-mades? Fountain? Am I really responding to the fine craftsmanship of the American Standard toilet company? Or Joconde L.H.O.O.Q? Do you see this as a da Vinci "ripoff"? No, obviously these succeed in part by subverting the original creator's intent and changing the context in which the objects are seen. Puffy's "I'll Be Missing You" fails mainly because it doesn't do this enough, not because of it's formal technique.

Posted by: sebp at May 26, 2004 5:02 PM

but I'd argue that copyright laws have sort of killed this proposition and innovative hip hop has been forced, ironically, to be more Hornsby-like

You mean like Bruce Hornsby? Oh yeah, you're right about that!

Posted by: Jeff at May 27, 2004 12:02 AM


May 24, 2004 About A Toy Everything I needed to know about Nick Hornby I learned from this paragraph in "Songbook": I once presumed that nothing good - nothing great, anyway - could come out of the mixing and matching and scratching and cutting and pasting, and this was true while the approach of the cutters and pasters remained essentially plagiaristic: the contribution that say, Eric B and Rakim made to their version of "I Know you Got Soul" is minimal - it's Bobby Byrd bassline and beat the define the track. And any musical response that you might have to Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" is actually a response to the Police's pretty riff. To create music - to create any art - is surely to pull something out of thin air, to produce something where there previously was nothing. This passage hit me just like Hornby's Times piece hit Keith Harris, as so severely detached that compassion was the only appropriate response. It was like that heartbreaking moment when you're talking to an elderly relative, struggling to understand how they could be so wrong-minded, and then suddenly your frustration melts into pity as you realize they are just no longer capable of lucidity, and all you can do from now on is smile and nod politely as they drift away from the world. I would elaborate but I've got work to do (takin care of business, bloggers can't you seeeee), and this has pretty much been covered. (I do like his novels, BTW) Posted by jsmooth995 at May 24, 2004 8:08 PM Comments Maybe you should relax and not take it so personally. Outgrow that hip hop persecution complex. Posted by: a guerrero at May 24, 2004 10:13 PM smiles and nods politely Posted by: Jay Smooth at May 24, 2004 10:24 PM Sasha is crazy. LOL. She said: there is no greater spokesbaldy than Nick "Mojo Magazine Invented Me In a Diabolical Laboratory And Now They Can't Kill Me" Hornby. Please, follow the newest and most astonishingly serpentine path of doo-doo butter. Posted by: quimby at May 25, 2004 3:33 AM Jay, you hit the nail on the head. Just slide it on. Posted by: sleepnotwork at May 25, 2004 10:00 AM Oh OK. I thought Nick Hornby was going on about Mariah. Posted by: Jeff at May 25, 2004 11:05 AM compassion was the only appropriate response. ouch. The soft bigotry of low expectations. Posted by: patrick at May 25, 2004 12:01 PM You know, a lot of these anti-Hip-Hop quotes you've been posting can be attributed to a general musical ignorance amongst "music critics" and musicians. Cutting and pasting can't be art? So Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray weren't artists? Collage is a well established form. Also well established are Musique Concrete and tape loop music, Minimalism and related genres- all of which cut and paste and make noise, but often with less success than a good Pete Rock or Premier track. Posted by: Super Elastic Bubble Plastic at May 26, 2004 2:43 AM Collage was the prominent art form of the 20th century, but it doesn't follow, then, that it was all of a piece, a mere "cutting and pasting." Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray were all very different from one another. Obviously, you can create music "out of thin air" by cut and paste techniques (but I'd argue that copyright laws have sort of killed this proposition and innovative hip hop has been forced, ironically, to be more Hornsby-like). However, none of this contradicts Hornby's assertion that "any musical response that you might have to Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" is actually a response to the Police's pretty riff." That, in fact, is patently obvious. Posted by: DC at May 26, 2004 1:41 PM DC- What about Duchamp's ready-mades? Fountain? Am I really responding to the fine craftsmanship of the American Standard toilet company? Or Joconde L.H.O.O.Q? Do you see this as a da Vinci "ripoff"? No, obviously these succeed in part by subverting the original creator's intent and changing the context in which the objects are seen. Puffy's "I'll Be Missing You" fails mainly because it doesn't do this enough, not because of it's formal technique. Posted by: sebp at May 26, 2004 5:02 PM but I'd argue that copyright laws have sort of killed this proposition and innovative hip hop has been forced, ironically, to be more Hornsby-like You mean like Bruce Hornsby? Oh yeah, you're right about that! 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