laptops kim's article

[Greg Little <tohubohu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

One thought on reading Kim's article: the reference to "Trend surfing: Pop 
stars that look for ways to look 'cool by proxy'"...There is an implicit - 
and really curious - authenticity/inauthenticity dichotomy in this 
remark--not a quirk of this one writer, of course. I'm just puzzled, though, 
how the evocation of Walter Benjamin in the "aura" of the title, and with 
that Benjamin's general thesis re. art & reproduction, jibes with a 
CANONICAL DJ & electronica culture...The worldwide corporate, commercial 
co-optation of "cool" (hello, Apple!) is so well-recognized, and yet it 
spoils the sweet adolescent thrill of cabal-membership too much to 
acknowledge fully...When Bjork ranks among "pop stars" trifling with token 
laptops - old story in musicology: the banjo in Weill; the saxophone in Berg 
- then I'm hard-pressed to see just where the laptop "signifier" will find 
its apotheosis, here-and-now. This way of thinking DOES seem to come from, 
or lead naturally to, laptop fetishism (which is as extraneous to real 
music-making as, say, a Fender Les Paul fetish once was...I've also heard 
that Jaco Pastorius would sometimes find himself with a session, but no 
bass; but would use whatever instrument came to hand, whatever he could 
scrouge up...). These questions & controversies regarding laptop performance 
are so evocative of other such musical "controversies," and would could 
probably be well-elucidated through them: Charlie Parker recording with 
strings, Miles going all-electric; and so on, and so on...

Now, that's not to say that I don't partake in that fetishism myself: I love 
Reaktor on my Dell Inspiron; love Kid 606, Hrvatski, et al.--but must admit 
that I won't jump up & head downtown to see 'em when I see notice of a show! 
;)

- Greg Little
http://www.tohubohupuppettheater.com




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