Turn It Up

"That said, the anti-rockist polemic that resurged this decade seems to have developed a kind of runaway momentum, a malign logic that some people followed through to absurd places. You started getting people arguing that singling out a figure like Timbaland as an auteur and an innovator, that is rockist. Or that if you allowed your sense of the artist’s personality--their intent and integrity--to interfere with your enjoyment of a record, that meant your mind was still shackled by rockist hang-ups. There seems to be a drive towards eliminating all axes of judgement beyond pure pleasure, the supposed purity of the consumer’s unmediated experience of the pop commodity. The distinction between 'urgent' and 'trivial' is obviously a no-no for these heroic anti-rockists, but you even get people seriously debating whether distinctions based on quality--good/bad--are rockist and should be jettisoned. The most recent test case figure for this lunatic fringe of anti-rockism is Paris Hilton. When you’re developing elaborate validating analyses of Paris Hilton, that ought to be a sign that you’re gone too far! "

FACT magazine interviews Simon Reynolds on the eve of the publication of his new book, Bring the Noise: Twenty Years of Writing about Hip Rock and Hip Hop.


"A recurring theme in Bring The Noise is the search for music that combines a radical political edge with musical experimentalism and popular appeal. 'That would be ultimate ideal, but it's one that's virtually non-existent in the history of music!' says Simon."

And Anindya Bhattacharyya interviews Reynolds in Socialist Worker.