Hipster Trap

Critical Review #2

Thorton elicits that "[t]his club scene sees itself as an outlaw culture, but its main antagonist is not the police (who arrest and imprison) but the media who continually threaten to release its cultural knowledge to other social groups" (90). The "mainstream" here is never us, rather, it is them (whomever that them may be). Because Western culture predominantly values autonomy and individuality over all else, we never want to be seen as "just like everybody else", what some might label as a conformist. We want to be unlike the rest. A certain dichotomy arises, however, when we strive to be individuals within a group. We long for the solidarity that common interests offer (i.e. a group of friends, similar taste in music) but at some point we become selfish and see the Sharons and the Tracys invading what we once claimed as our own.

Why is it that we are so intent upon keeping music cultures out of the public eye? If music didn't have such a profound effect on everyone, then it wouldn't be as meaningful. So why is it that as soon as a band emerges and becomes more popular we brush it off as "overplayed" or "too trendy"?

Critical Review #1

McClary, Susan. "Same As It Ever Was: Youth Culture and Music." Microphone Fiends. 1994: 29-40. Brown University Library, Providence, RI. 25 Jan. 2009.

The title to this article, “Same as it Ever Was”, is fitting, as McClary’s main argument rests on the fact that innovations in music, or rather, the new genres generated by youth, are constantly criticized by the rest of society. As a musical historian, McClary reviews the main historical controversies that new genres of music have initiated throughout time; Plato, Saint Augustine, and even Calvin have rejected music of one form or another. The argument cited most often by these musical opponents is that the new form of music, and, as stressed by McClary, the dances associated with that music, will cause unrest and inappropriate behavior in youth. As she says, “denouncements of these twin threats—subversion of authority and seduction by means of the body—recur as constants throughout music history.” Although the philosophical greats condemn music for its role in revolutionary activity, McClary asserts that there is a need to find the common effects that music has on listeners in order to analyze the listener’s social actions. From this perspective, she observes that the historical disputes (musically speaking) tend center around gender and sexuality.

At one point, McClary quotes Saint Augustine, who, while writing about the dangers of music said “..I ought not allow my mind to be paralyzed by the gratification of my senses, which often lead it astray.” Augustine and other denounce music for its sensual effects, insinuating that taking pleasure in music is almost sinful. What kind of social constructions may have contributed to this perspective, and how might listening to certain kinds of music effect the social structures we experience today?