And speaking of Tangents, here is that very Mr.Fitchett talking about Baxendale and Daphne And Celeste. Not a bad article, but what is this we see in the D & C bit? “You know I’m always a bit sceptical of people who are, shall we say, fans of more left-field music, when they profess a passion for some hyped up teen-pop sensation. It never quite rings true, always smells a little of some kind of search for inverted cool: as in ‘I’m so cool I can even like naff teen-pop and it doesn’t mater; and the irony of it is it only makes me cooler!’ Hmmm.” Several slaps with a wet haddock for that one, Alistair! (Not that he’s talking about me, but what’s the good of reading anything if you cant take it personally?)
On the other hand I’ve had long years of being put on the defensive when it comes to chartpop and people assuming I like it ironically. I still don’t think I do, but my reaction’s shifting a bit from saying “No, no, I’m for real!”, to saying, “How do you know how I like music? And why does it matter?”. I think a lot of music discourse – mine certainly included – suffers from making assumptions about motive (but it’s such fun). I don’t know why I’m attracted to a song any more than I know why I’m attracted to a place, or a taste, or a person even. The reasons might be ‘good’ ones or they might be ‘bad’ ones – I want to impress other people, I’m fooling myself, I’m projecting some kind of fantasy. So as a writer what can I do? I can analyse the reasons all I want, but that doesn’t change or stop the attraction. Hmmm indeed.