Lo-Fi : The Aesthetics and Ideologies of Primitive Popular Music

Transcription

1 Lo-Fi : The Aesthetics and Ideologies of Primitive Popular Music Adam Harper adam.harper@wadh.ox.ac.uk

2 The word primitive generally refers to someone or something less complex, or less advanced, than the person or thing to which it is being compared. It is conventionally defined in negative terms, as lacking in elements such as organization, refinement and technological accomplishment... The fact that the primitive state of being is comparative is enormously important in gaining an understanding of the concept, but equally so is the recognition that it is no mere fact of nature. - Colin Rhodes, Primitivism and Modern Art, 13. Primitivism

3 Lo-Fi OED 1976: Sound reproduction less good in quality than hi-fi. OED 2006: A genre of rock music characterized by minimal production, giving a raw and unsophisticated sound OED 2006: Of, designating, or belonging to (a genre of) rock music deliberately recorded on basic equipment using simple production techniques, in order to achieve a raw and unsophisticated sound OED 2006: Unpolished, amateurish, or technologically unsophisticated, especially as a deliberate aesthetic choice. Daniel Johnston: Grievances from Songs of Pain (1980).

4 Folk The more wild and freely acting a people is, the more wild, that is, the more lively, free, sensuous and lyrically acting its songs must be...! The farther from artificial, scientific ways of thought, speech and letters a people is, the less its songs are made for paper and for dead literate verses [call for] 'folk songs, provincial songs, peasant songs which would be equal in liveliness and rhythm [and] naive manner J.G. Herder, Über Ossian und die Lieder alter Völker (1773). Folk music is fun to listen to and perform; especially when it is amateur and not professional - Mike Seeger, New Lost City Ramblers, Gardyloo 4 (Late July 1959), 5. Superbly professional, in the nonpejorative sense of the word as applied to folk-music... polished but completely free from any trace of slickness or commercialism. - Roger Lass, review of Music for Moonshiners (Judson LP), by The Laurel River Valley Boys, Caravan, June 1958, 11.

5 New York State Library, Albany NY

6 Lo-fi in the 1980s You hear more emotion and raw nerve than you will hear from a million dollars worth of studio equipment, a million dollars more. - David Ciaffardini, review of The What of Whom, Yip-Jump Music, Hi, How Are You, Continued Story, Respect and Retired Boxer (Stress Records cassettes), by Daniel Johnston, Sound Choice 9 (Winter Solstice 1987), 58. [Jandek] single-handedly debunked some of the sacred rules of record-making and musicmaking in general... the fact that he refuses to play the game only serves to accentuate how hollow the game is - Bill Callahan, review of You Walk Alone and On the Way (Corwood LPs), by Jandek, Disaster 6 (January 1990). [Beat Happening s] simple melodies and offkey vocals have a peculiar warming effect especially in these days of high-tech wizardry - Burt Lumb, Independently Speaking, Novus 31 (April / May 1986), 21. Beat Happening were like the kid who pointed out the emperor's nakedness - they strip away the layers of rock and roll illusion - K. Spielmann,... and the Beat Just Keeps on Happening, Puncture 20 (n.d., ca. mid 1990), 36.

7 Lo-Fi in the 1990s Pavement Haphazardly recorded, full of as much snap and crackle as pop, the low-fi output of bands such as Pavement... and Sebadoh seems to indicate that they think a studio is merely the name for a small apartment... such willful dissonance is probably... a reaction against the sterility of modern, big-budget production. - Mike Rubin, review of Bee Thousand (Scat CD / LP), by Guided by Voices, Spin 10, no. 4 (July 1994), 69.

8 Lo-Fi in the 2000s-2010s Ariel Pink Willis Earl Beal

9 Lo-Fi : The Aesthetics and Ideologies of Primitive Popular Music Adam Harper adam.harper@wadh.ox.ac.uk