Some Pretentious Bullshit

Presumably like anyone supporting a certain aesthetic or piece of art, I often find myself needing to justify those things I support.  I guess that isn’t necessary for everyone.  But one of things I like about art is its potential to be mutually appreciated and shared with others, and once you realize how difficult it is to do that with people (how do you ever know someone ‘gets’ that Bob Dylan song like you do?), it becomes important to promote opinions about stuff as much as stuff itself.  Because they may help facilitate genuine sharing and appreciation.  On that note, I realized today that much of my ‘taste’ reflects a certain pecularity, which upon explanation might help clarify many of my own aesthetic judgements. 

What it is is that, I feel like most people I know make aesthetic judgements based on the ‘mainstream standard’.  What I mean is that their judgements are defined by music and art that explicitly distinguishes itself from or even rejects mainstream stuff.  So, as far as that logic goes, much radio-friendly dance and hip-hop is to be immediately ignored by these people; and bands like Bon Iver get a big thumbs up because they’re still representative of ‘authentic indie culture’ and for that very reason seem verified as ‘good’ from the perspective of good taste.

But in my case, I generally take the ‘indie standard’ as the standard, and not the mainstream stuff.  So for me, someone who never listens to radio and doesn’t give a damn about mainstream except for challenging it, indie underground long ago became the mainstream (Pitchfork is surely hipster culture’s MTV).  That’s how I can consider bands like Bon Iver, M83, and Kurt Vile to be very much in the mainstream. And since my knee jerk reaction has always been to revolt against the mainstream, I find myself appealing more and more to art that this type of person might consider ‘too mainstream’ for their sensibilities.  Still, indie underground being mainstream, mainstream culture opens up to me and appeals in new ways after all. 

Don’t get me wrong: I haven’t been listening to Rihanna or Lady Gaga.  But my artistic engagement always reflects a conscious disapproval of one mainstream for something else.  Yeah, ok, I know that’s some pretentious bullshit right there.