New Musical Express,
December 18 1976
The title of Paul Stump's excellent book on prog rock captures this idea - we're all about the music, we don't put on a show, we leave that to commercial bands - but then again, one of the things that prog bands, or some prog bands, explored was, well, showmanship: theatrics, costumes.... Jethro Tull and Gabriel-era Genesis being only two of the most blatant examples
There is a good bit in Philip Auslander's excellent, unusually-angled study of glam rock, Performing Glam Rock, where he contrasts the Underground's gestural language onstage with glam artists. He talks about your prog or blues-heavy or acid-jam type band would project inwardness - as if totally absorbed in making music. No eye contact with the audience, no banter.... almost acting as if the audience wasn't there. Eyes closed often. No strutting or guitar poses or moving about. A fairly static, perpendicular, concentrating-hard sort of stage presence.
Interestingly Wendy Fonarow in her excellent study of British indie rock Empire of Dirt talks about "gaze strategies" - how bands, particularly shoegazey bands, similarly project inwardness, "lost in music", an obliviousness to the audience's existence. This suggests that as much as it comes from shyness and from the need to look down at all those foot peals, the gazing at shoes is an instinctive re-irruption of an Underground era mode of anti-performance.
Slowdive did talk about they were more influenced by Pink Floyd than Sex Pistols.
This exact critique has been recycled by people who hate the past decade of mainstream hip-hop: they see it as all about grasping for clout and grasping for attention on social media rather than intelligent lyrics or MC skills.
ReplyDeleteYeah a lot of mainstream rap is regarded as on the same level as hair metal. (which is not inaccurate on a thematic level and the glitz of the image - but misses the innovations with vocals and ad libs and Auto-Tune etc)
Delete