From: weitzman@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Adam J. Weitzman)
Subject: Out of hand
Organization: Brandeis University
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 13:44:23 GMT


What *is* it with you people? 

As clearly stated in the charter of this newsgroup, rec.music.industrial 
embraces Throbbing Gristle fans and Nine Inch Nails fans and Zoviet France
fans with equal warmth and affection. If a guy posts saying, "I like NIN but
I don't like Neubauten, what else is like NIN that I can buy?" then if you
don't have anything useful to say, why flood the group with "What a poseur,
go read the ICH and get some history" posts? It's not like he was saying
that he didn't think Neubauten was industrial, he actually *tried*! He bought
the tape/CD/8-track/whatever and *listened* to it and decided he didn't like
it. What's wrong with that? That's what a newsgroup is about (among other
things), to expose other people who are new to the concept of industrial
what they might enjoy. I've found that you have to break people into this
stuff slowly. First Depeche Mode, then NIN, then Front 242, then Puppy, 
etc, and only *then* are they truly ready to appreciate Neubauten. Give the
guy a couple years, and if he still doesn't like it, well, more power to his
wallet then. But you never know, he could end up loving it. 

The point is that talking about what you want to talk about is good, and this
group is specifically catered to accomodate all flavors of industrial. But 
flaming people for not having jumped headfirst into Throbbing Gristle is 
really pedantic and, in the final analysis, worthless. What does it prove, 
that you have "better taste" and love more lesser-known bands and are "truer" 
to the "industrial spirit" than the "poseurs" who think that "recent" Front 
Line Assembly "is" the greatest thing "since" passenger-side air "bags"?* Are 
you people really that insecure, that you need to flaunt your worldly knowledge
and insult others who own anything less noisy than radio static?

We all know that "industrial" is a loaded word, and it qualifies things ranging
from sampled-water-dripping-in-the-sink-looped-infinitely to loud-spoken-word-
angry-poem-over-noisy-electronics to big-drum-machine-sampled-televangelists-
two-note-pounding-synth-riff to waves-crashing-and-brids-chirping-with-
ominous-overtones to a number of other styles. Some of us like chocolate,
some of us like strawberry, and some of us even like vanilla now and then,
and some of us try some of each at various times, but it's all ice cream to
me, folks, and that's the way this newsgroup was defined, and that's why I
voted for it. How is it that "industrial" can get a rec group but "alternative"
can't and yet rmi fights *much* more often about "what is industrial" than
ama does about "what is alternative." Supposedly, "industrial" is better-
defined, and I agree with that assertion, but you people make it seem like
there is only one *true* industrial and if anyone brings up anything else,
they deserve to be flamed to toast. Surely you have better things to do with
your time, like helping the newcomers ease into it as opposed to being bitter
at them and scaring them away. And if they're not willing to go in that
direction, let them be, it's not the end of the world. But it all belongs here,
right in rmi, so please try to grin and bear it and get the noise level
here down to a reasonable level. I don't think that's so hard.

* Apologies to Dave Barry

-- 
					- Adam J Weitzman
					  weitzman@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial