From: larry@csccat.cs.com (Larry Spence)
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc
Subject: Re: Do pretentious bands/singers spoil appreciation of their music?
Date: 23 Jul 92 00:05:48 GMT
Organization: Computer Support Corporation,  Dallas,Texas

In article <1992Jul22.020743.26123@chinet.chi.il.us> katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago) writes:
>In article <1992Jul20.173406.2975@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> laural@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (laura.l.la gassa) writes:
>
>>But what if I were to find out that Robin Guthrie was a complete ass?  This
>>is a tough one.  I adore Cocteau Twins' music.  I don't really want to know
>>about their personalities.  I feel so strongly about this that I avoided 
>>interviewing them once (not that I could have actually gotten the interview, 
>>but I could have tried).
>
>Believe me, I *know* what you mean!! Like you, I adore the Cocteau Twins
>and have since 1984, when I first bought _Treasure_. Partly because of
>the music, partly because of sentimentality, that album has always been
>my favorite. Last year I read an interview with the band and one of them
>said something that wounded me deeply, really hurt my feelings as a fan.
>It totally changed my perception of the band and I haven't been as 
>interested in them since. Don't get me wrong, I still love the music,
>and I'll buy anything they release, but I quit being anal about collecting
>and all the other "fannish" activity. I'll certainly never read another
>interview with the band, I'll just buy it for the photos of Liz....:-)
>
>I'm not giving details about what was said, but if you want to know, just
>e-mail me.

Aww, so Guthrie said that _Treasure_ was "an abortion."  Isn't it possible
(I'm just speculating) that he got tired of the CTs being portrayed as
these etherial, otherwordly, delicate, 4AD/v23-type folks and wanted to
shake things up a little?  I mean, even Kate Bush has said things like
"people will shit you" -- all of these performers are human beings, y'know.
And it's not uncommon at all to find out that someone's more popular work
was actually something that they just knocked out in no time, and/or which
they don't particularly like.  I think getting into the mode where one
thinks that one knows what's going through the artist's head, "where they're
coming from," etc., often just sets you up for a big letdown.  That tune
that everyone thought was about Man's/Woman's Transcendant Desire for
Breaking Down the Barriers of the Material Plane turns out to be about a 
really bad bout of constipation in Utah on the last tour... the "enigmatic 
gesture" on the home video is actually the singer wiping snot off her
nose... the ferocious vocals that conclude your favorite album were due to 
a knock-down-drag-out fight the singer had with her boyfriend before the
session, etc.  Do you think _they're_ going to tell you these mundane or
embarassing details in an interview?

>>So I'd have to conclude by saying that the artist's personality can
>>have a HUGE impact on how people like the art.  This is a terrible 
>>shame, but in the current celebrity-ridden star-fu**er pop culture of
>>ours, that's what happens.  That's one really great thing about unknown
>>bands -- people don't know anything about them to get in the way of
>>their perceptions of the music.

I don't think it's a "terrible shame" that I recently discovered that
Flavor Flav from PE thinks "clocking" his wife is defensible behavior.
Do you think that it would be better if I didn't know this?

>I've found that the artists who are my very favorites are really, *really*
>nice people. 

For the artists you list below, that's probably true.  But you admitted
that you really liked the Twins before.  If you find out that Jane or
Happy are into S&M (and there are genuinely _nice_ people who are into
this stuff, check out the current thread in a.s.b), or that they disowned
one of their albums, will they be struck from the list?  It's obviously a 
matter of opinion, but I don't think that trashing one's own work makes one 
"un-nice."  Wouldn't you say that it was simply that the Twins didn't match 
the ideal picture of them that you had before?  Is that their fault?  How
many artists would have the balls to openly admit that they didn't like
one of their works at all?  He had to know that _Treasure_ is considered
a classic by many, and that they would lose some fans and sales...

>Besides loving their music, I like the fact that they are
>decent, kind, friendly human beings. 

Yeah, but Robin is a friendly bear of a guy from what I've heard.  Maybe
Happy has said to Kevin (?) when no one else was around, "boy, <song> 
is pretty lame, I should've done a lot better than that," and that song
is your most-favoritest HR songs.  So what?  One of the coolest things 
about music is that any message that's sent may be received as something
very different, filtered through each listener's ears.  Feeling like
you've got to be in close sync with the artist's attitudes about every-
thing in order to be a true fan is setting yourself up for a letdown IMHO.

>In each case I knew about (and loved)
>the music before I knew anything about the artist, so learning more about
>the people behind the music, and finding out that they are the kind of
>people I'd choose for my friends, was a big plus.

But not in that case of the Twins.  Maybe the interview where Kate says,
"God, I hate _The Sensual World_, I wrote it while I was going through
a bad phase, but fortunately that's behind me now" has yet to occur...

I agree with Vickie's ideals -- I'd like the people who make the music
I like to be good people, too.  I really cringe at the thought that when
I buy a Public Enemy CD, some of the money is going to a wife-beater.
But I think that if we knew _everything_ about every artist, there would
probably be something in there that would be unattractive.  I'll stick
with judging the music, not the people, except in the case where the
money is going to support something I have strong feelings against (e.g.,
I probably _won't_ buy any more PE (sorry Chuck), or the work of an artist 
who contributes money to David Duke).  These sorts of things are more
important to me than whether the artist agrees with me on which of their
recordings is best/worst.  For all we know, _Treasure_ reminds Robin of
a really bad period in his life or something... Maybe the whole thing was
hacked together in a hurry and has bad edits all over it that we can't
hear...  His perspective on it has to be very different than yours or mine.

[soapbox begins making creaking noises]

-- 
Larry Spence
larry@cs.com
uunet!csccat!larry or sun!texsun!csccat!larry