Kenny Chang Kenny is actually not cool
at all. He will, however, accept any challenges at [email protected] to match
musical wits with anyone (he needs redemption from his previous
loss).
So one day I was walking with a friend. We were chatting about
normal things ““ the weather, mutual friends, local sports
teams, and then the conversation traversed to another common topic
on which everyone has an opinion ““ music.
Local bands, classic rock groups, modern rock, indie rock,
underground hip hop ““ we talked about it all. But what was
this? I was outmatched. Every obscure band and group name I could
think of, my friend, now my competitor and arch-nemesis, knew, and
could top me off with another group I didn’t know.
I couldn’t compete anymore “¦ I just tucked my tail
between my legs, mumbled that I had never heard of some of these
bands, and brought up a mutual acquaintance and an interesting
anecdote about him. Soon, we were back to senseless conversation,
but I had this dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach ““ I
was not up to par with this guy; I was not cool.
So what’s up with this
underground/independent/unheard-of/foreign music infatuation that
seems to be so prominent in college? Whether it be hip-hop groups
like Sound Providers or Subterranean, or performers like Clinic or
Pedro the Lion (Haven’t heard of them? You’re not cool
…), something’s going on. It’s not “in”
to be “mainstream.”
It’s not in to be mainstream anymore. MTV doesn’t
seem to satisfy enough people, and it’s almost a curse to
cool to be on that channel. Commonly heard are lines like,
“Oh, they’ve sold out,” or “They were
better when they were underground.”
The radio isn’t quite cool enough anymore either. Where
has all the popularity of KROQ gone? Now all we hear is, “Oh,
all they play is crap-rock now,” or just plain old, “I
don’t like what they play on the radio anymore.”
There seems to be some sort of musical phenomenon by which all
college students have to love certain groups that don’t get
much attention. There’s always a devoted following of Dave
Matthews, Ben Harper or Jack Johnson. I’m not saying
they’re bad. To say so would be taboo, and of course, I
wouldn’t be cool.
I mean, how many times have you tried to be the first one to
tell all your friends about some band they’ve never heard of
before? To promote some group from obscurity makes you appear so
knowledgeable and that you’re up on the “scene.”
It all goes in hand with the “cooler than thou”
attitude and the lecherous smirk you get when someone says they
“don’t know them.”
Well, I’ve had my share of rubbing people’s faces
into the dung of musical uncoolness, and I never knew why I did it.
Maybe it’s the whole college competitiveness thing, where
we’ve crushed our high school foes to make our way into the
university.
Or maybe it’s like that feeling you get when the loudmouth
person in discussion ““ the one who always asks those damn
questions to attempt to make themselves sound so smart ““ gets
an answer wrong. And it was you who took hold of the situation and
got it right, and shoved the correct answer down their ugly
misshapen face.Is that where it all spawned from? Because that does
seem rather cool.
Well, then, what exactly is this cool “college
sound?”
A lot of it seems to do with folky music, or stuff from Great
Britain. Then there’s the underground hip hop, where
it’s all about the lyrics now, and money and hoes are
commodities and garden tools. Of course there are the folks who are
into musical expansion and trying to be more
“cultured,” so there’s some delving into jazz and
reggae. Electronica will always have its massive collection of
subgenres and those who talk about how great the music is that
comes from Europe, and everything that gets airplay here is crap,
isn’t it? But what is the one, common, unifying
characteristic in all of them?
It’s not cool to be “mainstream.”
But is it a band’s submission to the mainstream, or is it
the fact that a band is widely accepted and makes several grips of
money that makes them uncool?
Because take for example Radiohead. They are certainly
mainstream. Yet they are, in many circles, cool. Is it because they
denounce their success, because they are self-deprecating? Is the
cool community therefore reverent to humility? Is mainstreamness
and its negative connotations an attitude?
But these words tire me. I don’t even know the meaning of
them. What is mainstream? What is underground? What is selling out?
Is it selling out to do what you love, and make a living at it? Is
it selling out to exercise creativity in an attempt to
entertain?
So here’s what I’ve figured out ““ nothing.
Every piece of music we hear is someone’s brainchild. Someone
put their efforts, be it their heart or mind, into it. It’s
made for us (the consumers), and I’m not going to “sell
out” to myself by turning away from the mainstream.
And I’m not going to get all preachy to all of you who
made it this far either. So with that, bring on the mainstream
music! (See, by going for the mainstream, I’m being
“too cool” for underground/indie music. So in the end,
I’m cooler than all the “cool” music heads, which
makes me the ultimate cool!)
Kenny is actually not cool at all. He will, however, accept any
challenges at [email protected] to match musical wits with
anyone (he needs redemption from his previous loss).