From Chris Fahey Sent Mon, Jun 22nd 1998, 16:23
From Chris Fahey Sent Mon, Jun 22nd 1998, 16:23
> Champion that I. Unselfishly, of course.
> Think about it - we (in America -- I won't pretend to be able to speak
> for other cultures) live in one of the most rabidly anti-intellectual
> cultures conceivable. "Smart-guy" is largely considered an insult. In
> hip-hop 'schools', "stupid" was once "buttah."
> That the description of any music as intelligent should be looked upon
> strangely -- well, wear the strangeness. The music addressed here
> indeed is, for the most part, very intelligent, complex stuff, begging
> for abstraction.
The thing that's always bugged me about 'the I' is that the term
"intelligence" is usually used to refer to IQ tests, a traditional tool of
oppression and for the maintanance of racist, classist heirarchies. Besides,
the reason why "smart-guy" is considered an insult is because if you are
very smart, you have an advantage over most people and they understandably
resent it. I was taught that smart people should not rub that fact into
other people's faces and feel they are a different, higher class of person
than those with average or less brains. I was taught that modesty was good
and that snobbery was bad. I always thought that a smart person who did not
see themselves as having something in common with a dumb person in some way
was similar in many ways to a racist person.
There's nothing wrong with being smart or being proud of experiencing
your pleasures (i.e., music) in ways more mentally engaging ways than most
people do, but it's another thing to publicly refer to yourself as
intelligent and to infer that other people's cultural experiences are
intellectually inferior. I consider myself pretty clever, but I don't see
the point in purposefully separating people, and thus their arts, by
intelligence levels.
Yes we should fight anti-intellectualism, but I don't think intellectual
snobbery is the proper weapon. Shouting "philistine!" and locking oneself in
an ivory tower is a sure way to make sure that your 'high' culture will dry
up and die.
Personally, I like "underground techno" vs. IDM because it lets my
less-hip friends know that a) It's vaguely like techno, which they're
familiar with and b) It's probably more interesting and intellectually
challenging than regular techno, but maybe not. Maybe if they know something
more I'll drop "drum-n-bass" or "electro" (or even "hip hop", which, as
hinted at in the above post, is suspiciously perceived as an
anti-intellectual art form) on them and see how they react, but still with
no pressure to live up to some IQ standard. Then, when they've finally heard
it, they might have an open mind and can choose to like it or not without
having to feel like their taste is any reflection on their intelligence.
Some of the smartest people I know can't stand this stuff and love big
dumb mid-80's acid house, and I'm glad because there's some fuckin great
Anti-Intelligent Dance Music out there.
-Cf
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