Is there a way to dislike music incorrectly?
Music criticism online is kind of in a weird place right now.
By Sebastian Cruz
Music criticism online is kind of in a weird place right now. Sites such as RateYourMusic and AlbumOfTheYear are oftentimes seen as populated by implacable gatekeepers. Even the sites’ users typically acknowledge the less-than-rosy reputation of the groups they are a part of.
All of this is to say that there is a pattern that I’ve caught onto regarding music-related discourse, especially in the online sphere. It involves a somewhat obscure musical project or artist becoming suddenly critically adored. The methods they get discovered and grow are important, but it’s how artists are discussed following their success that captivates me.
English experimental rock collective Black Country, New Road, and Baltimore-based rapper/producer JPEGMAFIA are two examples of artists that have been subject to this phenomenon. These two acts’ exponential explosion into the annals of music geek favoritism is already well-charted. Yet, their popularity comes with a proportionate amount of criticism as well.
There is an unspoken stigma surrounding these artists coincides with both acts’ shifts in their artistic direction. For example, Black Country, New Road underwent a sudden change, as the departure of their main vocalist Isaac Wood allowed for other members (bassist Tyler Hyde, saxophonist/flutist Lewis Evans, and pianist May Kershaw) to become vocalists themselves. The subsequent release of their concert film and later-coinciding album Live From Bush Hall was still met with warm reactions, but their direction afterward is uncertain. As the band continues to reinvent itself, fans, including myself, are questioning their ability to create something original while staying true to their past sound.
JPEGMAFIA celebrates a winning streak after releasing project after project, all met with varying amounts of praise by teaming up with a fellow outlandish hip-hop artist: Danny Brown. The following project, entitled SCARING THE HOES VOL. 1, is a true testament to both artists’ abilities to engender shock and awe. Let’s start with the title, which is stupid and unfunny. Then there’s the deliberately abrasive production, all done on an antiquated beat machine. So they’re “trolling” their listeners, as both are wont to do, several times over. And so people became incensed, from the title, the sound, the lyrics which aren’t so much complex bars as shotgun blasts of internet lingo and direct threats. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a project from this year that sounds like it.
What’s interesting about Live From Bush Hall and SCARING THE HOES are their direct reconciliations with fans and artistic shifts. BC, NR’s latest has numerous songs dedicated to Wood, the departed vocalist, frequently calling out to him to wish him well while affirming that they will also never be the same. Yet they open and close the project with what is effectively a mission statement, “Up Song”, that sets the tone of reinvention, rejuvenation, and unity that they want to keep throughout this difficult period. SCARING THE HOES, matching the music’s aggression, takes shots at the typical listeners of either rapper on the title track. The phrase “scaring the hoes” was (and perplexingly still is) a phrase meant to signify when one was playing music that is seen as too “weird” for general consumption. The rappers affirm that, yes, not only do their fans play inappropriately-toned music in certain situations, but their attitudes alienate others as well. And that’s where JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown’s point sort of ends.
I like both of these projects. I listen to them often. They are both the sort of endpoints to the career arcs of self-aware, transgressive artists. The current wave of pushback from listeners comes from an inability to contextualize or even accept the changes in artistic direction. Now that the proverbial veil has been lifted and listeners are to pick apart themes and lyrics that might call them out or otherwise may be at odds with what they liked beforehand. Sometimes, this knee-jerk denial of quality could have been chalked up to “selling out” or “abandoning their fans”.
All of these are symptoms of deemphasizing the artist, and instead wanting the audience to be accommodated for. There are problems with these projects as well, numerous ones. And they’re not difficult to find either, and neither are the merits of these projects. All it takes is the ability to appreciate what has been made, without the nagging thought of what could have been made or unmade.