1 December

There’s an oppressive social framework hidden in our passion for music. The economy of ‘cool’. Musical acts are central to the way people shape their social hierarchies. You can see it here in Luka Bloom’s fun take on Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Outta My Head. His and the audience’s chuckle reveals that oppressive social framework, like ‘wow, this is a Kylie Minogue song at a Luka Bloom gig’. Actually his rendition shows the beautiful chord structure of the Minogue song. But it’s not really culturally allowed, to like Kylie in the same way as you may like Luka. Ironically maybe, at best. Similarly some acts who are dripping in cool can produce pretty much musical garbage, but it’ll be worshipped regardless. It’s about social positioning. There are acts very high in the hierarchy of cool that I think have less musical talent than many high school bands. Even ‘all music is subjective’ points to this same social mechanism, people will not tolerate having their favourite acts challenged. It’s not a musical thing, its a social/cultural thing, You’re challenging their social hierarchies.