I agree on the whole with your views on this one tom. I'd like to point out, that even though America pushes individualism in every way, it has contrived some ingenious ways of sneaking conformity into the mix. It's almost like subgenres to me. You can think you're being individual by buying the most extreme clothing in dark tones and wearing shocking makeup and even bones around your neck, but in the end...you're just being goth. Or nerdy, or preppy, or gangsta, or any of the other prefabbed individual identities already marketed and concepted out for you by the corresponding media. Art zines, hip-hop zines, geek zines. They all come with their own sense of fashion and identity. Some kind of collective individuality. That's an oxymoron to most thinking people, but it's what most Americans engage in when they believe they're expressing their individuality. So that issue is a much more complex one in America due to the spread and almost ravenous feeding upon/profiting from of trends and fads. One kid may have been being an individual, but as soon as he gets a shot in someones blog, there's the rest coming to sign up. I'd even say, that save for the few visionaries, individualism is almost non-existent in America. I mean people still vote based on who they think will get the most votes (as opposed to who they believe in)and will openly say so in front of cameras. As someone said recently :)"The situation is grey."
k -----Original Message----- From: Thomas D. Cox, Jr. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 5:24 PM To: 313@hyperreal.org Subject: Re: (313) mad mike interview link On 2/13/07, diana potts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > re: techno- couldn't you really credit the roots (the > start of the chain reaction) to germany and well we > won't point any fingers for Giorgio Moroder and what > his productions lead to (viva Italia). both giorgio and kraftwerk took much influence from american music: see the quote about kraftwerk studying james brown's rhythm and just about any good moroder interview where he talks about motown and how he copied many of his ideas from american r+b. but that isnt the point, of course, and its not the argument i was trying to make. i was simply pointing out how many innovations have come from american (not even just in music, in general!) minds and that the focus on individuality has something to do with that. tom
