This wins for the longest thread in recent memory. Thanks to all (and Tom) for not getting super-salty and personal for a change.
My 2 Cents: Tittsworth just played here. I haven't even heard his records, but in my opinion he ripped sh*t up. He throws everything but the kitchen sink into his sets -- all sorts of classic rock, Nirvana, Michael Jackson, Booty House, and what I presume is the BMore club stuff Tom is so exercised about. I had fun, and the rest of the people in the spot had fun. And Iowa City has a huge population of ironic hipsters, but they don't come out for our dance events. We get people who want to dance and get crazy -- black, white, old, young, gutter punks and club kids. I don't claim any authenticity for the scene, but a dance crowd here has almost no overlap with the hipster set. The hipster set doesn't even LIKE The Picador -- the club Tittsworth played at -- because it's cinderblock cave with filthy floors and lousy ventilation. I honestly don't see how he was being ironic -- even when he dropped Journey. Like Jason Forrest, it's funny when they quote cheesy pop music, but they do it because they love it, not because they're all PoMo. Whatever the hell Tittsworth does it seemed genuinely his own. Tom or anyone can diss him for cultural appropriation, but I don't think it's the whole story. Contrast what he does with, for example, DJ Funk. I know Chuck a little -- he's played here several times, and I spent one very weird night driving him around town. Nice enough guy. Funk is very much an authentic proponent of Booty House. But his show consists of mixing between two CDRs in Pioneer CD decks, and him jumping around and clowning. People seem to like it, but as far as a musical performance goes, give me Tittsworth any day. Either music is real, and it works or it isn't and it doesn't. Talking about cultural imperialism is all well and good but there is _NO_ african-american music that has ever stayed purely black. Aretha's records were produced by a Turk and had white musicians all over them. Elvis isn't a particularly good example either -- Public Enemy's famous diss notwithstanding. Especially when you've got Pat Boone covering Little Richard to beat up on. And we have to consider the audience -- NO African American music has become a popular phenomenon without a white audience. And once it has a white audience you hear muttering from some black folks about artists 'tomming' for that audience. Or in Spike Lee's case with Bamboozled, fairly shouting from the rooftops. Curiously, you mostly hear complaints about cultural appropriation from white people. They want their black music like they want their gourmet chocolate -- pure and black. I'm not calling Tom out about it either -- love him or hate him, agree or disagree, Tom's passion for the music is real. But I really wonder how valid it is for the dominant culture to demand 'authenticity' in the music produced by the minority culture.
