The Electronic Double Standard

Written for Collapse Board

A Quietus piece on Bruce Springsteen that suggested that there’s an “assumption that electronic music is automatically more modern and progressive” got me thinking.

I’ve always had a dismissive view of certain bands. Any act that is described as “the new Strokes” gets an automatic snort of derision from me: I didn’t like the old Strokes. I hated the White Stripes. I thought Beady Eye were bloody rubbish, and don’t even get me started on Oasis. If asked, I’d come up with a glib remark about how it’s like xeroxing from a photocopy: the quality degrades with each iteration. After all, why listen to something that sounds like the Stones when you can just listen to the Stones.

Yet I don’t have this attitude towards the slew of electro acts that seem to be absolutely everywhere at the moment. They dominated SXSW – when Bruce Springsteen wasn’t playing – and they mostly sound like this: 

#musicmonday : Fever Ray – When I Grow Up

Me: “Do you think Danielle Dax is curled up in a ball, whimpering, somewhere?”

Him Indoors: “She’s probably muttering … please reissue my greatest hits … please reissue my greatest hits …”