Dub, hip hop or techno?
A bit more on music. The Herald yesterday asked political party leaders ‘Dub, hip hop or techno?’ Ok, it’s a silly question and hardly what you’d expect from a paper taking its fourth estate role seriously. But it did highlight something of the fact that our politicians place so little value on youth culture. Jeanette and John Key managed to answer the question properly; the other 4 had to say something derisive. I suspect responses to other questions about culture (’Favourite festival: Chinese New Year, Deepavali or Eid ul Fitr?’) would elicit much more measured responses so as not to exclude or judge people.
On the other hand I’m sure youth culture is not going to be wounded by a lack of support from Clark, Dunne, Hide or Anderton. And, unexpectedly, maybe young people are interested in political policies as well as music?
October 6th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I cant see how not liking the type of music young people listen to means not supporting youth culture. Any more than being straight means not supporting gay culture (or vice versa), or being Christian means not supporting Jewish culture (or vice versa). Personally I think there is nothing more pathetic than a middle age man or woman pretending to be a teenager. i work with young people aged 19-26 most days, and they respect me more for not being a phoney and pretending I like something I don’t
October 6th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
I don’t care if they don’t like dub, hip hop or techno. It was the dismissive way they treated those genres of music I found a bit odd. Apart from Jeanette and Key, they had made what I assume is a politically strategic choice to actively show their dislike for those genres. (Because that’s how most of these questions are answered by politicians.) The alternative would have been to say ‘I don’t really enjoy any of those genres but my preference is …’ or to say ‘I don’t know’.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Frog
“I don’t care if they don’t like dub, hip hop or techno. It was the dismissive way they treated those genres of music I found a bit odd”
Surely you are not being serious?
October 6th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
It was about as sensible of a question as asking me who my favorite opera singer is….
I’d dismiss the stupid question out of hand straight away. That said key looked a little silly with his answer, as did clark.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
And … its not CALLED TECHNO!
Techno is a subgenre of dance music, which you barely ever hear in NZ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techno
October 6th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
How come none of them picked this?
John Key, Phil Goff & Winnie the Poop especially, given the reference to boot camps?
October 6th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Frog, Dub, hip hop or techno? That’s not even a properly constructed question. The only honest answers I can think of to that question is “what about them?” or “what do you want to know about them?”
From the answers the politicians gave I presume the question was placed in some context juring the phone interview. If they were actually asked “which would you prefer to listen to - Dub, hip hop or techno?” then we got six honest, non-judgemental answers.
Perhaps in the interest of providing balance, they could have asked
a) bluegrass, country, or western
b) heavy metal, R&B, soul
c) The wiggles, Bananas in Pajamas, Barney
Including the original question, that covers most age groups, regions of the country, and genuine musical genres.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:13 am
What does knowing about dub and techno have to do with knowledge of youth culture, Frog? Aren’t the current manifestations of the genre just dusting off their previous incarnations with a new sales pitch? I have a middle-aged has-been fondness for The Clash’s dub album (Sandinista from 1980 - itself a white-boy homage to the previous generation of innovators), but perhaps my belief in its existence is a sign of growing senility?
I blame today’s yoof. The number of young fogeys in (presumably) their mum’s cast off Ramones T-shirts these days is shocking. No offence meant to the Ramones. See you at Punkfest.