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Tuesday, January 31, 2006 

Nothing lasts

I have to resist the urge to link to every one of his posts, but mark k-punk's latest missive is especially interesting in the light of all those death-of-classical-music, death-of-jazz, death-of-rock type articles you see. It's struck me in my post-teen years (the teen years spent busily and futilely protesting that rock* is vital) that while these things aren't dead they're not really alive; an observation I never really said anything about, so once again I'm struck by someone else saying it in a way that makes me realise if I hadn't been so lazy I might have been on to something:

Cultures have vibrancy, piquancy only for a while. Lyric poetry, the novel, opera, jazz had their Time; there is no question of these cultures dying, they survive, but with their will-to-power diminished, their capacity to define a Time lost. No longer historic or existential, they become historical and aesthetic - lifestyle options not ways of life.

Still, better him than me - I wouldn't have put it half as well. The rest of the post is even better. It makes you (me) want to start a band, one that doesn't talk to the NME and doesn't accept awards and doesn't pretend to hate only acceptable bands and doesn't do a bunch of other half-articulated things.

*(for a particular value of "rock", obviously)



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Ian Mathers is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Stylus, the Village Voice, Resident Advisor, PopMatters, and elsewhere. He does stuff and it magically appears here.

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