Music Musings

Some music-related stories to comment on . . .

Noel Gallagher of the British band Oasis noted the slow sales of tickets for the annual music festival in Glastonbury, England, and cited the inclusion of Shawn Carter - Jay-Z to you, ofay! - on the roster of performers as a reason fewer tickets are being sold. Gallagher suggested that maybe hip-hop isn't as big a draw for the Glastonbury festival as rock acts are.

A spokeswoman for the festival, however, saw - you guessed it - racist overtones in Gallagher's remarks, citing the appearances of previous hip-hop acts. She found it disturbing that Gallagher would pick on a black performer.

Noel Gallagher isn't racist - he's rockist. :-) He obviously thinks rock is a superior musical genre. And so do I.

When are we going to stop accusing everyone who hates rap of hating black people as well? It's like being accused of misogyny if you don't support Hillary Clinton for President. Maybe if Shawn Carter actually sang his lyrics, played an instrument, and called himself by his legal name (as I just called him - so, there!), maybe rock fans would take him more seriously.

Meanwhile, yesterday was National Record Store Day, a day devoted to brick-and-mortar record stores, which today are threatened by computer downloading and Internet sales. Theoretically, I'd like to see record stores, both independent and chain stores, continue, and do so as the social gathering places for music fans that they've always been, but more recently I myself have been buying more records from online sources, mainly because the record stores I go to in the mall don't have what I want. If I have to order them specially, I might as well do so online. And, ironically, I've actually found independent record stores to be less of a source of records for my collection than chain stores and Internet shopping. I found most of Family's albums, for example, either through Internet shopping or - you'll never believe this - Borders!

Mostly, though, chain store selections are restricted to three categories: hip-hop, classic rock greatest-hits compilations, and Mariah Carey. :-p