More thoughts on HONK!
We went to the parade today, and while my video from that is uploading, I have some amendements to make from my prior post.
I was sort of sour on the whole politics angle of the HONK! bands. I think what I said was true, that basically, if the goal is to convert the unconverted, spectacles like this aren’t going to be the forum where that happens. My experience is that the only time peoples’ minds are changed is when there is some personal connection between two people that transcends politics, and then they have to reconcile their feelings to their viewpoints. Anyway, so, maybe people are not going to hear the Leftist Marching Band’s song about Wal-Mart and are suddenly going to see the light and say, yeah, they treat their workers like crap, I’m not going to shop there.
But I think there is something to the politics of the music itself that I basically buy into. First off, it’s just a total non-product. Very few of the bands there were even selling CDs. None of these people are making their living from their music, they are just out there for the joy of the thing. (I’m guessing here, to be fair: but I suspect that only a relative handful of people are making a living from music these days, and the folks in the HONK bands have not given up their day jobs). But the format of this kind of music is just not salable; it can barely even be recorded well. I mean, it technically can be recorded, and it can even sound pretty good. But unless you have a really crazy sound system at home, it’s just not going to sound like 10 horns and 5 percussionists (or more) standing 3 or 4 feet away from you, there’s not going to be a crowd dancing all smelly after a day of dancing.
I also feel like it opens a viable door for popular music. I guess it’s not popular in the sense that a lot of people like it. But it is pop music in the sense that you don’t need any kind of specialized cultural context or background to have an immediate visceral human reaction to people blowing horns and banging drums in front of you. It’s a popular music that you can participate in just by listening to it and ditching the snobbery and admitting that you like it– you don’t have to buy a T-Shirt, you don’t have to participate in some kind of record store nerd snottery, you don’t have to claim your turf as part of a subculture (there were townies, trustafarians, old crusty Cambridge folkies, new somerville yuppies with their kids in their maclaren strollers, and Click and Clack the Tappett Brothers for god’s sake). You can just listen and shake your butt and be happy to be in the middle of something great on a couple of gorgeous New England autumn days.
And I love that it just harkens to a time when if you wanted music, you just made it. You didn’t go shopping.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Years ago I went to see a play by a well regarded local playwright. (SPOILER ALERT: Conservative Governments and Corporations run by White, Christian, Republican Males are BAD and are ruining everything.) Afterwards, everyone was gushing about what a great, important, challenging, blahblahblah play it was. PLEASE. I’d never seen such an orgy of smug, self-congratulatory, self-righteousness. Not one person there had their views challenged, just affirmed. I was evasive and non-commital every time someone asked me what I thought of the play because I was so disgusted I could have puked. Of course, that might have been all the free champagne and hors d’oeuvres at the reception afterwards. Why didn’t they just distribute THAT to the poor and disenfranchised?
October 13th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Hey Ezra!
On the politics:
Penn and Teller did a great episode on their show Bullsh*t that made “feel-good” activism like some of that seen at Honkfest! look really stupid. (Their ultimate point was that, if you *really* want to change political views, you need to engage economically. Money talks, wearing funny clothes, while funny, doesn’t really accomplish much.)
On the music:
The other obvious aspect of non-recordability is being literally surrounded by the instruments, or only getting part of what’s going on when you’re there, because half the instruments are pointed the other way. That said, some of the music was really good.
Mark!
October 13th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Hey, Mark, welcome to the blog!
Marco, you’re such a walking crabcake sometimes. Even though I took the long way around and probably spent more time griping than I shoud have, I actually do love this event. In this case, I gripe because I love.
October 13th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Well, I wouldn’t say you’re entirely wrong in your assessment of me. Mind you, I wasn’t dissing the event itself. It sounds like a good time but there’s a fair amount of feel good activism in this town and sometimes it wears on me. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been offered a flyer, asked to sign a petition, or join a mailing list for one cause or another. I do think change is possible but it’s not going to happen by staging a play for a group of like-minded individuals or handing out leaflets in front of a drum circle.