this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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Post well known tunes into the megathread. Post fresh vibes individually.
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It was a pseudo-revival of mid-century folk music. It didn’t last because much of it didn’t have genuine proletarian roots like real folk music. It mimicked the aesthetic and sounds of folk music but none of the content. It never will when it’s just wealthy urbanites cosplaying as poor country bumpkins.
Folk music and related genres (like soul and country and blues) have all suffered for the same reason. Their class character is fake and purely aesthetic today. At least, for the super mainstream bands that make it on the Starbucks Spotify playlist.
There was a megathread a while back about Woody Guthrie. His music lasted because it captured a genuine aspect of working class America in a way that stomp clap hey never can. This Land Is Your Land was a political song. We don’t do that enough anymore, in the name of mass appeal and profit and merchandising. Even Bill Withers, who was merely center-left as far as I know, made music that mattered with lyrics opposing racism and war.
The whole hipster subculture was a grotesque imitation of working class americana, is it a coincidence that it emerged shortly after the subprime mortgage crisis? no it isn't, shopping from goodwill became popular out of necessity and then the aesthetics of thrifting emerged as a response because rich people felt alienated from the moment (the moment being the 2008 financial crisis). the saddest thing are fascists today trying to co-opt hipster aesthetics, a coarse imitation of an imitation that only vaguely retains its working class signifiers. a trend so passé that even having hipsters as the butt of the joke feels completely out-of-touch.