How much do you think somebody's upbringing influences their 'muse'? Does it make a difference if one's parents are dead (Lennon, Madonna)abusive (Jackson, Wilson) or absent (Cobain, Gallagher)? We all know Elvis was a happy mummy's boy, but what about the progeny of 'cultured' upper-middle-class nuclear families (Jagger, Iggy, Morrison, Nick Cave)? Does it matter that Ice Cube and Chuck D come from professional, 2-parent units but Tupac's mom was a revolutionary intellectual/crack ho? Nature v. nurture?
― tarden, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
You answered the question in the question! AND, your last question
about taste basically equated to 'what is man's relationship to
being?' Not that I care, I think these are excellent questions. The
one about being's a bit difficult but.
― M.S., Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
BTW by "middle-class" I meant in the American 'professional' sense,
not the Brit 'old-money' sense.
― tarden, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
Can't speak for the rest of them, but Iggy Pop did *NOT* grow up in an
upper-middle-class environment.....unless of course living in a
trailer park falls under some new classification of wealth that I'm
not aware of.
― alex in nyc, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
Is this a question about class, or is it a question about
dysfunctional families?
― Kerry Keane, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
This is largely an American-culture analysis, but: I get the feeling
that people who grow up with large amounts of personal freedom (i.e.,
lack of parental supervision) and lowered expectations for success
(i.e., no one cares whether they finish high school or not) tend to
approach rock music in a different manner than people whose
upbringings were more sheltered, structured, or what-have-you: the
former group tend toward music that is up-front, urgent, and
emotional, while I'd say the latter tend toward music that is more
stylized, analytical, and reserved. Obviously, that's not meant as a
blanket statement, but I think it holds as a general trend. I don't
know how significant it is, though, as one could make the same
argument about personality as a whole: it comes down to saying that
the latter type of person tends to be more "polite" or "mannered" and
the other doesn't. Which usually isn't a surprise to anyone.
As one of the mannered, polite folks---which is to say, a kid who
always felt vaguely uncomfortable among the other kids who listened
to the same rock music he did---the continuing insistence of some
people that rock is somehow "all about" the former type has always,
always bugged the hell out of me.
― Nitsuh, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link