Article Response: Betjeman Beat

Had almost forgotten this one, quite something! :-) What comes to my mind now is the question how does what has happened in particular over the past few years -- the further spreading of the 'Net and in particular hi-speed net access, the continuing expansion of the catalogue of sounds and obsessions available -- mean for where a young musician's head will be at in the suburbs in the UK? I believe Stevem and others were randomly talking about this in the grime thread.

Well, I'm only talking about one particular strain of suburb, a middle-class home counties type - I can't remember whether I make that clear in the piece but it's pretty obvious. I don't think the Net makes an enormous amount of difference - the cultural separatism that exists in suburbia is one of choice not lack. Obviously the Net can massively expand a kid's horizons but I think the values and living conditions in the suburbs are pretty much the same.

(Actually the Net in the popular middle england imagination has become One More Thing To Be Scared Of in some ways)

Thought as much, I thought I might throw the idea out there. My own limited sense of direct experience with said suburbs of sorts has been ending up in Luton for the airport. And regardless of what you have around there's still the weather as well (for some reason Hood strikes me as as a specific writing-for-a-setting-without-talking-about-the-setting group and weather factors into that vision for me).

(Oh yes, I *do* have a strong idea for a new FT article, I just need to write it!)