Rockism

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I've seen this term bandied around a lot here and elswhere, and I'd really like to know what it means, specifically: is this just the average beer-bellied Queen fan we are talking about here? Do Rockists acknowedlege Punk? Can a person enjoy non-Rock but nevertheless not modern genres like Jazz, Soul, Country and/or Blues and still be a Rockist? Or is it just a catch-all term for people not into electronic music and/or top40 hits?

Personaly, I love Aphex Twin, Phil Spector, Nelly, Outkast, Basement Jaxx and The Herbaliser; but I also love Pearl Jam, Blur and Sheryl Crow, and that seems to have pigeonholded me as a rockist already to various people I've talked to over the 'net.

Final aside: wouldn't it have been very fucking cool if in the 60's live action version of "Batman", he and Robin had fought a villian called The Rockist? He could've been an evil limey starting a "British Invasion" on the good ol' U.S. of A. and...oh well. They had to do with Liberace instead.

― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

rockism thread

― geeta, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

zzzzz.

― jess, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

who put Jess to bed early? you'll miss Dog Eat Dog, dude!
rockism is similar to pre-postradicalism, as in "guess you ain't free from the need to be free yet, sucka". i'm a confirmed post-rockist (NOT postrock-ist) but still an unabashed albumist!

some of us like to bandy about terms like 'bandy about', too

― Paul, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

besides, isn't ILM beatist anyway? thump thump, my toes can do a jig to the metronome.

― Firecracker Firecracker, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This thread is totally rockist.

And so is this one!

― Jeff W, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'Rockist' = 'someone who loves rock' OR 'someone who hates it'?? which is it? If the former, I am. If the latter, I'm a rappist. (Take careful note of the double p.)

― Anna Rose, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's neither of those things Anna, but nobody can agree on what it actually is, as the threads linked to demonstrate.

― Jeff W, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

[rockist <=> rock] = [sexist <=> sex]

― mark s, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sexism in small doses is necessary for sex otherwise nobody would DO it

― dave q, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i believe we should not have sexualism on this thread. no racialism or sexualism or rockulism.

and you know what's wrong with all of these? they lack any trace of an "indie" ethic. indie is definitely not sexualist.

― Maurice E, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"rockulism" replaces "palabumum" as my nu-fave word

― mark s, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You're such a rockulismist.

― Dave225, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yay me!!

― mark s, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ah, I see...according to the various threads linked here, none of you have the foggiest idea what "Rockism" means, either. That's cleared up, then. :)

― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i know exactly what it means daniel, but everyone is afraid of catching what i haf

― mark s, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

And I know who coined the expression to begin with - it was the Jimmy Tarbuck of pop, and ironically the most rockulist rockulist ever - Pete Wylie (cue another album of maudlin anthems about the 'Pool, don't let 'em beat ya down, etc., which will sell in its dozens).

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Do I have to know what it means to call someone it?

― Ronan, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Daniel, I think it probably meant something fairly clear at one time, but it's been extended to cover so much more ground that it's very hard to know what it means any more. It grates on my nerves, actually. When I found out that you could be a rockist without even listening to rock music, I just got disgusted with the whole thing. Maybe I'm just being defensive about examining my own probably dubious notions of authenticity? From what I gather rockism in its extended meaning includes a preference for songs (as opposed to textural sound constructions and whatnot) and for some sort of authenticity.

― DeRayMi, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

an observation re: the term rockism. as someone who is fairly new round these parts and doesn't post too often, rockism also comes across as some kind of catch all in joke for the people who've been here quite some time and thus has a quite isolating effect. i'm not saying this is deliberate or anything, but occasionally you feel you have to do your term to understand some of these things and be allowed into some sort of inner sanctum of ILM...

― commonswings, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

a preference for songs

i see it as more the other way, a preference for albums over individual songs - ie the 'a great artist makes more than one song' type ethos

― gareth, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

a preference for albums over individual songs

Isn't that an AORulist?

― Dave225, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i am much too old to forget that i know in my bones what "rockism" means => i try and use other words but decades of habit kick in and wreck my good intentions

tom delete me now

― mark s, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i see it as more the other way, a preference for albums over individual songs

I forgot that part. But isn't it also a matter of preferring the song form over pieces of music structured in other ways? Or am I just wrong about that. I'm definitely not rockist in the sense of thinking that albums should be the unit of recorded music, rather than songs. Of course, for reasons of economics and for convenience (so I don't have to keep putting on new songs, or make my own mixes, etc.) I appreciate good albums.

commonswings, I'm sure you aren't alone in feeling this. Realistically, it would be difficult for old timers (and I'm not one, by the way) to stop and explain every inside joke, strange spelling, etc. An ILM FAQ is also an unrealistic thought, I guess. (The search engine is helpful. Are you aware of it? It's on the ILM top level under Searching ILM.) Another thing: there are groups of people who post here who know each other in real life, or who have at least met in person. (Again, I am not in that loop, and in some ways I prefer remaining anonymous.)

― DeRayMi, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the ILM FAQ is an on-going project, allegedly

― mark s, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Emphasis on allegedly?

― DeRayMi, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

well i haven't the slightest idea who is "in charge" of it, for example (and i'm not volunteering either) (even if i do know what rockism is!!)

― mark s, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

seventeen years pass...

Does this term really date back to Paul Morley and Ian Oenman era of NME, as referenced by Marcus Grey in “The Last Gang in Town” (1995). He cites “rockist” as “ a common term of abuse” (p. 377)

― Οὖτις, Sunday, 22 March 2020 01:02 (six years ago)

Penman

― Οὖτις, Sunday, 22 March 2020 01:02 (six years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.