Taking Sides: Buena Vista Social Club vs. O Brother Where Art Thou?

Like Ken Burns' CD comp serious didn't have near the same impact on "classic jazz" as this bluegrass thing. It was too diffuse.

O Brother... Even if it was market-driven bullshit (I thought it was an alright soundtrack) I loved the fact that it was such an unexpected phenomenon. Was the style of music ripe for a comeback? Perhaps. It's nearly impossible to predict these kinds though, which makes them interesting.

listening recently to the production of 'micro' house producers such as akufen and iz and diz (particularly brad peeps remixes of 'mouth') i can hear a bluegrass radio clicky funk that has been threatening to emerge in a while. I like fusion and re-interpretation in music and these producers are into creating off centre dancefloor tracks with a lot of bluegrass style vocals mashed through digital treatments and some very funky arrangements that nod to twenties and thirties music (not that i really now this era but i recognise the albums mnetioned in the question!). I like it all.

I really really liked Buena Vista. Don't get why it gets stigmatised so much.

It gets stigmatized because it's the hip "othered" music of the moment which EVERY yuppy fucker and his Aunt Lilian must own.

i think you can't dissasociate the albums from the films too much. it also says something about the nature of the albums - "o brother" as a film is a romp, probably the lightest coen brother film since "raising arizona" and the soundtrack like the film is an act of pastiche. lots of contemporary musicians trying to emulate past genres in the same way the coens are doffing their collective hats to preston sturges

"buena vista" however stigmatised as yuppies music of choice it may be has a different aim. the film and the album are different beasts - you get the feeling the album is a sort of airbrushed retread of old glories, sort of as if some AOR heavy hitters from america came over and recorded with someone like the copper family in a tribute to old folk songs. it's very calculated you feel but it's a good primer and a way into a form of music otherly you might not know about. poo- pooing it as yuppie music is tantamount to snobbery though i think. BUT when you put it in the context of the documentary the album does tend to come alive - these are people who had never recorded for years finally getting the chance to again and their passion and joy does come through in the film. i thought the album so so before the film, afterwards i really enjoyed it. but i think the film far far the best thing about it. without the context it struggles a lot...

It gets stigmatized because it's the hip "othered" music of the moment which EVERY yuppy fucker and his Aunt Lilian must own

My personal bugbear is modernist Argentinian Tango accordianist Astor Piazzola. Don't get me wrong. He's brilliant!

BUT

I can't help noticing that everywhere I go, from Britain to Brazil, from student grunge, to high middle class - I walk into a party and they're playing Piazzola as the universal signifier of classy sophistication and taste. Modern, but not too atonal. Passionate but technical and controled. Jazzy, but without the jazz cliches. Ethnic but civilized.

Maybe I just got adult. Maybe I just hang with wrong crowd. But this must stop. It's time for a ban on Piazzola until we can hear him with fresh ears.

(I confess, I used to be guilty of playing him at parties too.)

Can't you lump Moby in with the bluegrass revival? Same underlying forces driving the popularity of each, I think. A "return to the roots."

the soundtrack like the film is an act of pastiche. lots of contemporary musicians trying to emulate past genres in the same way
I disagree with this--much of the soundtrack is original material from past times, esp stuff like Ralph Stanley, and the other artist who are doing "new" material have been working this field for a while, like Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch. It doesn't seem like pastiche to me, but an authentic love of the traditional form.

I like both of these albums, but then again I like both of these styles of music, and have for a while. People elsethread have been complaining a lot about BVSC being everywhere and yes, that can certainly be annoying. My problem with the BVSC phenomenon is more all of the half-hearted spinoff solo albums that came afterwards. The Ibrahim Ferrer album was great, part of the first post-BVSC Ruben Gonzales album was great (until you realized that he's now playing the same licks over and over again and it gets annoying after a while), but a lot of the rest of them were less inspired. That still doesn't take away from the initial release, which is still amazing if you don't listen to it every few minutes at every coffee shop you happen to pass.

Cachaito Lopez (the bass player) did a great BVSC spin-off album. He actually tried to update the sound by cross-breeding it with dubby effects. Worked very well--nice spacey acoustic grooves with open- ended melodies.

''My personal bugbear is modernist Argentinian Tango accordianist Astor Piazzola. Don't get me wrong. He's brilliant!

BUT

I can't help noticing that everywhere I go, from Britain to Brazil, from student grunge, to high middle class - I walk into a party and they're playing Piazzola as the universal signifier of classy sophistication and taste. Modern, but not too atonal. Passionate but technical and controled. Jazzy, but without the jazz cliches. Ethnic but civilized.

Maybe I just got adult. Maybe I just hang with wrong crowd. But this must stop. It's time for a ban on Piazzola until we can hear him with fresh ears.

(I confess, I used to be guilty of playing him at parties too.)''

I was actually gonna do a thread about him as I was just listening to an album that I bought of his last sunday (La camorra: good thing i saw it as I didn't see a copy in the UK) and then I saw this.

Well, I don't go to parties since I don't know enough ppl (heh) (and anyway, how can you play such music as a soundtrack to a fucking party!) but it's really good. The reason I like is because it's not that groovy, and his arrangements are quality and the way he crams two/three tunes/ideas within one piece.

Strange, I didn't know he was that HUGE BUT still why ban it, you know? Just because you are tired of hearing him. I'm looking for live alb. Any recommendations?

In relation to the question I don't know. I haven't heard/seen anything to comment.

Started thread so ans there please.

bvsc are like the wu-tang clan of world music - the law of diminishing returns is in full effect.

the whole going-to-yuppie-parties-and-hearing-this thing is annoying, but i'd rather hear that then the usual yuppie party fare. at least this isn't actually bad music, it's just good music liked by bad people.

it sounds like these people like it because it's a) popular and b) good for what they want to do with it. what's so bad about that?