The Sound of Class Warfare

My opinions about Super Tuesday, Rush Limbaugh, the status of the Euro and tensions between Israel and Iran have no place at There Stands the Glass. Yet after perusing the responses to the announcement of the lineup for Kansas City's annual Rockfest I can not longer keep my thoughts on a music-related social issue to myself.

"I'm sure there will be 50,000 rowdy losers in Harley shirts and ripped blue jeans throwing their cigarette butts all over Liberty Memorial," sniffed a commenter at a popular music blog. "Me? I'm excited about Radiohead on Sunday. I doubt many Rockfest attendees will be at that show. God, I hope not."

What an ostentatious snob! I'm repulsed when music is employed as a signifier of cultural superiority. It doesn't matter if it's a Radiohead proponent looking down at a Shinedown fan, an opera lover dismissing pop music. a backpacker advocate of the Roots mocking kids who like Soulja Boy or a guy in a Miles Davis t-shirt ridiculing Kenny G. Such elitist dismissals are often rooted in caste and class rather than in actual music preferences.

I'm not suggesting that Flo Rida is the artistic equal of Ornette Coleman. He's not. But gratuitously dismissing fans of "bad" music as uneducated morons isn't merely offensive. Such aspersions often betray an economic and sociological bias. Besides, I love this song.


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I reviewed Saturday's concert by The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra.

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Stik Figa has released a free new EP.

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The Spinto Band proves that there's still life in a popular meme in its excellent spoof of SXSW.

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Ronnie Montrose has died. I remember being titillated by the album cover of Jump On It.

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The new Vijay Iyer album really is all that.

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Kansas City Click: Chali 2na performs at the Riot Room on Tuesday.

The Chieftains perform at Helzberg Hall on Wednesday.

Alaturka returns to the R Bar on Thursday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)