Sunday, May 18, 2008

No, I'm the greatest

Our music is the best...no our music is the best...we dont think it's as cut and dry as being American vs. British, Male vs. Female but there is some truth in those observations.
excerpts from an article read this morning on the BBC website:


Boasting used to be a very un-British trait - but in a world of work where its hard to measure one employee against another, it's increasingly important, says Lucy Kellaway.


Humility - one of the seven virtues - rules out bragging about how many sea monsters you have slain or discussing the vastness of your IQ on national TV.


...now boasting is back with a vengeance and is seen as cool. Pop songs used to be about love of other people, but now they are about love of self: The rapper R Kelly sings "I'm the World's Greatest", and Christina Aguilera responds with "I am beautiful, in every single way…"

Bigging up

The self-esteem movement has a lot to answer for by dictating that unless we learn to love ourselves we won't be able to love others, which strikes me as an extraordinary hypothesis. Where is the proof?

full article here

1 comment:

dsfdsf said...

There is truth to "must love oneself before you love someone else" but there is a difference between self-confidence and braggadocio. One who makes repetitive and insistent statements about themselves begs the question "Are you really self-confident?".
I strive to maintain my self-confidence without letting people know but I, like many other struggling artists/musicians, find myself lost in the cavalcade of numerous other artists and musicians. In the age of Picasso, Rilke, Satie, and Joplin, music as a profession was not as widely respected or rewarded as it can be today--this is why you see far fewer aspirations met. At least financially.
Interesting, this leads to an army of unknown, unheard musicians who will possibly never be heralded by anyone outside of their group of friends and possibly a relative who wishes to bolster their legacy.

Looking back at the Motown days of America, New Orleans and Philadelphia soul were widely overlooking in terms of distribution but where would a DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist 7" set be without Eddie Bo?

Interesting post, it's something that has been on my mind quite frequently.