Jello Biafra on VBS’ Soft Focus
One of the ongoing benefits of watching Ian Svenonius lead each episode of Soft Focus is that the topic of conversation is so loosely guided that it’s likely to change direction a few dozen times before the short interview is over. No truer is this than in the case of the recent episode featuring Jello Biafra. Discussion bounces between talk of lost Wesley Willis material, to punk as novelty music, to his role as dictator in the Dead Kennedys to his thoughts on Obama and the election (and on and on and on).
One of the most interesting thoughts that is raised by Svenonius is how to classify the difference between pop music that’s good and pop music that’s, essentially, horse shit (my words, not his). Previously Biafra had touched on, to paraphrase, the difference between music listeners: “What the Stooges or the Damned or Johnny Cash means to us, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors means to them.” While I couldn’t agree more (this is something that continues to separate my sister and I, musically, to this very day), it creates a divide in ideology: where do you draw the line?
As Biafra explains, his line is far from an academic measure, but rather a feeling: do I feel the magic? If a piece of music sucks, it sucks, and if it’s good, you’ve got to stay away from continually over-analyzing it so that you refrain from becoming so academically-focused that you don’t enjoy the music anymore. I suppose this translates most recently to a few albums, personally—not to compare them musically, but rather the feeling that follows—Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest did little for me lyrically, but was good to listen too; which is not unlike my experience with Kelly Clarkson or Green Day. Veckatimest might be the exception that lands somewhere in a grouping of my favorite albums of the year due to the nature of its sounds and how they give me that “magical feeling,” but they’re all the same in the way that I ended up enjoying them. Whether you call it an academic approach, elitist, or just stubbornness, the idea that music can’t be good because of some non-tangible is borderline blind. In reality, I tend to enjoy far more commercial music, or music by on-the-radar musicians than I do unsigned, or emerging musicians. And more times than not it has nothing to do with where they’re coming from or how much they’re charging for concert tickets… rather, simply do I feel the magic?
