jamie, sin ningún tipo de vergüenza

RE: ‘authenticity’

tukru-perkele:

“People are more likely to assume that a woman didn’t write her songs, or that she must have had help. People are more likely to assume that a woman had her clothes picked out for her. People are more likely to assume that a woman has someone planning her career for him. And in EVERY case, people are more likely to assume that any of this matters. People gloss right over the fact that Anita Pallenberg dressed The Rolling Stones. Or that someone else gave The Sex Pistols their name along with their wardrobe. That someone dressed The Clash. That Joy Division didn’t have any say over how their first records sounded. That Nirvana reluctantly allowed Sub Pop to release a cover as their first single. That Elvis Presley never wrote a song in his life. That Bob Dylan changed his name. That the manager of The Beatles insist they trade their leather jackets for suits. That The Velvet Underground were managed and influenced by Andy Warhol. That Berry Gordy controlled every single thing that came out on Motown until 1970. That The Byrds, or The Eagles for that matter, didn’t play on their early records. All of those artists are, aside from a minority of dissenters, seen as authentic and real.”

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SO MUCH THIS. “Authenticity” is bullshit, everything is manufactured. Anyone who insists differently is either a teenager not yet out of their “real music” phase, hopelessly misinformed, or both.
Music columns | Everything Is Plastic - The Corrupting Ideal of Authenticity | COLLAPSE BOARD (via lastyearsgirl)

I was JUST talking about this with another young music writer, and there it is in my likes, where I’d momentarily forgotten about it! The Goddess works in mysterious ways!

I agree wholeheartedly with the observation that female/woman-identified artists are more subject to this criticism than male artists. And the commentary about who actually buys into ‘authenticity’ rings pretty true. I don’t agree with the phrasing ‘everything is manufactured’, though. I think it’s more accurate to say that ‘everything is constructed’. Every single one of us is the sum of the choices we make — what we choose to wear, what we choose to listen to, who we choose to associate with, what we choose to eat, etc., etc. Not a single one of us is ‘authentic’. We’re only what we decide to be, do, and believe in.

Debunking the concept of ‘authenticity’ is especially important to me because dude bros have been using it to shut people out of ‘punk’ for fucking EVER, with their punk points and street cred, and bullshit ranking of who’s legit enough to be in the club and who isn’t. It’s exclusive, petty garbage, and it’s a complete waste of time and energy that could be spent on creating literature, art, and music that opens us all up to new ideas and does something that’s actually worthwhile.

It bums me out and really concerns me that so many people feel so comfortable with putting down artists as poseurs or fakes or ‘inauthentic’. It bums me out that so many writers are totally fine with imposing their tastes on other people and using them as an objective measurement of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ (breaking news: ‘objectivity’ is, like ‘authenticity’, not at all valid). But this is why we make our own media, build our own networks, and establish our own criteria and methods for engaging with art: to resist perpetuating hierarchical, oppressive modes of ‘though’.