In fact, every time someone starts harping on VW for racism I think, well, what about the Clash? A bunch of middle-class art-school students (hardly punks – they’d been musicians for years when they picked up the moniker) expropriating punk rage, and then reggae, then unabashed pop? Now, that caused some real outrage at the time. Chumbwumba (for chrissakes) splattered them with red paint to protest their selling out. Others questioned how they could possibly dare to play “authentic” like “Police and Thieves,” and so on, forever. And Wire – the mockney accent and punk affectations of Colin Newman and his band of upper-middle-class art school students and musos – surely would not have gone down a storm had they sung in posh accents using large vocabularies (though, certainly bassist graham lewis was happy to then and later in his career). And, of course, listen to Martin Hannett’s production of ESG’s debut single – one of the most sampled records in hip hop – or the Basement 5′s In Dub – or PIL’s Metal Box – the latter two being some of the best dub you’ll ever hear.

Sorry, so what does class or background or geography have to do with music anymore? Aside from the critics’ personal axe-to-grind? Class envy. Hype and backlash. The same old story. It’s all about asserting the critic’s place (be it a pro critic, a blogger, or a music consumer voicing his or her hatred) in judging when something that is becoming popular is or is not cool. Fuck them.

“If this all makes Contra seem like a fuckless episode of Gossip Girl written by Jimmy Buffett, then I’ve made my point.” Actually, if you ever get to the point where you write something this droolingly self-important and besides the point of the experience of listening to music, it’s time to stop listening to music.

The only real constant is that underground music (punk, hip hop, ska, rap, jungle, grime, speed metal), no matter how underground, if built around good/interesting/catchy sounds, will always go pop and then go stale and then become ironic. Is VW the new APB, Haircut 100, Chills, Jesus Jones, Nine Inch Nails, KLF (now there’s an interesting story), Pulp, Interpol? Who cares?

I like VW’s songs (though not Cousins – their worst effort to date). I like the Drums. I hate the Girls. I like the Manhattan Love Suicides. I hate the Vivian Girls. Who fucking cares? Nothing to see here, move along.

Describing a music critic as “old,” though, is a poor choice of words: Any critic you call old will take it personally, as an attack on his/her relevance.

Age isn’t the issue. It’s the ability to hear what a band is doing and place it in proper context. Good critics do that consistently no matter their age.

Remember: You’re only as old as the shows you see.

ps- Hipster runoff is soooo angry! Yr obviously too old to read btwn the lines, pops. The lack of “meaningful” content in music that many young ppl seem to embrace is ONLY BEING EMBRACED IRONICALLY as Hipster Runoff shows.

Vamp Weeks are fine.

If you look at all kinds of music being made today, you’ll find plenty of anger and dissatisfaction. Punk, hardcore, extreme metal, underground rap, and even good old folk music are still full of artists and performers who are not content with the state of things, and perfectly willing to vent their displeasure.

I think the issue might be that indie music, which Vampire Weekend can broadly be classified as, has become a tributary of the mainstream, and indie – both performers and audience – have become just as complacent and self-satisfied as the mainstream.

I think, though, that you are only responding to those who are able to articulate their rage against the Vampire Weekend. There are plenty, like myself, who just consider them fucking wack. I don’t think that they are racists, or even class traitors or whatever, I just think that their music is a heady blend of aggravating and unremarkable. I think that most critics jump the shark when they try to prove that stuff that just blows is “wrong.”

http://www.spin.com/articles/download-vampire-weekend-cover-rancid

* coming from and Indian man who went to college too