Against Radiohead, or, Contrary To Popular Belief Music Existed Before 1990

I have made no secret of the hatred I reserve for the writing of James Poulos (a.k.a Postmodern Conservative, a.k.a. "annoying guy from American Scene"). His work is pompous, overwrought, rancid with unnecessary polysyllabic voodoo, and tries desperately to sound intellectual; he's like a smart Paul J. Cella, or a 21st-century Chris Lacaria. Reading his work is like beating yourself in the face with a thesaurus. (Probably Poulos angers me so much because I'm projecting my own fear of academicism and my cripplingly low self-esteem onto him -- but that's not important right now.)

Less often do I take issue with Poulos' actual arguments. Usually they're so far out in conservative neverland that I can see his preconceptions coming and take his (generally sound) logic for what it is. But this week, he's produced a great big article about a subject very close to my heart -- the generational politics of rock music -- that is so completely misinformed and profoundly wrong that's it's driven me to new levels of wild, head-through-monitor frustration. Here's a sample:

For the generations that came of age as Radiohead got huge, patterns of life seem to have emerged that mutually reinforce and confirm a downward revision of expectations. The band’s catalog tracks the increasing acceptance of a newly fundamental degree of contingency, incompleteness, and transience. It extends across careers and love lives, shaping attitudes reaching from domestic politics to cosmic fate. Many now seem happy just to find or help create the passages of experience that permit momentary and communal escapes. Immanent and transcendent, such fugitive moments of therapeutic authenticity ameliorate the painful costs of being comprehensively compromised.

OMFG SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS. Even if you shear away the clearly compensatory Hegelian verbosity, this is nothing more than self-important superfan wanking mixed with pop-sociology bullshit and -- typically of the "classical liberal" set -- a complete and voluntary divorce from historical context. It's just crying out for a response.

So I'll provide some of my trademark fair-minded rebuttals, some music criticism, and an explanation of why Radiohead actually sucks, after the jump.

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