27 Jan 11 On the Notion of Support 2
The directly economic: “support” means, literally, to give money to a group of musicians. To buy their merchandise, to purchase their records, and – by extension – this meaning also lends itself to the activities appended to these economic choices, although this second category is in itself completely different and separate: “support” meaning listening to an album, giving it one’s time, not ignoring it or rejecting it offhand, and then (the most important): allowing one’s stated opinion to conform, always, to an approbation or agreement with the music of these artists, the aesthetics of their pursuits and productions, and never to appear at cross purposes with the artists’ place in the “scene hierarchy”. To “support”, then, is just to hold oneself back from uttering anything negative concerning another artist, to refrain from casting doubt, suspicion, or blame on their productions. “Support” in this instance appears in the positive action of aesthetic corroboration and alliance and also in the act of refraining from the negative: that is, the notion of “support” takes upon itself the meaning of the positive and the domain of the neutral next to it. The only way to breach support is to utter the negative. Merely by keeping one’s mouth shut or pen silent one gives “support” to the actions of others.
