18 Jan 11 On the Notion of Support 1
For a system of musical styles, an interrelated combination and array of musical movements, it is interesting how often these phrases regarding “support” arise in the traditional discourse. They occur often enough that one who has more than even than the most rudimentary curiosity (indeed, a sludgy, sloth-like, swamp curiosity that, hopefully, can raise its head from the mire and look around itself – prepare for evolution!) must indeed reflect upon (or pretend to, for the benefit of one’s illusory ego and the mock appreciation of one’s friends/enemies) the various appearances of this motif and its meaning – if it has any – within the greater transfers of vague postures and vain arrogations, aggrandizements usually apportioned to be the common conversation of metal’s disciples.
Notice that this phrase and idea (if it is even that, and not just an empty sack, a black hole, lacunae in various forms of conversation, sound and fury, etc.) also appears in the punk world, and it may have actually originated there. It is certainly an “underground” idea in that it appeals to a popular (democratic, mass movement, minorities masquerading as majorities with power) ideal of aesthetic or musical, creative control through the willful apportionment of extra-economic maintenance. “Support” in its various forms, of course, always seems to be reducible to the economic, even as it pretends to appear in a social context or as an index of emotional or philosophical underpinning or joint structuring. Its appeal is the approbation of the group – that most democratic of all indexes of “excellence” – or the maintenance of singular pursuits through the well-wishes of those left behind, the “support” of those who fail to arrive at similar aesthetic conclusions and who yet remain in the rear, supposedly admiring.
