peterr@utcsrgv.UUCP (Peter Rowley) (10/17/83)
Good news for fans of Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yaz(oo)): He's got a new band, sans Alf Moyet (sigh-- she added soul to electropop), called "The Assembly". Good news for fans of Virgin Records: They're going to distribute their material in North America themselves rather than relying on co.'s like Polygram that don't release much of their catalogue. Finally, my 2 cents on the jazz controversy. I can't see how strict demarcation of various musics aids anything except false senses of superiority based on tribalism. General categories help to organize record stores, but I think I'd be happy if everything were mixed together, ordered by composer. If Bach and the Beatles were side-by-side in the bins, think of the pleasures generated by Beatles enthusiasts picking up on Bach, and vice-versa... In a local interview, Jean-Luc Ponty (is he is on the approved jazz list?) quite firmly called jazz listeners more snobbish than rock listeners. But there is an interesting question behind all this, alluded to in the various comments-- how does one distinguish between technical ability, popularity, and "goodness"? I think the 3 are orthogonal; Asia, for example, is said to be a technically excellent band, is certainly a popular one, but is not "good" because their songs are said to be highly derivative. The Sex Pistols were not technically proficient, but they were popular and hailed by quite a few critics. There does appear to be a correlation between innovation and the critics' opinion of an artist. p. rowley, U. Toronto