This time, while browsing for music, I came across a 'best of' list preceded by an insightful introduction which resonated with the 'history as an artificial construct ' thing we were exploring through our class blogs. The passage explains that music, as a cultural artifact, gets subjected to the same canon-making, narrative and aesthetic shaping that architecture does. Music, however, is much more readily produced and thus more time-sensitive.
"More than anything, decade lists affirm not necessarily the "best" albums, but which albums define that publication's cultural and aesthetic values at that moment. Sure, an album or two might slip through the cracks by publishing early, but the collective values implied by this ritual remain more or less intact."
"But taste is an ever-shifting, vibrant son of a bitch, isn't it? If we had compiled a list of this scope just three years ago, the result would reflect a very different set of tastes and values. Indeed, this list is just one momentary glimpse of TMT, one way to leave our mark, one way to essentially project our aesthetic and cultural biases into the future. Shit, maybe posterity has more to do with this than we think."
This isn't exactly a huge revelation to anyone I know but I just thought it was interesting to see an affirmation of what we've learnt in another artistic realm, plus really well expressed.
link to full page and best of list here:
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