Listening

Today, I'm writing a lecture for the Advertising students at the University of the East; it's about the music press, and is going to be based on the home-recording aspects of it, with a smidgin of imagery of women in hip hop. It is very much a condensed version of the paper I did at the Art of Record Production conference in Leeds last winter.
Condensed... well it keeps growing and I have to prune it back to a manageable size again. What a huge subject!
Its clarity is further muddied by an article in May's Word magazine, by Mark Ellen, on the wives and girlfriends of rock stars.
Caroline Coon drew my attention to it by sending a teaser, a quotation by a famous producer, asking me to guess who it was that had said such patently stupid things. It was Joe Boyd, old enough to know better or perhaps old enough not to care.
Ellen's tone throughout is a combination of prurience and revulsion; his journalism collapses and flounders.
You see, it's impossible to justify the morals associated with stardom. Warhol's 15 minutes of fame theory has resulted in a proliferation of men who justify the sneering abuse of women as a package wrapped up with musical skills, drug consumption and songwriting talent.
Thankfully, not all are like that. All I can say is that this particular article was pointless and formless and felt like a dustbin into which the experiences of a handful of women have been handed round like dirty postcards at the dregs of a party.
To calm down (and by jove, I need to!) I am listening to Ally Macleod's lovely songs. Martin has just finished recording her first album with her, and she has a lovely, deep and resonant voice.
I particularly like Rock Da Boat
Listen here at http://www.reverbnation.com/allymacleod