OLE: ...And out come the wolves
London calling, now don’t look at us…
All that phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust… —The Clash
The QLE awards were held last Wednesday at Route 196 and, yes, all had a good time (to borrow a phrase from our favorite society columnist). We awarded acts such as Up Dharma Down, Taken By Cars, Intolerant, Loss of Control, Ciudad and some of them were kind enough to play a couple of tunes. Instead of trophies, we asked the artists to bring a couple of their albums and “award” them to each other. That was entirely Gang Badoy of RockEd’s idea — which all three of us immediately agreed to, since it was entirely in keeping with the spirit of the whole thing. Which was…?
Put simply: it’s to encourage listeners to think critically about what they listen to and why they like stuff in the first place. It wasn’t just the about how crappy the nominees in the Rock Awards were — rather it’s the fact that no one seemed to have the balls to call it out in the open. As my colleagues, Luis Katigbak and Quark Henares, pointed out, this has been a great year in music and it’s a shame that most of that wasn’t celebrated in what’s probably the only award-giving body for music that fans actually listen to. For me, personally, it was the point when someone pointed out to me that a lot of people would actually buy into the notion that these are the best of this year, and that’s that. That is a sobering thought. The idea of putting up a list of our own winners was never meant to set up another institution. I’d hate to think we’d have to do this every year.
Rather, instead of just waiting for the pundits to weigh in, it’ll be much more appropriate and welcome if everyone starts declaring their own winners. And make a big deal about it. Why? Because your opinion is as valid as any — and that’s really what all of this was about. It was about using critical thinking, to actually say you like a band, a movie or a work of art and understand why that’s so. It might be very abstract and ambiguous at first but trying to work out why it means this much to you and why you want others to pay attention to something is always good for oneself. For us, it’s always about music — for others, who knows? Maybe it’s something else. Whatever it is, the resulting realization or even just the gathering awareness is a true gift to both the listener and to the musician. I know of no great musician who makes music to win awards. I only know of ones who want to be able to communicate at least something of themselves to others.
And, of course, it’s always preferable to follow your own prejudices than to conform to others. If we follow the latter, we will always be victims. The phrase “A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves” comes to mind. Surely, rock ‘n’ roll was never intended to be the music of bleating lambs? If anything it’s taught us the opposite of that.
“I fought the law (but the law won)…”
“Fight the war, f**k the norm…”
“No more heroes…”
“No future sa pader…”
