DerangedRogerKimballGhost
No bio...
User ID: 3359
DerangedRogerKimballGhost
1mo ago
An easy counterpoint is that both should account for some liberal arts education, and at differing levels of rigor; that there’s specific benefit in high school for a future plumber, and specific benefit in college for a future banker, etc.
DerangedRogerKimballGhost
1mo ago
I think there is value in a humanities education (though I suspect not as currently subjugated to one political cause). It was always intended as a finishing school and there is actual value in that. I don’t regret my English degree, paid for by in-state tuition at a public ivy. The price was tolerable, there. I was fortunate to get mine in the Aughts and things weren’t quite so critical-theory heavy.
And, I’ve got a comfortable career in finserv. Far from being a barista.
While I agree there is an overproduction of PhDs, I disagree that the general undergraduate population doesn’t benefit from exposure if not from gen-ed courses, alone, and think we’d be much poorer, culturally, as a society, were college purely a mercenary pursuit. Let us at least produce enough professors for the latter. It can’t all be a procession of unmitigated STEM sperges and unmoderated B-school sociopaths.
This is adjacent to the subject, above, but an approach I found novel and interesting. I am trying to remember the podcast, and episode of it, that I listened to. The guest being interviewed was in charge of applying genre labels to musical acts for a streaming music service. He talked about including scene membership among his criteria.
His example was categorizing The Jam as punk. He noted that a lot of younger listeners didn’t think they sounded as would be expected for a punk band. But as part of the aforementioned guest’s criteria, the Jam toured around with and shared stage bills with other acts who were more recognizable and categorized as punk bands. The had other influences like mod-rock and new wave that confused younger listeners who didn’t think of them as an act that would be peers with the Buzzcocks, etc.
I had not heard of Laufey before this post. Her Wikipedia bio doesn’t indicate she has ever been part of a jazz scene. She has played the London Jazz Festival after releasing her debut album, and surely studied jazz at Berklee. But her youth was spent as a classical cellist. Wikipedia had a list of venues from her 2024 tour, and jazz clubs aren’t among them.
In terms of tackiness, I think Laufey’s lack of connection with jazz artists in that scene as it currently exists comes across as a lack of authenticity. Those of her fans who resent the claim she is a jazz-inspired pop artist likely sense this and wish to avoid that stigma.
This could be applied to resentment of Beyonce and Shaboozey within the country music world, and counter-resentment by their fans of much of that industry.
Also, racial dynamics are at play. It’s an insult Beyoncé isn’t celebrated by the country music industry. But Snow, conversely, is a joke. Even though he grew up with Jamaican immigrants in public housing in Toronto and came to appreciate reggae because of his upbringing.
More options
Context Copy link