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Post by pcpcpcpcpcpcpcpcp on Jun 10, 2015 22:06:25 GMT
sorry i know this is a bit late coming, and i think someone else touched on this, but I was talking to another PC Music fan about this, and we were saying that it seemed that a lot of people (i.e. music bloggers, ranters on other online forums) are overlooking the fact that Polly stated that she was trying to make a joke about appropriation. Of course, it turned out rather horribly. But it was our understanding that she was trying to say something along the lines of "the Diabatés are stealing Bombay Bicycle Club's Beats!" which is a completely ludicrous statement if you look at how BBC is influenced by African Beats, and, if she had worded it that way, wouldn't have caused a problem. I've noticed in interviews (both on paper and in the "confessions" video) that Polly seems to be pulling a lot of shit out of her ass (see what she says about her morning routine in the "confessions" video or a large chunk of her Guardian interview). That being said, I am really disappointed with what Polly "texted", especially since i got the joke and could see how close she was to saying it in a way that did not involve racial slurs/comments.
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Post by twigs on Jun 10, 2015 22:33:34 GMT
it was a joke about the "appropriation" of traditionally african music by white indie bands in the context of a white, vapid festival-goer commenting on how actual traditionally african music reminds her (GFOTY, not polly) of a white indie band
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Post by loukessler on Jun 10, 2015 22:42:11 GMT
The feminine "appropriation" argument is stupid on so many levels.
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Post by ignatz on Jun 11, 2015 4:18:14 GMT
If she was really acting as a "character" and purposely released those messages, it's no different from someone playing a racist character on a television show. Except, you would be offended as POC watching a racist character on a show when there is no moment of catharsis or overall lesson to be learned. That's comedy though, sometimes watching shitty people being shitty is its own hilarity. Again, you look at stuff like Tim & Eric and MillionDollarExtreme that people in the PCM crew are into and its absurdist humor that's built around making people uncomfortable or exploring the weird subtexts in things. I mean if it's not for you it's not for you, but I don't think it's morally wrong to show an outrageous character without overtly underlining "btw this is bad". The feminine "appropriation" argument is stupid on so many levels. yep, and if you wanted to play their game you could say it's rather offensive to bring it up in a discussion of GFOTY who is an artist in her own right... almost as though they are suggesting that she is merely a front for AG Cook & co... h mmmm m
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Post by loukessler on Jun 11, 2015 15:02:16 GMT
To me, PCM has been about the AMBIGUITYyYyYyY of modern day music. It's no longer just a guy or GIRL and a guitar. There is usually a production TEAM, a promotional team, studio musicians, producer, mixer, etc. Just look at kanye west's production credits. It's usually a vast team working together behind the scenes to create something. PCM acknowledges this with it's 'avatars or characters' being used as a 'front' for the music. It's just an interesting and FuNn way of doing things, imo.
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Post by oc on Jun 11, 2015 19:21:16 GMT
Has there been any formal confirmation Dog Food isn't happening? RA, Dice and Red Gallery have all taken it off their websites so I'm not holding my breath (and I guess it would make sense).
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Post by rampface on Jun 11, 2015 19:31:01 GMT
Wow this sucks.
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a_M
Junior Member
Posts: 62
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Post by a_M on Jun 11, 2015 20:04:02 GMT
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Post by oc on Jun 11, 2015 20:23:23 GMT
Confirmed via email.
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Post by Keith_Courage on Jun 11, 2015 20:31:42 GMT
woah
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Post by ¬ on Jun 11, 2015 21:50:08 GMT
This has been blown so out of proportion it's fucking ridiculous. It's probably just because the "support" acts have dropped out (I thought they might've gotten Kane West to replace them after a cryptic tweet but apparently not). Poor Spinee (seemingly the organiser of the event) probably doesn't have any idea what to do any more than I would in that situation. So they played it safe by cancelling it - an unfortunate but, in terms of PR, not an unjustified one. Shame, I was looking forward to this (particularly the live return of DJ WARLORD), even though I wasn't actually going myself. At this point, now that everything's been said, I just hope Polly's doing okay, she probably feels terrible
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Post by ignatz on Jun 12, 2015 5:14:53 GMT
Hate that they've cancelled it but I suppose we can't really know what's gong on behind the scenes. And if this is PC Music's first brush with real controversy, at least it's a subdued one. imo this will blow over as soon as they release new music or do something to "change the convo" so to speak. Fortunately since the beginning of 2015 was pretty quiet I'm guessing they've got plenty of stuff to roll out this summer.
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Post by oc on Jun 12, 2015 6:22:38 GMT
As much as I wanted to go I think it's probably the right decision to cancel, especially given it was so soon after the whole controversy. I can't imagine it would have looked good for the venue, promoters, basically everyone involved behind the scenes (before we even get to PCM) to essentially carry on as if nothing had happened. There's also every chance you could have had people turn up purely to disrupt the event given what had happened which would only have exacerbated the situation. You can't exactly cut GFOTY from a Dog Food event so there were very few options left.
Also, I don't really think you can give GFOTY a pass just because other people have done worse things and gotten away with them.
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Post by Borp on Jun 12, 2015 9:17:46 GMT
It really sucks for Spinee that they cancelled, but it's the sensible thing to do.
Lotic is ridiculous and his comments are kind of only vaguely relevant it felt, and attacking PC Music as a whole just kinda says to me that he was waiting for something to jump on them for rather than actually caring about the cause. It discredits his argument somewhat i think.
A thing i think a lot of people are missing with her comment though, isn't the 'blacked up' part and more that she see's African people doing something that isn't westernised and the first thought that she has is that they are tribal. This just screams internalised racism to me, and the fact that she's only apologised for the 'joke' part of the comment again just shows that she has no idea why you cannot label traditionally African things as tribal, or that she's done something wrong. It's painfully racist to have that mentality. Her joke about appropriation, while offensive, was something people can easily shrug off. It's the unconscious views that she holds that are so negative.
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Post by flaneur on Jun 12, 2015 14:19:47 GMT
^ My impression was that that comment was also meant to be part of the joke, as in how the ignorant posh white people who she's parodying call Africa a country and treat African culture as some monolithic primitive ("tribal") entity despite the fact that Africa is the second most populous continent on the planet and is incredibly diverse ethnically, culturally, linguistically, etc. Kind of a set up for the Bombay Bicycle Club appropriation joke. That being said, this is a joke that imitates life a little too closely; the character of GFOTY isn't nearly exaggerated enough here, and consequently this looks like a text that could've easily just been lifted from the phone of some white person whose internalized casual racism likes to surface when they're drunk at a music festival.
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