the land of make believe

this evening i read warren zanes' dusty in memphis, a book all about the record. well, rather, it is a book about what the record is about. and, rather than being about the south, dusty in memphis is about a fantasy of the south. it is escapism. the questions of appropriation, authenticity, and appropriation are all germane as well.

i've never been enamored of the southern myth. initially, the book challenged me; why would i ever read an ethnography of the south? the album serves as a hook; i love the record, quite separately from any southern myth it relies upon. (in fact, the album is notable for it's relative lack of reliance on southern tropes) ultimately, the book both named and reinforced what i've always found difficult about the south: its unassailable authenticity within the popular american myth. i've never found 'the blues' aesthetically appealing, and whether that is based on issues of the 'aesthetic emotion' or an aversion to sticky questions of the authentic is hard to say. to what extent jerry wexler is exploiting that sense of 'real' in sending dusty springfield to memphis is a key part of the book. also, to what extent the south represented the 'make believe' that dusty always traded in, as an individual; is it merely more vaudeville, another mask.

remember moby's play album, looping alan lomax's recordings of old bluesmen over techno tracks? this book also clarifies what put me off so much about that enterprise (aside from the fact that i really didn't like the music). 'authenticity' was the word, again. by putting 'authentic' blues recordings in a techno context, moby made techno 'real'. those old blues records had 'feeling', see.

a lot of the current vancouver hipster fascination with 'roots' music is tied in with this as well. exclaim, canada's national indie rock tabloid, has a review section that used to be titled 'moonshine junction' and is now called 'wood, wires, and whiskey'. to make country more 'authentic', i.e. palatable for the hipster, the modifier 'alt-' has to be placed before it. the term 'roots' itself, which has come to refer to bluegras, country, and folk collectively, i guess, is so imbued with notions of authenticity and what is 'real' that it is, to me, a baffling term. rarely does a genre develop that is so overtly and unashamedly concerned with its own realness.

edit/update: to what extent is the south's authenticity reliant on dominant perceptions of its poverty and backwardsness?

here is dusty springfield, in the land of make believe, from dusty in memphis.