It’s probably not a new term, per se, but I’ve been seeing it invoked more and more, recently, in discussions about my favorite music, and it’s not a complement. The word is gatekeeping.
Gatekeeping, as I understand it, is sort of on par with mansplaining — it springs from a sort of exclusionary claim to be more vested in a specific artist or sub-genre to the extent that newbie novices need to be properly vetted and schooled before they’re allowed to fully appreciate said artist/music themselves. The Gatekeeper is the guy that demands that you name three songs by the band whose t-shirt you’re wearing. The Gatekeeper is the guy that cites the record just prior to a band’s breakthrough album as that band’s greatest achievement. The Gatekeeper put in his hours, and now expects you to follow suit, … if you’re worthy. The Gatekeeper’s motto, invariably, is “Fuck do YOU know about it?”
Unsurprisingly, given my oft-unsolicited opinions, I have been credibly accused of gatekeeping. Fair enough. I can own that. There are myriad examples here on this blog, be it my affinity for the Circle Jerks or my penchant to safeguard the iconography of the Plasmatics, to name but two.
To my mind, however, my tendencies to “gatekeep” stem from my ever-distant youth, when deviation from popular convention was more often treated with derision and contempt rather than admiration. To put it bluntly, If you’re 13 years old and your classmates give you shit for wearing the t-shirt of a band they don’t know or can’t understand, that experience is gong to stay with you. Years later, when everything is post-ironic and retro-philic and, thanks to the internet, all most music is accessible to everyone at all times, and no one has to put any time or effort into seeking it out, you can bet your bottom goddamn dollar I’m going to demand you cite three songs by fucking Flipper before I let you blithely walk around wearing their shirt just because friggin’ Kurt Cobain once did.
But I digress.
Today, on Facebook’s excellent No Wave group page, someone posted a video that speaks to the very thing that ignites one’s inner Gatekeeper. Entitled “5 Albums to Get You Into No Wave,” this clip is exactly the sort of content I ranted about back in 2017 on this post.
To my mind, videos and articles of this kind make me grind my teeth because they’re so inorganic. Music discovery should be a natural process. You need to listen and discern for yourselves, not cut corners with some half-assed “get hip quick” scheme. Videos like these seem like lazy “how to” manuals for people who want to create the right impression, rather than folks who might be genuinely interested in hearing and learning about new music.
But, in terms of the specific musical phenomenon of the fleeting No Wave scene, though, videos like this are a genuine disservice, as they kind of give everything away. For me, a big part of my affinity for No Wave came after the initial jolt of shock and confusion. That MUST be a part of it.
I vividly remember first dropping the needle on my college radio station’s long-neglected copy of the fabled Brian Eno compilation, No New York, which culled together tracks from a handful of pertinent bands from that tiny, insular scene. Being that the radio station in question was more renowned for playing yawnsome crap like Little Feat and Hot Tuna, the mere fact that they had a copy of No New York at all was reason enough to play it.
I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting upon that first listen (live on the air, no less), but it sure as shit didn’t sound like the Punk Rock I was enjoying at the time. In a nanosecond, it made records by the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and the like sound positively quaint and conventional (which, in retrospect, they basically are). It was such a stark strike of renunciation. Fuck your rock’n’roll rules! Fuck your precious melodies and danceable rhythms! Fuck playing these instruments the “right way!”
Without experiencing that jarring epiphany, I don’t think you can really absorb what No Wave was all about. You can’t skip to the last chapter and spoil the impact like that.
You have to be punched in the face by No Wave before you get to like it.
If believing that makes me a Gatekeeper, so fucking be it.
Decide for yourselves…
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