Simon Reynolds, Retromania and the Atemporality of Contemporary 'Pop'
If you've read Retromania, then you really must read this. And if you haven't but have even the slightest interest in art criticism, you really should read both.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2118376
http://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.co.uk
via http://www.scoop.it/t/hauntology
"Yes, we could talk about the tyranny of
generalization if we wanted to: we could point out that
no sounds are without a history, that retromania is to
some extent a necessary and permanent condition, that
we have, in a certain manner of speaking, always been
postmodern and that in this sense there is nothing
intrinsically novel about the contemporary
predicament. And every step of the way Reynolds would
agree with us. Despite the rampant and sometimes
dewy-eyed modernism with which he has pursued
virtually his entire career, he is certainly no fool. Every
step of the way, in other words, his provocation would
still stand. Yes, I take your point, he would say, but still
… can we really not do better?"