NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/alt/rave/6005

Text File | 1992-12-31 | 2.5 KB | 47 lines

Newsgroups: alt.rave
Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!yale!mintaka.lcs.mit.edu!nntp.lcs.mit.edu!dan
From: [e-mail] (Dan Parmenter)
Subject: Re: SASSY rave article
In-Reply-To: [e-mail]'s message of 30 Dec 92 02:01:40 GMT
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Sender: [e-mail]
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Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 17:39:45 GMT
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I've never entirely understood why Sassy was considered such a hip
reference point among certain cool people.  I've never seen a magazine
that more blatantly celebrated essentially middle-of-the-road
aesthetics and values with such a glossy veneer of hip.  They may have
championed bands like Sonic Youth (post-Goo), but they also give a lot
of ink to Wilson Phillips, and even on a "camp" level, I've always
found their "Cute Band Alert" vaguely offensive.  Indeed, Sassy seems
to place the importance of "cuteness" above all else.  The comments in
the rave article about how thin and pasty-faced everyone was really
annoyed me.  One of the appeals of the rave culture is that gentle
nerds are welcomed and made to feel that they aren't out of place;
indeed, to my mind, this is the *central* appeal of rave.  It's like
being at Pee Wee's Playhouse instead of the usual ghastly drunken,
posing of a traditional dance club.  Sassy pretends to be a radical
alternative to the usual teen magazines and perhaps it is, but it's
also so hopelessly muddled by trying to appeal to that "demographic
group", that it never really goes beyond those aesthetics.  It's as if
Teen Beat suddenly decided to start covering bands like Sonic Youth,
Sugar and the Lemonheads, but wrote about them *exactly* as they would
write about Marky Mark or the New Kids and added a *very* safe PC
veneer as well (occasional lefty articles, about as radical as Bill
Clinton) while maintaining standard boring attitudes about issues like
drugs.

I recommend that all Sassy subcriptions be immediately replaced by a
subcriptions to Forced Exposure and The Outer Limits.

- Dan
--
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| Dan Parmenter       |"I'm waiting for a time, when I can do without these  |
| [e-mail]  | things that make me feel this way all of the time"   |
|                     |                            - Spiritualized           |
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