Portishead vs. Steve Reich
discman -- Sun, 06/15/2008 - 16:16
And the winner by a knockout in the sixth round is...
No, actually I got the idea from Amazon.com. When I bought Portishead's album Third, they suggested that others who liked Portishead bought Steve Reich's Daniel Variations. Since I had just read a review of this disc by Reich in Playback, I thought 'what the heck' and I bought it too.
So, having listened to them both, and inspired by Alan Taffel's post on Sufjan Stevens, what I want to ask:
Why is Portishead "Rock" and Steve Reich "Classical"?
As Amazon suggests (thanks to the weird and wonderful world of algorithms), these two discs have something in common. And, I think, as much in common with each other as either is like its nominal category.
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I think an important thing to remember here is that Steve Reich is not a traditional classical artist in any sense; in some circles he'd be classified as "new music."
And Portishead is pop, not rock, which is a distinction that Taffel fails to recognize in that Stevens piece, to which I'll be submitting a comment.
Bob Gendron
Music Editor, TAS and Playback
Maybe we this site should have a glossary? I don't get why Portishead is pop. When I hear "pop", I think Brittany. And Portishead is about as much like Brittany as Omaha is like London.
But, maybe with a definition I'd get it?
If you think of pop in a classic sense, you think of Sinatra, Beach Boys, Beatles, Love, etc.
Pop has become bastardized in that the mainstream has passed off "popular" as pop music. Sure, Britney Spears and the like are pop, but that's just one segment. I would never give Spears the respect or credit for being demonstrative of a subgenre or genre other than teen pop.
Easiest and most universal definition I can think of for you is Beatles and Stones. The former are pop; the latter are rock. And the contrasts illustrate nearly every possible difference between the two fields.
Bob Gendron
Music Editor, TAS and Playback