Community is not a demographic

I have a new article up at Reality Sandwich. Check it out.

Reality Sandwich | Community Is Not a Demographic:

One of the few memories I have of high school (remember the ’60s saying, “If you remember it you weren’t there”?) is a book, The Forest People, in which anthropologist Colin Turnbull recounts his experience of living among the Mbuti Pygmies of Zaire. He described an uncorrupted dreamworld where the number-one crime against the community was hoarding food from the hunt. The punishment was temporary exile until the slovenly offender learned his lesson.

Likewise, the memory of my high school punk years has a similar halcyon quality in which the single most significant crime against the “scene” was selling out. As with the Pygmies, offense meant exile. Just ask what happened to Green Day when their grassroots fame exceeded their small East Bay punk scene and exploded onto the national stage. Or Kurt Cobain. When Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” dropped into permanent top 40 rotation and Seattle’s grunge flannel became the national uniform of youth, the band faced severe criticism from alternative music hardliners. In particular, Cobain was criticized for his insistence that Nirvana’s records be sold at Wal-Mart. But Cobain did so because when he grew up in rural Washington that was the only place he could buy music.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 10:39 am and is filed under Commentary, Self-Referential. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.