Re: the differences between "underground" and pop music culture in terms of representational/aspirational discourse
Been thinking a lot about how ever since the advent of Discwoman and feminism/queer politics in dance music in general, representation has sorted itself into or leaned towards certain styles over others (i.e. we've seen enormous representational transformation in more popular techno and house styles but seemingly far less in, i guess, dub techno or weirder/more experimental strains of dance music). i feel like this coincides with the increasing tendency for artists and DJs we might usually consider "underground" to make more commercialized aesthetic/professional decisions in their work (something Shawn has talked about). maybe the pop-friendly nature of representational/aspirational discourse you talk about is related to this absorption of historically underrepresented DJs/producers into an ambiguous position between the "popular" and the "underground".
Re: the differences between "underground" and pop music culture in terms of representational/aspirational discourse
Been thinking a lot about how ever since the advent of Discwoman and feminism/queer politics in dance music in general, representation has sorted itself into or leaned towards certain styles over others (i.e. we've seen enormous representational transformation in more popular techno and house styles but seemingly far less in, i guess, dub techno or weirder/more experimental strains of dance music). i feel like this coincides with the increasing tendency for artists and DJs we might usually consider "underground" to make more commercialized aesthetic/professional decisions in their work (something Shawn has talked about). maybe the pop-friendly nature of representational/aspirational discourse you talk about is related to this absorption of historically underrepresented DJs/producers into an ambiguous position between the "popular" and the "underground".