identity
Our audencies are yes men and our media are filled with nepotism, favour and laziness, argues Nathan Zeno
I was at a Honeymoon Suites gig recently and the strangest thing happened. This guy asked me if I could “please not dance so much – you’re stepping on my feet all the time”. I looked around and, in a moment of weird clarity, realised that apart from about 10% of the audience, no one was really dancing.
The band was electric, cocksure, tight and death-defying. But it was almost as if the crowd was only there because they’d read the band was good, so they must be. These people would probably have behaved the same way if the band was terrible, because they’d been told to stand there and enjoy themselves. So there they were, either out of some sense of duty or because it was the hip thing to do, blocked by their terrible selfconsciousness from even enjoying themselves. I think about the time I gave the Suites some criticism in print and was severly reprimanded by some of my peers for being negative.
I have a theory. I think we’re in trouble – culturally, as a nation. Just because some retro-wanker doesn’t know what to do at a rock concert .
On the one hand we’re used to being told what to do. Then, on the other, you have these poor schmucks who actually have to write about something. There’s suddenly, like never before, a huge amount of magazines to write for, but really not that much happening. Not that there’s nothing happening – just not enough to fill the space.
There are people who write because they want to and people who write because they have to make a buck, get some words in – a thousand words is rent. Hey, I hear that Shopping and Fucking thing is quite good … let’s tell people to see that. One play, written and set in another country (sure, brilliantly performed and, sure, relevant) has recieved so much publicity there was a point where you couldn’t move for it.
As the theatre editor you’re hard pressed to find anything to write about (we won’t bring up the fact that you are also the stage designer), so when you find something good that people want to read about, you stick with it. You don’t critisise it, because you want people to go to the theatre to maintain the need for a theatre editor. You don’t talk about why it’s fundamentally wrong to constantly heap unmitigated praise on things.
The real problem is that we are afraid of failure, we are afraid that we’re not hip and vibrant and able to compete on an international level. We are young and vulnerable and scared of being wrong, so we don’t allow “negativity”. We stick to fluff and formula. We go with the stuff that has been tried and tested at an “international level”.
The Honeymoon Suites are a good, electric pop band. They have their faults and their stong points, but it’s wrong to hail them as the next big thing if you have any doubts. Nor can we revere the Springbok Nude Girls so unflinchingly – in reality, they’re another soft-rock college band. Nor drool over any of the New Derivative magazines (the only brave exception being SL, whose photographers like Adam Weltz and writers like Steve Smith and Chris Roper who are really playing with the idea of who we are as South Africans). Just because something’s there does not mean it’s worthy of praise.
We need to take a deep look into our hearts and realise that we’re sometimes brilliant but, mostly, pale imitations of The Face or whatever, because we follow their formulae to deal with a country that’s radically different – that has so much further to go. Now more than ever it’s important to make mistakes and to be able to face up to criticism.
We have to stop taking promising talent and forcing it, in the guise of competions and development initiatives, into following external formulae.
We have to stop being obligated. The idea of support “local” must end. The segregated local music sections in our stores, the barriers between us and the outside world, the safety nets must be burnt.
I have a theory that we’re in trouble. It is my belief that our audiences are yes men and that our media are filled with nepotism, favour and laziness. That can only damage our search for any kind of cultural identity. If we stay just a little bit honest to ourselves and stop feeling obligated to praise we may have very lucky children.