http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/17/pop-rock-rap-whatever-who-killed-the-music-genre
Pitchfork, widely viewed as the world’s leading alternative music website, relaunched this week. Along with a rather pleasant new look, it announced “a significant new feature”, the ability to view the site according to genre. The 1975 have just scored a transatlantic No 1 with an album whose influences range from Yazoo to David Bowie. If you look at everynoise.com and key in, say, Lana Del Rey, you’ll find her listed under “pop, indie R&B, indietronica, chamber pop, synthpop”; she’s all of those, a bit, but at the same time not completely any of those. All are representative of a strain of artists who are post-genre. They now straddle, or exist beyond, genres that seemed set in concrete as little as 10 years ago. They represent a cross-pollination that makes it harder than ever to definitively state that you like or dislike one genre or another.
Broadcasting’s misogyny reaches further than the BBC Breakfast sofa
There has been a surprising upset this week over the male and female seating arrangements on the BBC Breakfast sofa. Apparently the new arrangement flies in the face of hierarchical norms, and the elders on the programme are not getting the respect they deserve. As a former BBC Breakfast broadcaster I love the fact that this is being talked about at all. Most viewers never clock the left-right seating, since the usual arrangement is a greyish haired authority figure next to a much younger co-presenter in a dress. Not always, but quite often the case. This sofa row questions the older man/younger woman pairing tradition that we’re so used to, and since things don’t change that often in TV, any challenge to the old ways gets a big fat tick from me. When I presented the business news on the show, I was desperate to disrupt the bouffant hair, trowelled on makeup and body-con dress situation, but was given little wriggle room. I know – what a maverick!
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