Derek and I were watching Beavis and Butthead last night on MTV. I dont know who was giggling more - B & B or us. I was thinking about how in 1993, Mike Judge (creator of B&B) was doing a hard-core deconstruction of popular culture and then moved his humor and critique to "King of the Hill" which was more intergenerational, and multi-faceted.
Then we watched VIVA music station which is more alternative than MTV. Moby and The Chemical Brothers had new tracks, both of which majored on vocals. I was thinking that back in the early nineties, both were doing more ambient non-linear electronic sounds that majored on instrumentation and hardly contained any vocals. Then Moby's "Play" (which I used often as background for digital storytelling in 2000) came out and there was a lot of re:mixed vocals. And now both acts sound more like normal bands, although you can tell there is a different relationship to vocals - a healthy one and not dependent on them to carry the track.
It's a little bit like our journey. In the mid nineties, in our efforts to rethink and restructure church, we had to ditch the worship service. Most of the new churches we started among the emerging culture did not have a stage or a worship service. The artists continued to play in clubs, read poetry in coffee shops and show art in installations. But now, like some electronic artists, we are coming full circle - realizing that although it is great to have churches that are built relationally and are not defined by building (and hindered by lack of finances), there does often need to be a space for performance. And a weekly event with a stage provides that performance space.
ANOTHER THOUGHT: Last year I have went to the Apple Store in Minneapolis - I have been buying from a virtual store all these years and now I get the real thing - They have come full circle also.
