HOW TO MAKE CULTURE

hip hop knows how to look good in pants, even if 'looking good in pants' doesn't know much about hip hop -- or music criticism, for that matter. (we'd hoped to have someone on that by now, but summer got in the way.) the virtuosity of the sistafist post notwithstanding, this blog's so far insights into the musical world can generally be collected under the like/dislike rubric or a song/album's suitability as accompaniment to some activity (dance, non-dance exercise, non-dance non-exercise movement, non-dance non-exercise non-movement).

so it was fun, first to see, and then to read the article on sissy bounce in the july 26th new york times magazine and be able to gloat at an already year old familiarity with the subject. no one should be surprised anymore by our cutting edge cultural awareness. just remember that parade of purse queens at the armani spring/summer 2011 runway show in milan. plus, everyone knows that a times feature on anything means that it already got cool no more recently than six months ago. (they felt the need to let us know in both the top and style sections of sunday's paper that the fedora is trending. it's safe to assume that you can expect to see 'looking good in pants' syndicated at the nytimes.com 'portland journal' by the end of the year). the issue here is different.

bounce is a hip hop varietal common to new orleans, and sissy bounce is a sub-genre (in name only, really) coined by music writer alison fensterstock after the bunch of homos and cross-dressers stealing the national bounce stage. in the words of katey red, one of artists interviewed for the times article, "ain’t no such thing as 'sissy bounce.' it’s bounce music. it’s just sissies that are doing it." and katey's description of the crowd at one of her shows in dallas is enough to describe the scene: "mostly a bunch of nasty hos with they shorts up they ass, trying to shake like a dog."

'looking good in pants' readers are sure to be re-conjuring whatever images they brought to mind yesterday of the sistafist ladies doing a saturday night show. they wouldn't be too far off the mark, because sissy bounce is also marching proudly to the beat of the boner parade. it's more than probably the case that sistafist (or the beats of their djs at least) are conscious manifestations of the spread of bounce. even for his untimeliness, jonathan dee, the writer of the times article, deserves respect for his perspicacity on an important point: "the fact is that the notion of unabashedly gay hip-hop is like catnip to some alternative-music scenes around the country." can all of portland say "myeooowww?"

the crucial issue, the crux of the rise (or media worthiness) of sissy bounce is, however, slightly removed. the BUTT blog was promoting bounce artist sissy nobby as early as april 21st of 2009 and featured a post that linked to this mix in may of the same year. (the mix is currently testing successful for non-dance non-exercise non-movement accompaniment. projections for dance are also good.) and damned if bounce wasn't the soundtrack of pride 2009.

for anyone who missed the first season of "glee," the gays pretty much make culture. by the magic of nineties television, the gays have also been bestowed the power to make culture safe -- just as the gays were made safe themselves by that same media phenomenon. a gay sensibility bred with a minority one is almost unstoppable -- or, at any rate, irresistibly consumable. that's looking good in pants, even if they're ugly. (follow us on the real estate market too!) no matter that bounce was just a flash in the pan for us last summer or, for that matter, for "some alternative-music scenes around the country."* it's not just something that angry black people do anymore. just letting you know, again, in case you don't pick up that magazine. we love you.

now that's music journalism. if only the sunday crossword didn't come with so much responsibility. you're welcome.

*mstrkrft out of toronto gave a nod to bounce on an eponymous track on "fist of god" (the single was out in spring 2008), but we all know that canada is much more in touch with its gay side than america.