Thursday, June 30, 2005
This guy’s right that people shouldn’t be surprised that Bob Dylan has made a deal with Starbucks, giving them exclusive rights to one of his live recordings; but he doesn’t explain why we should care.
I’m not going to guess at Dylan’s motivations (money, presumably: fair play) – they’re his songs, he can do what he likes with them.
But it’s Starbucks, don’t you see? Everything that’s bad about capitalism (if, that is, you accept there are good parts).
“its cut-throat policies have pushed independent coffee houses out of business”
You must remember that, right? Ten years ago every High Street in Britain had its own Deux Maggots. If it wasn’t for Starbucks and their super-cheap coffee, they would still be there, nourishing our struggling, noble intellectuals.
This is a snobbery disguised as ethics: that Starbucks is an evil empire is lazily taken for granted but irrelevant. Part of the point of being into Dylan is that other people are not. How to differentiate oneself from the masses - how to feel like one has superior taste - if anyone off the street can pick up this album on a whim. They’ll probably have them on the counter and everything. "Ooh! I’ll pick up one of those for my husband, he likes Bob Dylan, he’s always listening to that Best Of.”
Dylan’s crime is that he has made his music accessible to those people - perhaps they’ll forget to listen to it for a while? Perhaps they’ll stick it on in the background as an atmospheric accompaniment to their vegetable chopping?
But not to worry:
"…when the apocalyptic lyrics of Hard Rain ring out at Starbucks later this summer, they may not carry the same charge as they did at the Gaslight in 1962, but they'll still challenge anyone who really listens to take a step beyond caffeine-hyped consumerism."
You don't just enjoy Dylan, he is good for you.
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I’m not going to guess at Dylan’s motivations (money, presumably: fair play) – they’re his songs, he can do what he likes with them.
But it’s Starbucks, don’t you see? Everything that’s bad about capitalism (if, that is, you accept there are good parts).
“its cut-throat policies have pushed independent coffee houses out of business”
You must remember that, right? Ten years ago every High Street in Britain had its own Deux Maggots. If it wasn’t for Starbucks and their super-cheap coffee, they would still be there, nourishing our struggling, noble intellectuals.
This is a snobbery disguised as ethics: that Starbucks is an evil empire is lazily taken for granted but irrelevant. Part of the point of being into Dylan is that other people are not. How to differentiate oneself from the masses - how to feel like one has superior taste - if anyone off the street can pick up this album on a whim. They’ll probably have them on the counter and everything. "Ooh! I’ll pick up one of those for my husband, he likes Bob Dylan, he’s always listening to that Best Of.”
Dylan’s crime is that he has made his music accessible to those people - perhaps they’ll forget to listen to it for a while? Perhaps they’ll stick it on in the background as an atmospheric accompaniment to their vegetable chopping?
But not to worry:
"…when the apocalyptic lyrics of Hard Rain ring out at Starbucks later this summer, they may not carry the same charge as they did at the Gaslight in 1962, but they'll still challenge anyone who really listens to take a step beyond caffeine-hyped consumerism."
You don't just enjoy Dylan, he is good for you.
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