GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Lip-synching makes me sick.
Tonally adjusting a voice in a recording studio makes me sick, too; and I mean really nasty, foul-smelling, tastes-like acid death, vomit! If you want to hear someone sing, try listening to a singer.
So I’m opinionated.
And yet sometimes, in a discussion, I find myself having little or nothing to say. This is not because nothing comes up that warrants discussion and opinion, but because there are so many interdependent opinions, and so many topics that flow semi-dependently into one another. These opinions and topics are so easy to access that we’ve heard or read too much about most topical subjects; so much so that if we were to take snippets out of the thoughts of five or ten free-thinking people we could pretty well compile our own opinions, not to mention that, in many discussions, there are those who love the sound of their own voice so much that they never learn, and are thus not worth paying attention to—but if we wish to write we are pushed through varying degrees of choice and circumstance into sharing our outlook, and often, for the sake of readership, into creating a judgement that is larger than life.
So many analyses are broadcast and written that if one is involved in communication or literary art, whether as a consumer or supplier, there exists such a huge static of surrounding garble that it almost prohibits one’s ability to form—let alone present—an independent opinion. To add to this complexity there is the destabilising fact that reviewers are asked to be kind to those whose ‘art’ they appraise, for fear of missing out on interviews, so that a great deal of what a consumer (the fan or potential fan) may access, whether a recorded interview or a written critique, is so positively coloured as to be an almost unrecognisable description of an artist’s true abilities—similar to the untruth of a recording studio’s notational rendering of the voice of a singer with a pleasant voice, appearance and manner who is, unfortunately, completely unable to sing in tune.
And now, we come to more of my opinions.
What have I described?
An over-abundance of opinion, and amongst that, a significant fraction of inaccurate analysis.
We live in a society so driven by consumerism that we’re encouraged to buy articles that are ‘unpleasant, of no value, or of inferior quality’ (that is a dictionary definition of ‘shit’) and a number of us are encouraged to misrepresent ourselves and the ‘artists’ we review, to the point where many reviews are nothing more than propaganda. The magazines, radio stations and television stations carrying these reviews are pushed into bullshit analyses by way of their presumed need to interview these so-called ‘stars’ (whose star status they helped to falsely acclaim, so it’s their own fault). My advice to any potential reviewer is to gain a reputation for honest appraisal, and sit back and wait for the reader to respond to you (while being prepared to hide from the minders of the ‘star’). There will be readers who will dislike you, but they will usually admit that you’re honest, even if (in their opinion) your taste is in your arse, but you will be read. If you wish, pour on the caustic comments liberally, but do apply them where you believe they’re warranted.
For instance: in my anything but humble opinion, most rappers can’t sing; their ‘poetry’ is not true poetry but rhyming and rhythmically matching couplets. Some of what they say (not sing) is socially and culturally valuable. Little of it is of literary value. Gangsta rappers generally turn me off. This is an admittedly personal distaste of mine. It’s like they’re carrying a manufactured and insincere bad mood around with them. I see them less as rebels and revolutionaries than bad-mannered, grunting, boring, insignificant, foul-mouthed fools. And by the way, I can say ‘fuck’, as easily as anyone else. It’s not exactly a tongue-twister. Try cunnilingus if you want to test your oral dexterity.
I believe that an album should have an ‘ingredients’ label on it, similar to those on containers of prepared food, condiments, and so on—‘Voice notationally corrected on tracks i to xii – (expect lip-synching if you go to a concert by this person)'—and, come to that, I believe lip-synching in concerts should be illegal. The heads of these ‘singers’ should be shaven and they should be branded across the forehead with distorted musical notes.
So, do you want ‘your opinion’ to be agreed with, in which case you’ll have to smear the attitudes and beliefs of others over it, diluting it to the point that it becomes illegible, and unrecognisable as yours, or do you want to express your own, sincere point of view?
Often, if one presents a position candidly, it’s a truly individual judgement, that takes into account all available facts, but absolutely nothing of the feelings or beliefs of anyone else, even of those we most respect, and, as such, might be unpopular.
Can you take it?
Yes. (I hope.)
Finally, on forming your own opinion: Get as much information as you can stand, then think for yourself. And remember, just as you are free to have and to give your opinion, you are free to keep it to yourself, as some of you will wish I had done, in which case—keep it to yourself.
In a fortnight I’ll attempt to insult a few things you love.
(Bet you can’t wait.)