10 Things I Hate About U Music

[Dinah Lianes]

As Majesty previously demonstrated, I Hate Music shows that Superchunk can still make this kind of music as well as anyone. Last month, Grantland called up McCaughan to talk about the album, his most hated indie trends, and why Superchunk never broke up.

More than economics or careers or location, it seems, people worry that in the end they won\u2019t get along with family if they live nearby. That could be due to political or religious views, personality clashes, or any number of other things. But this does seem to be a widespread concern.

Now, you may be thinking that Coco is just a kids movie. But hear me out because I think it actually offers a fantastic exploration in the necessary give-and-take generations have to negotiate as they reconcile their values. There are other works that explore these same themes \u2014 100 Years of Solitude comes to mind and is one of my favorite books \u2014 but if you have a couple of hours and a Disney+ subscription you can go watch Coco right now.

The situation comes to a head early on when the family discovers Miguel has been hiding records and taught himself how to play guitar. Miguel\u2019s grandma \u2014 the powerful family matriarch \u2014 ultimately smashes the guitar and Miguel ends up running away and saying he hates his family.

Miguel soon finds himself magically transported to the Land of the Dead, which is populated by colorful skeletons. He needs the blessing of his skeleton family members to return to the Land of the Living, but they won\u2019t give it unless he agrees to give up music. Miguel refuses and teams up with a gangly skeleton named Hector in an effort to find the musician ancestor who abandoned his great-great grandma.

And the point in the end is that Miguel learns to appreciate his family while they learn to accept him and his love of music. Ultimately they send him back to the Land of the Living without any restrictions, and the final scene shows Miguel and other family members playing music in the family compound \u2014 highlighting how they adapted and accepted him for who he really is. (Really, just go watch it, I can\u2019t do the plot justice here.)

But music is the defining value of the family in the movie, giving them a single identity that persists across generations. So, it\u2019s also a great metaphor for all of these high-stakes issues that divide real families. You could, for example, create a movie with a nearly identical plot about someone who decides to break from a family\u2019s ancestral religion.

Coco\u2019s thesis, then, is that all members of a family have to adapt and embrace change. Miguel\u2019s family embraces music \u2014 the very thing they were united in rejecting \u2014 while Miguel himself learns that he doesn\u2019t actually hate his family after all. And though Miguel had initially idolized the life of a traveling musician, it\u2019s significant that the movie doesn\u2019t conclude with him on the road playing gigs. It shows him with his family, which adapted and in doing so remained intact for yet another generation.

This is a complex argument for an animated family movie to make, and I think Coco is under-appreciated for the deftness with which it navigates the topic. It\u2019s basically offering a road map for balancing individuality with a family\u2019s collective interests.

I\u2019m very fortunate to have good relationships with my parents and in-laws (though our mutual support network is limited), so take my opinion with a grain of salt. But assuming there\u2019s no actual abuse2 going on, I can\u2019t really think of any long-term benefits of drifting away from family and letting rifts form. Meanwhile, the cost of weak ties between family members can be immense; imagine, for example, if the Kennedy family had disintegrated in the 1920s because half of them thought the Teapot Dome Scandal was fake news. They would have missed out on 100 years of prosperity and influence thanks to something that today almost no one remembers or cares about3.

Most families aren\u2019t the Kennedys. But the point is that maintaining relationships gives people a robust network that can pay off long after any single member of a family is gone. That network also keeps paying off after whatever small-in-the-grand-scheme disagreements have faded away. So, it\u2019s worth trying to make peace.

What I love about Coco is what is says about that process. Both Miguel and his family ultimately have to change, but it\u2019s the earlier generation, the elders, that have to make the biggest compromise. Miguel just has to stop hating his family, but the family has to give up a core feature of its identity. That\u2019s huge, but in making the sacrifice the family learns that hating music wasn\u2019t actually as central to its identity as it seemed. The family\u2019s identity lies in, well, just being a family.

I\u2019m almost done here, but I want to make one final point. Over the years I\u2019ve had many many conversations with people who lament that the older members of their family won\u2019t compromise, won\u2019t let go of their antiquated ideas (who among us doesn\u2019t have a wildly racist grandparent?) and seem uninterested in adapting. To which I say, they are probably not the first generation in your multigenerational family. You are4.

When I think about this in terms of my own family, it\u2019s most relevant regarding my relationship with my kids. I can\u2019t force my parents or in-laws to do anything (again, our relationship is good, but speaking hypothetically), but I can prepare myself for whatever might be the metaphorical \u201Cmusic,\u201D to go back to Coco, that might come up down the road with my own kids. And when that day comes, I hope I remember to make the decision that will allow us to survive as a cohesive unit, like the family in Coco, for generation after generation.

\u201C\u2026buyers are evenly divided when it comes to the desire for a home designed to house the buyer as well as a younger generation and an older generation: 39% would prefer such a home, but 39% would be against it. The remaining 23% are not sure how they feel about a home designed for three generations.\u201D

I\u2019m not saying politics or religion or whatever don\u2019t matter. I have plenty of political opinions, and I love to debate the issues of the day. But I think if these relatively fleeting opinions take precedence over a family\u2019s long-term survival, generation after generation misses out on rewarding relationships.

The point of this newsletter is not to help adults get better relationships with their parents. If you\u2019re reading this right now, and you don\u2019t have an adequate support network from your family, the odds are that it\u2019s too late to ever completely get it for yourself (though we can all certainly try to get closer!). The point here is instead to explore ways to do better in the future. My hope, at least, is that my kids have a better support network than I did. And that their kids have a better one still. If mine improves along the way too, all the better. But I\u2019m not counting on it, or proposing ways to change the worldview of preceding generations.

If you are playing professionally yourself, introduce your student to other musicians you play with, and arrange for your student to substitute for you at a performance now and then when you are unable to play. All of these things are encouraging, motivating, and really important to a young player trying to get a start in a tough business. Once presented with these kinds of opportunities, and the affirmation that they are capable of playing in these situations, a student will run to the practice room. All of us have very little difficulty finding the motivation to things we enjoy and that bring us affirmation from others, especially significant others like teachers, parents, and friends.

In January of this year, former band member Evan Graham made an Instagram post exposing Nick Hartkop for multiple serious accusations of racism, queerphobia, emotional/physical harassment, financial harassment, abuse, and more.

He was accused of just about everything from animal abuse to grooming underage girls to being racist. He was accused of emotionally and sexually abusing all of his former girlfriends and even abusing band members to get them to stay in the band. Former member, Wes Easterly, has even come out saying Nick has made disturbing jokes towards his girlfriend and how he would threaten her and how he would make misogynistic jokes towards her.

Since the Instagram posts have been made, multiple fans, ex-girlfriends of his, and old friends have come put to these rumors out that they are true and he is what they say. He has since stayed slient until now.

I genuinely will continue to listen to his music because what he did was bad and very problematic but he can change and I prefer to separate their personal life from their music. I hope he finds the rehabilitation he needs although.

The Eagles--Glen Frey, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, and DonHenley--are the tightest and most accomplished rock band to emergesince Neil Young's Crazy Horse. The usual compilation of credits--Pocoand the Burritos and the Stone Canyon Band, Bob Seger and LindaRonstadt--does not mean the usual compilation of disgruntled sidemendoing battle with their own well-deserved anonymity. The difference ispartly chemistry--the Eagles are an organic group, not a mixture ofmusicians--but mostly raw talent. These guys can execute. Not only dothey all sing and compose, which is nothing new--they're good at it.The Eagles are a culmination of the vaguely country-orientedmainstream of American rock. Building its following from a core ofwhite college and precollege males, this music extends from electriccitybillies like the Flying Burrito Bros. at one extreme tothrice-removed folkies like America at the other. Most such bandseither undermine their popularity with purism--diluted purism, to besure but even steel guitars and bluegrass harmonies and traditionalmaterial cut into the mass audiences--or seem to design their musicfor broadcast into elevators. In contrast, the Eagles have a basiccommitment to rock and roll, probably by way of Frey, who grew up inhard-rock central, Detroit. Commercially and aesthetically, this is abig plus.Another thing that interests me about the Eagles is that I hatethem. "Hate" is the kind of up-tight word that automatically excludesone from polite posthippie circles, a good reason to use it, but it isalso meant to convey an anguish that is very intense, yet difficult topinpoint. Do I hate music that has been giving me pleasure allweekend, made by four human beings I've never met? Yeah, I thinkso. Listening to the Eagles has left me feeling alienated from thingsI used to love. As the culmination of rock's country strain, the groupis also the culmination of the counterculture reaction that strainepitomizes.Rock musicians differ from their fans in several crucial respects. Forone thing, those who succeed earn a lot of money, and they usuallyhave money even before success hits, from the studio and back-up gigswhere they make their recording contacts. Their work is meaningfuleven when it isn't profitable and provides them with automaticstatus. The rock star is the perfect fantasy hero--not only has hebeaten America's options, but he also gets laid. Considering theirprivileges, it's no wonder that many musicians are turning intospokesmen of hip reaction.In Leadon and Meisner's "Earlybird" the square title character, who"spends his time denyin'/ That he's got no time for flyin'/ In thebreeze," is compared to a hipper bird: "High up on his own/ The eagleflies alone./ He is free." Later, the singer sets up an implicitcomparison between himself and the eagles: "Y' know it makes me feelso fine and set my mind at ease/ To know that I don't harm a soul indoin' what I please."This comparison is a little confusing, of course. The eagle roams thesky not in search of freedom and fresh air but in search of prey,which is why he is such an apt symbol of American imperialpower. Although I doubt that the group intended the martial resonancesof its name--that would be dangerous, image-wise--the Eaglesdefinitely do espouse a new, hedonistic brand of Americanindividualism. The youth counterculture of the sixties always had acertain eccentric frontier quality to it, with the understanding thatfrontier life was cooperative as well as individualistic. But thestress of mass cooperation eventually bummed everyone out--it was justtoo heavy, y'know?--so the new alternative man goes it alone. As therefrain of "Take It Easy" advises: "Lighten up while youstill can,/ Don't even try to understand,/ Find a place to make yourstand/ And take it easy."Actually, the protagonist of "Take It Easy" doesn't plan to make hisstand alone. He craves female companionship--but please, no one whowill stone him or own him or bewitch him or tie him down or let himdown or do anything much but chug all night. After all, "she can'tteach you any way/ That you don't already know." That line comes froma song that in a less male-chauvinist context might seem as thoughtfula representation of the ethic of sexual autonomy as Joni Mitchell's"All I Want" but is here reduced to the hippest of hip come-ons. Thereis more wisdom about the real give and take of sexual relationships inmost of the silly romantic ditties of the early sixties than there ison the Eagles' entire album. In the end these eagles fly alone with avengeance.It is no accidental irony that such hard-rock professionals conveytheir integrated vision of self-possession and pastoral cool by way ofa dynamite corporate machine, including genius manager David Geffenand genius producer Glyn Johns. It is the custom of affluent liberalsto let others do their dirty work--that way they can continue toprotect the illusion that they are not harming a soul by doin' whatthey please. It's no accident, either, that the Eagles' hip countrymusic excises precisely what is deepest and most gripping aboutcountry music--its adult working-class pain, its paradoxically rigidethics--and leaves sixteen tracks of bluegrass-sounding goodfeelin'. After all, there's nothing to be gained scaring our youngpeople. The music, the lyrics, and the distribution machine are allsuave and synthetic. Brilliant stuff--but false.The Eagles are the ultimate in California dreaming, a fantasy offulfillment that has been made real only in the hip upper-middle-classsuburbs of Marin County and the Los Angeles canyons. The Beach Boyssang about something similar a decade ago, but they also reminded usthat happiness and material things are far from unconnected. TheEagles put that truth aside and pay only lip service to the strugglethat real fulfillment involves. Even the Beach Boys learned that inthe end our welfare and the welfare of others are bound together. Weall tried to forge a humane generation and ultimately fell backexhausted. Retreat was only natural. But any prophet who tells you notto try and understand is setting you up for a swindle.Newsday, June 1972

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