Word: kopkind
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This concerns Alice Cooper and the simulcast insofar as both media are visual. Kopkind's complaint is not so much over the simulcast as it is with Alice Cooper's particular appearance on it. (If he finds creeping fascism in the Allman Brother's brilliant performance last week, then he's in worse shape than I gave him credit for), On the highest level, his major complaint is with Alice Cooper's performance, and what he assumes is gratuitous violence similar to that displayed in the films. More on that later...
Because on another level, Kopkind does call the simulcast system "a bastard technological system," and short step shy of the 'feelies'''. That's ridiculous, Simulcast is an interesting advance in technology. At this point in time it isn't more. I grant its sinister possibilities, but I haven't seen them realized...
...Kopkind's insistence on the dehumanizing aspects of simulcast are purist. There are three points to be made. The first is in essential agreement. Insofar as TV dehumanizes, the viewer-listener is up against a wall, there is very little he can do in the face of what is obviously a profit-oriented attempt to cash in on the popularity of rock. Widening its accessibility translates very easily into dollars. I had intended to count commercials last Friday, but I lost count way before 36. The steady stream of commercials is a tribute to the greed of the media powers...
Secondly, Kopkind labels radio rock, record rock and TV rock dehumanizing simply by association when he claims their combination lessens the quality of the art. This is the worst kind of purism. There has never been a time when wide-accessibility imitations of live rock weren't the foundation of the industry. The whole concept of live performances grew out of a popular desire to see what we were listening to Finally, "an upbeat emotional experience" isn't the issue; appreciating the music is. Here Kopkind shows his own ignorance of the industry. Because it is the audience performer music...
Alica Cooper is another step, or perhaps the culmination of the trend towards a more theater-oriented rock. Kopkind stumbled inadvertently on the core of the matter when he stated, "Cooper belongs to the Theater of the Absurd as well as the Theater of Cruelty." The second label is debatable alone, but Kopkind undercuts his statement with the clause that follows, "with live warm humans around in a concert hall, Cooper is funnier than he is scary...