before i lose my style

girlboymusic:

katherinestasaph:

1. The production’s good by my layperson standards; the rapping’s at least as good as some singing I happily listen to. And the lyrics? If I can justify listening to Rose Berlin, Sleigh Bells and all manner of teen pop-punk groups, I can justify listening to this. Granted, the justification’s a little less thorny for me, being female and not all that much older than them. Still counts.

2. She’s also really self-aware — there’s this post on her Tumblr saying something to the effect of “it’s like my making a grilled cheese and hundreds of twenty-somethings arguing about whether it’s ~*gourmet*~ or not.” (That Justin Bieber song, by the way? I just found out it may have been recorded in 2006. Which should go a long way in explaining the age thing.)

3. It’s really bloody exhausting, anyway, trying to figure out what my social/Tumblr circle tells me I should be hating. Girls wore me down so much in this regard. 

4. Most likely unlike you, I’ve actually spoken to this kid. I don’t say this to brag; it wasn’t an EXTREME SUPER ACCESS thing, and if you think this is solely for pageview trolling you don’t fully understand what gets major pageviews. She seemed like a genuinely nice kid.

5. I think there are more productive things to do with our time than to rage against a nice kid.

Yeah, “self-aware” is I think what I was going for when I talked about the other person that comes out on “Thanks Kathryn Obvious.” She’s putting on & playing with different levels of persona as much as any other rapper or pop artist, and people’s willingness to read her as completely straight-faced and genuine maybe says something about the way they think about teenage girls.  IIRC she says somewhere on her Bandcamp or Tumblr that the songs weren’t actually recorded in 2006, though.  Which works in favor of the “playing with persona” argument, I think!

Important thoughts. Also read the Popdust interview that Katherine mentions; it provides insight into her creative process while treating Kitty Pryde like a person. (Erika’s comments, which showed up while I was writing this reblog, also address this. The bolded is super super key.) 

I don’t necessarily think Katherine was targeting me with these comments, but they make me feel guilty anyway, because they reveal how easy it is to interpret dismissiveness as hate. So, to clarify, I’m not in the business of hating artists for being overrated, and I’m not really interested in hating artists with potential for not having met that potential yet. I’m glad that Kitty Pryde has her head on straight about “Okay Cupid,” because it means that there’s room for improvement in her art even in the face of the reception of “Okay Cupid.” (If I remember correctly, Matthew Perpetua wrote a really great lament about this sort of thing a few years back, about how the business and the media and the internet all work together to discourage careerism. Or, you know, google “hype cycle.”) 

So yeah, I don’t think “Okay Cupid” is good, but I don’t think it’s worth dissecting to explain why, and I haven’t yet written off Kitty Pryde.