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Denton music all the noise that’s fit to print


by Manuel Mendoza 12 May 2008 12:50 PM

Sunday’s New York Times declares the Denton music scene super-cool, which makes it official. The Travel section piece is a good example of swoop-in/swoop-out journalism. The writer obviously spent some quality time in the North Texas college town. My guess is a few days. The details he gathered give the article a nice texture and […]

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Sunday’s New York Times declares the Denton music scene super-cool, which makes it official. The Travel section piece is a good example of swoop-in/swoop-out journalism. The writer obviously spent some quality time in the North Texas college town. My guess is a few days.

The details he gathered give the article a nice texture and an overall tenor of authenticity (though he missed Strawberry Fields’ bump in the road). But he also trots out the usual cliches about Texas and the South as a kind of shorthand for the reader while straining to make lofty comparisons to other hippie-hip cultural enclaves. Is Denton really Berkeley with a twang?

Local reaction runs the gamut. We Shot JR mocks the story’s stereotypes. DC9 at Night celebrates the recognition. UNT points out that the jazz scene is barely mentioned. And Front Burner’s take is short and sweet, by which I mean a single sarcastic sentence. What do you think? Did The Times get it right? Does it matter, or is it enough that we locals know what’s up?

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  • Frontburner’s had a little bit of discussion about the article — I hazzard to guess that noone thought it was the greatest of written pieces:

    http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2008/05/12/breaking-denton-is-the-new-austin/

  • It’s fun to get some national attention for this area’s music – I went to UNT when it was NTSU -but if the NYT still thinks bands are hip – then it’s a newspaper past it’s prime and stuck in last century.

    What is exciting is the Post-Bands music in Dallas that opposes all bands and sees that rock and roll has become everything it started out opposing.

    We should question media that praises sameness.