10 May

Following on from this week’s focus on institutions, music in particular is interesting as an extension of this. On Sunday night, Emily and I went to Rod Laver Arena to see alt-J perform. Before my robotic thoughts on media institutions in relation to these, I need to express my delight. alt-J were INCREDIBLY INCREDIBLE. That, for me, is the best way to describe how great they were. Audibly and visually brilliant, the band performed a great set. ‘Taro’ was by far the best song performed and ‘Fitzpleasure’ was definitely the second.

Now, onto mindless thoughts (oh how I love oxymorons). I did read the weekly readings on media institutions however as they concern social media and broadcast television, they are not closely related enough to music for evidential substance. I suppose I could continue my discussion on authorial valuation however apropos to music institutions this time. Rod Laver Arena is an institution. alt-J is an institution. The music industry is an institution. Indie-rock music as an institution. Four institutions collaborating on Sunday evening. Three of them burdened by authorial valuation; one well-recognised as subjective due to personal taste. I do agree that yes, I thought the following prior to Sunday:

alt-J is alt-J. Rod Laver Arena is only for the biggest artists. Indie-Rock concerts have great atmosphere.

I do recognise authorial valuations influencing my preconceptions. But is this necessarily incorrect? In truth, it depends on a lot of factors: whether or not alt-J have ever performed shit-ily; whether or not Rod Laver Arena has hosted minor artists before; and whether or not I would enjoy an Indie-Rock concert. All I know is that the concert was incredible and whether it was genuinely amazing or my authorial valuation persuaded this opinion is irrelevant. In correlation to my opinion on placebos, who cares. As long as it does the job then sweet.