Matthew Lemay

Not a bio of either the album XO or Elliott Smith, rather an exploration of how the public persona of Elliott Smith was crafted following a readily available template, yet authored by no one person, following Smith's Oscar-nominated "Miss Misery" and the idea of "weepy sad bastard music". This persona is largely disputed not only by Smith's songs, but by Smith's work rate and professionalism, and generally in the fact his talent was fashioned as much from intent and preparation as by anything innate. LeMay demonstrates this ably enough, considering in detail Smith's songcraft and his professional life, addressing aspects of his personal life primarily to discuss how the public persona exaggerates and distorts them.

LeMay argues in the first part of the essay that the emotional content of Smith's songs (especially lyrically) increases as the specific autobiographical elements are removed. That is, as Smith refines the structure and lyric of a song (analysed across various performances both live and in studio), it becomes less about a specific situation or experience, yet the emotion is enhanced. Also, analysis of Smith's evolution as a songwriter is linked to evidence in specific songs, recorded for or at the time of XO sessions. suggests Smith is not a folk / singer-songwriter. Smith is quoted as saying folk is an aesthetic choice usually linked to a single moral in a song, and his own songs are deliberately not like that.

The second part of the essay looks at the "cultural construct" of Smith and how it informs reception of XO and Smith generally.

//

Look into Negus & Pickering, Creativity, Creation, And Cultural Value; posits a "myth of creativity" ... that "people do not -- as artists, writers, musicians -- have some pre-formed condition that they then seek to express in an art form and communicate to others. The contours and characteristics of experience are given meaning and value through the process of expression and communication" . These ideas link to definition of genre as "a series of culturally agreed upon expectations" which preclude some motivations or content, e.g. pastiche artists like Beck are not expected to be emotionally confessionalist. [108]… (lisätietoja)