I think your description of this as expressing the need of American Middle Class people to create an authentic cultural expression is probably correct. Just as the middle class home was full of materials from around the world, and often with furniture or pictures or literature that reflected other historical eras, middle-class music reflected this “imperial” universality. The problem is, once youve conquered the whole globe, and ransacked the past, where else is there to go?

So maybe the lack of new styles, and the “post-modern” condition it implies is, like the fatness detailed in recent Peter Lawler posts, a disease of affluence?

I think that Reynolds overstates the novelty of Rap and Rave – Rap in all of its permutations is basically souped-up 70s funk and electronica, in all its mind-bogglingly endless sub-sub-sub-genres is still basically re-iterations of a 70s meme: kraftwerk/Pink Floyd/Giorgio Moroder(euro-disco).

As for the new stuff, i haven’t listened to much of it. I did hear a few Women tracks.. found it unmemorable on first listen.