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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
So, ripping off black American music is a prerequisite for good British pop music? Is it still legit if they're ripping off indigenous, British black people, or does it have to be Americans ('The World's Only Legitimate, Soulful Musicians and the earnest British Americanophiles who love them')?
The Jesus and Mary Chain, a band you cited as one of the primary early defining bands of this genre had an obvious and self-referenced Bo Diddley (who last I checked was black and American, not to mention awesome) influence; but why let facts get in the way of a good, convoluted thesis.
Not to mention that I don't hear much reflection of contemporary black music in Hüsker Dü, Big Black, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Butthole Surfers or the Pixies (interesting as I made find those bands myself, they're all white as white can be; Big Black's cover of "The Big Payback" notwithstanding.) Or are American themselves exempt from this requirement?
It's okay if you haven't been digging British pop music lately, but please come up with a less absurd justification, or better yet just save it.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
