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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
hey fer sure this is an incendiary, inspired article and thread on this subject. the question of whether britpop is racist goes back as far as i can remember, e.g., when one of the NME critic geniuses accused the pretenders in 1981 of not being able to play "jah music". like they were experts on that. :)
but as an old morrisey fan all i want to know is, where i can submit a youtube promotional video for this box set? i already have my tribute worked out in my mind, as per the subject line.
c'mon, "ask me ask me ask me" :)
I've never been able to confirm this, however, once John Robert's pictures began appearing in the media during the Senate judiciary nomination hearing, I flashed on images of a man I would frequently notice at Smiths Concerts, that had remained lodged in my memory after nearly twenty years, clearly because the man, with his Wallstreet clothes and tidy haircut, seemed so out of place among the "usual suspects," if you will.
As a learned more about Robert's life, I came to understand the aesthetic appeal the Smiths held for him and having read this quote from Morrissey, I perhaps uncovered an additional philosophical attraction Morrissey might have had for him:
"he described hip-hop's presence in the charts as "a stench," dismissed reggae as "vile" and derided R&B's gross caricature of sexuality --"
Loved your recap. The Britbox sounds like something I'd buy if I had money. (Okay, so I might track it down anyway -- maybe used on e-Bay or Amazon, or at a secondhand store, or....who knows? I love stuff like this, but I hate finding new ways to STORE all the stuff I accumulate.)
So -- you wrote for Melody Maker? Then you're OK by me!
In college I spent a lot of time in the library. While people were doing real research, and others were apparently masturbating (according to the school newspaper's police reports), I was digging into the library's periodical sections to pore over issues of Melody Maker and New Musical Express. (I also made thorough use of the media library and the newspaper microfiche, but that's another story.)
I read Melody Maker religiously -- it was my favorite. Maybe I read your reviews? I enjoyed learning about all the great, weird new Brit bands. Bands with names like Crispy Ambulance. (Crispy Ambulance? What the fuck?!) I was obsessed with 4AD bands like Cocteau Twins and Colourbox, and read the Melody Maker review of "Pump Up the Volume" by M/A/R/R/S and went out and bought it on its first vinyl pressing, which I still own. As far as I know, that record is the first record to set Arabic female singing to a hip-hoppy dance beat, save perhaps Eno/Byrne's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts." God that record got a lot of play in my little dormitory!
It's funny you mention so many bands I love. You mention the Sundays' song "Here's Where the Story Ends." I am not making this up, but just two days I made a mix CD for a high-school friend a thousand miles away, and it features that very song sandwiched between two other bands you also mentioned -- Saint Etienne ("No One Can Stop Us Now") and Lush ("Scarlet").
Then you mention the Felt song "Primitive Painters," which yes, I own on both vinyl and CD. I am so happy to own the vinyl of that song! Elizabeth Fraser is the best female vocalist of all time, in my opinion. Sure, Dusty Springfield and Nina Simone and Blossom Dearie and Yma Sumac are pretty good and all, but Elizabeth Fraser blows them all way. If she released an album of her gargling with mouthwash, I would buy it....though I'd much rather hear her having an asthma attack.
You also mentioned the Cocteau Twins' song "Lorelei." That's like my favorite Cocteau Twins song...it's perfect. It is the song that goes with the goose bumps you get while watching a beautiful girl ice skating.
Thanks for your article. Do you perchance have an extra copy of the Brit Box lying around that you'd be willing to part with? I will send you 10 awesome mix CDs, hand-made to your taste specifications. I am a devotee of Wire and XTC and the Chameleons and the Sad Lovers and Giants and Robyn Hitchcock and Billy Bragg and pretty much every other band that John Peel ever heralded. I try to keep up with the new bands, but I am getting old.
I'm fairly certain that Joey Santiago's Filipino-American Pixies guitarist self would disagree with the idea that the Pixies were "as white as white can be." Might as well claim they were all male while your at it.
As for many of the complaints about the article not mentioning certain artists: the article isn't a history lesson; it's a record review. Even mentions the boxset being reviewed a few times, including at the beginning.
So...not liking hip hop makes one a racist? How profound. How intelligent.
Isn't the real subtext here that Americans who love Britpop are basically gay, or at least bi-curious?
How dare you imply that Kula Shaker is part of a "dung heap"
>:(
And I'm dismayed by the lack of Gomez in this compilation!
not the "Anglophilia" of it's target audience.
I know Simon Reynolds is a big name music journalist who's done plenty of decent writing on pop, but this review reads like it was written by a delusionally scene-obsessed college radio dj. If ripping off black American musicians is the only way for a British band to have "cred" in the US, than thank god for the decline of "cred".
`
To quote Morissey/Marr from a tune in The Smiths's heyday: "I know it's over./ But in my heart, it was so real."
Thanks, Simon, for basically giving us the same tired argument that Sasha Frere-Jones keeps spouting. Somehow "black music" (whatever that may be) is better and more legitimate than "white music"? Black music, it seems, requires a groove and a good beat, apparently that's it. All black people and "black music" are more or less the same then. I mean, blacks are born with a better sense of rhythm and are much better entertainers and athletes than white people (unless said white people are influenced by "black" culture). If you want to look at music through the lens of culture (and vice versa), you're gonna need to look a hell of a lot deeper than that. Who needs self-segregation when a fancy rock critic can do it for us? Nice work!
Chris Kelley
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
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Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
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Salon headlines in your mailbox
