On Sat, 4 Jul 1998 22:24:42 +0100 "jon g." <jon.g@btinternet.com> writes:

but there seems to be nothing of any real cultural significance yelling at me from the last decade, unlike the 60s and 70s, which are screaming at me all day long. All there seems to be is dodgy kiddy casio keyboards and pop stars who don't write their own songs. I know there musthave been more, but I can't see it. Can anyone help? Or I am I right?

well, i waited a few days to see if anyone could help jon.g to appreciate years 80-89. I assumed there must be more informed people out there who could help out. But all we've seen is a short list of worthwhile bands and some rather distasteful reminders of 80's fashions. Unfortunately, I can only do this from American perspective. Things might have been different elsewhere. The 80's were a decade quite close to my heart. One beautiful thing about it was how easy it was to be different. Button the top button of your shirt you were branded a freak worthy of a serious thrashing. Basically popular music was in a pathetic state. What started in the 70's, with Americans refusal to accept Punk, and instead wallowing in disco, bad disco mind you, and the same old Eagles/SteveMiller/Boston/Etc. Etc. classic rock, carried on throughout the 80's. A look at a high school yearbook from the years 1975 to 1988 and you would have sworn that time stood still. But as you look through the pages you'd always see a few rather peculiar looking kids with quotes underneath from Jonathan Richman or the Smiths. It was us vs. them. But American music was thriving in the 80's. It was just not being talked about. Mission of Burma, Pylon, REM, Dream Syndicate, Minutemen, Husker Du, The Replacements. Bands you could believe in. And then there was all that dance thing going on in Chicago and Detroit, but I don't know much about that. And Grandmaster Flash, African Bambatta(sp?). There was just a lot of good music in a lots of different places. And fashion? For the indie kids it was blue jeans, sneakers, and t-shirts. The less pretentious the better. Style wasn't very big. A bit of a cleansing period after the excesses of the 70's, and a rebellion against all the silly big hair new romantic/heavy metal types. Of course, most Americans are completely oblivious to all this (so therefore no VH-1 retrospective). As they were to all the great British bands, overrated, underrated or otherwise. I remember some very fine movies during the 80's. Room with a View, Breakfast Club, those french movies that I can't remember, oh yeah, Manon of the Spring. Lots more, not much of a film buff. Books, Theater, Dance? Maybe somebody else can fill you in. And really jon g, for any avid fan of Belle & Sebastian, how could a decade that was graced not only by Orange Juice, but also Felt have <nothing of any real cultural significance yelling> at you. Isn't that enough. And besides, seeing the one who writes the majority of the lyrics for our favorite band spent the majority of his impressionable years in the 80's, it might be worth your while to take a closer look. sorry so long, but its 10 years were talking about here. love Carrick _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net . Coinini athasach ata muid - ag canuint amhrain na . coinini - nach bhfuilimid? -----------------------------------------------------------------------