Sinister: The boy who's always dancing

[Carrick C Blair]

On Sat, 4 Jul 1998 22:24:42 +0100 "jon g." <jon.g at 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

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