Like, Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box (Totally)
It's been said, "If you remember the '80s, you're a frighteningly shallow idiot." Or was it, "Those who don't learn the lessons of the '80s are doomed to listen to seven CDs of its music featuring Air Supply and Eddie Rabbit in 'Repeat' mode"? Hey, what does it really matter what the hell anybody else said since the rather ugly truth of the matter is that you and I have already given the lost Decade of Reagan and "Beastmaster" considerably more serious thought than most of those artists who created the passing pleasures collected on this curiously compelling collection of '80s pop artifacts. For the record, that word there was "artifacts," not "art" since—as a rule—I try never to use the word "art" in discussing any album that includes "Footloose" by '80s soundtrack god and recovering '70s sensitive guy Kenny Loggins. Nostalgia can't blind me—though I did once meet this chick in the '80s who blinded me with science.
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StumbleUponTruth be told, it might be easier to be full-on cranky about the '80s if we could cop some serious attitude from a better musical spot than the one we find ourselves in right here, right now. And you're right that ultimately the '80s gave us some musical giants like Prince and the Replacements, to name just two acts from the state of Minnesota. In the '80s, substance may have become a bit of a novelty—but at least it existed. Unfortunately we're living now in a era with shockingly few weighty newcomers anywhere on the downloadable horizon—with the possible exception of some kid named Elvis Presley, who's remarkably red-hot this week thanks to Lilo & Stitch and a current techno hit—"A Little Less Conversation," by JLX—that's about to hit our shores from overseas. But apart from the King, things aren't looking too substantial these days. And so it is with a heavy, shallow heart that I've got to agree with you that in this culturally troubled context, "Sister Christian" sure does sound mighty fine to me. (Maybe you should start calling me "Brother Jew.") Then again, I also find myself hungering for more of the sort of late New Wave poppy-punk energy that's here in its full glory on Scandal's "Goodbye to You." Take a listen. Remember kids, if only Britney Spears had the glorious pipes of Patty Smyth, maybe she'd be with a best-selling author like John McEnroe instead of trying to get over Justin Timberlake.
Basically, Davy boy, I think we've both got a love/hate relationship with a decade we both survived, but not without being bloodied and not without hearing "Der Kommisar" more times than we care to mention. Still, I love those unbalanced obsessives at Rhino Records. Why? Because they care as much about pop culture as I do, even about the stuff that isn't cool even in an ironic way. And arguably because I've been on their mailing list since I started reviewing records for the Cornell Daily Sun sometime in the '80s. Actually, come to think of it, I believe that I started seriously scoring with the ladies sometime in the '80s, too—so after all, perhaps those were the days, my friend.
Then again, my wife did let me wear my "Sunglasses at Night" this weekend.
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Notes From the Fray Editor:
Whose kisses are on whose lists? Who has been fighting the good fight for Hüsker Dü? The Fray has battled over inclusion and exclusion, the ickiness of nostalgia and the roll of Reaganism in our culture. Wild notes that he has been attacked for his outspoken Hall & Oates support (one wonders if this includes the cover of "Jingle Bell Rock.") In Notes I, Big Al provides some useful analysis. Notes II is a remarkable exchange on the imperatives of the market and the elective affinities of rap.
Notes From the Fray I:
Oddly enough, this band would have been better before the age of video. I still recall the dark-haired short one (Hall, Oates? [Oates—ed.]) with the bug-eyes moving his head back and forth like a pigeon on one of those insipid videos. And their domes remind me of how truly horrible 80s hair was. Some vidoes from that era were hilarious, campy, innovative (in a low-tech way). H&O videos were simply and essentially horrible.
-- Big Al
(To reply, click here.)
Notes From the Fray II:
"Walk This Way" signified the end of creative music. This song demonstrated that you could take a recognized song add some new effects and sell a few million copies. It signaled that creativity was unimportant. Look at rap today Puff Daddy won out over Public Enemy. Now music is all formula Like JLo and Britney.
-- biff
(To reply, click here.)
Stop the madness! The idea that "Walk This Way" killed pop music is almost as silly as the idea that pop music is now dead, just because JLo dominates the airwaves. I think Plotz is on to something here: The Run DMC/Aerosmith collaboration not only brought hip-hop to mainstream (read: white) attention, it also brought forth a new direction for listeners to follow. More than either of those two, it proved that the cliques that listeners were lumping themselves into were useless, because the song proved that genres could successfully merge and that pop couldn't be as neatly lumped into camps as we'd been led to believe. (Prince was doing the same sort of thing, but he wasn't rapping.)
Puff Daddy may have won out over Public Enemy, but could PE's rock-riff-fueled sonic assaults have been created without "Walk This Way" coming before? Maybe, but I'm doubtful.
-- aluminum man
(To reply, click here.)
I have nothing against Run Dmc its just that one song. I don't think they particularly liked doing it it was just a deal with the devil that they had to make. What that song did was show record companies that they can make money with garbage and that people will buy records no matter what is put out so there is no point developing real artists when pre fab sells better.
-- biff
(To reply, click here.)
"Could PE's rock-riff-fueled sonic assaults have been created without "Walk This Way" coming before?"
No, and Chuck D. knows it:
Beat is for Sonny Bono, beat is for Yoko Ono
Run-DMC first said a deejay could be a band
Stand on its feet, get you out your seat
Beat is for Eric B. and LL, as well, hell
Wax is for Anthrax, still it can rock bells
Ever forever, universal, it will sell
-- DonkeyBoy
(To reply, click here.)
(7/26)