Really Fantastic Article
- Thread starter IdleRich
- Start date
swears
preppy-kei
" Remember, though: in the dark days of 1991-93, it looked like the guitar really was extinct..."
Dark days? Golden age more like. There was a touch of that in 1999-2000 as well, I remember seeing a few of "death of UK rock" stories in the press. There was some BBC survey in 1999 that said that most of their target demographic weren't interested in indie music at all. Any genuinely new movement now is going to negate 25 years of indie and general retro culture isn't it? (Although it seems to be less likely to happen every year.)
This John Harris fella, like most broadsheet critics seems like a smug old bore to me.
Dark days? Golden age more like. There was a touch of that in 1999-2000 as well, I remember seeing a few of "death of UK rock" stories in the press. There was some BBC survey in 1999 that said that most of their target demographic weren't interested in indie music at all. Any genuinely new movement now is going to negate 25 years of indie and general retro culture isn't it? (Although it seems to be less likely to happen every year.)
This John Harris fella, like most broadsheet critics seems like a smug old bore to me.
IdleRich
IdleRich
I thought that you would like that one Swears but I agree with you, he's the worst. I particularly like the way he kicks it off by saying that the Killers album is a disappointment as though that's some kind of cultural reference point for everyone. Surely a national newspaper can find someone to write for them who has some interest in and knowledge about music?
throughsilver
Well-known member
I've not read the article yet but, removed from context, that is an insane line. Like, completely deranged.
I'm assuming he's talking about UK guitar music, because I remember being completely buzzing about Soundgarden, Nirvana, Metallica, Jane's Addiction... then later, Slint, Fugazi, Earth, Melvins, Swans, Drive Like Jehu, Godflesh, Kyuss et al.
Err, and that's not even mentioning Loveless that, last time I checked, was guitar music in the 1991-3 era, reasonably successful, and sufficient evidence that the guitar breathed still.
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swears
preppy-kei
Yeah, I think he's talking about the UK. I was only a little kid then, but everyone at my school liked cheesy techno pop and happy hardcore. I think Oasis brought indie into the mainstream, before that, it was just stude older brothers with shoulder length hair and Viz character t-shirts.
IdleRich
IdleRich
He's doing what he always does and assuming that everyone sees everything from the same position and in the same way as him. When he says "guitar" he means the particular type of guitar music (ie part of an accepted tradition from the Beatles to, I don't know, Razorlight) in the particular place that he was at the time.
He's a cock alright, and appears to be completely ignorant of the alternative histories of the 90s which didn't revolve around brit/dreck-pop. Like Metal (doom, death, black grindcore etc) the hardcore continuum (jungle, 2step etc), the non-hardcore continuum, (trance and techno) electronica (Warp records, Mego, Mille Plateaux), the avant garde, hip hop, dancehall all those hundreds of narratives spinning away in parallel. Its pathetic as its an attempt held up by pisspoor muso-journos to hold back the broadband era. There is no single narrative, but the way it is still presented appears to me certainly to be some kind of attempt to keep a lid on the whole thing. The Klaxons are shit tho, all the same.
Chef Napalm
Lost in the Supermarket
I figured this guy for some wet-behind-the-ears twenty-something who, when asked to recall the nineties, remembers more about his Matchbox cars than brit-pop, but no! He's older than I am! Seems like a pretty blinkered stand for such a seasoned writer.
throughsilver
Well-known member
Totally. I spent from when I got in last night til when I went to bed (11-3, then) reading old Simon Reynolds writings from the archive. Man, he really puts pretty much every other modern music writer to shame.
I found myself disagreeing with a decent portion of what he wrote (he seems a tad biased against modern rock music, from what I read), but that's why I like him so much. It's like with Bill Hicks - best stand up of the last 15 years, precisely because I don't just sit there nodding my head. But I digress. I spent ages reading his reviews of particular years and it really is sad (as he pointed out) that print music journalism is in such a sorry state right now.
[edit] Oh, I know this 'writer'. He's the idiot from Newsnight Review who gets his mug on that regular Guardian column.
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swears
preppy-kei
Music writing is in a sorry state because it's written by former nerdy English students who like to go on about how The Smiths changed their life, or some other such cobblers. I think that's the problem with contempory authors as well, they're all pussies.
The novel that impostume fella's working on looks promising, though.
The novel that impostume fella's working on looks promising, though.
Gabba Flamenco Crossover
High Sierra Skullfuck
Eh? Two blokes releasing the same record over and over again? Wouldn't that be Oasis, Jon, who you have done rather well out of down the years, you c&$%.
Altern 8 were great. If Oasis had ever done anything even half as entertaining as dropping Christmas puds on Stafford from a hot air balloon, they'd be immeasurably greater as both a band and a cultural phenomenon.
Well, I was 16-18 in these years and in my niavety I definitely thought that guitar music was done for. 91-94 were the real creative years in UK dance culture, not just in hardcore... loads of great dancefloor techno came out in that time (before trance and acid had split off into seperate scenes, it was a big glorious mess), the earliest & best of ambient and downtempo stuff, deep dubby house, etc. Contrast to 88-90 when people were really too busy getting faced to make music and most of the records were american imports.
Loveless came out towards the start of this era, and there was a real feeling that it was a kind of full stop to 80s indie culture, the pushing of that idea to it's logical conclusion. The bands around in 93 were beyond dire... Kingmaker, 1000 Yard Stare, Neds. I won't go on, you get the drift. IMO that was a massive factor in so many former indie kids getting into raves.
This was only in the UK as you point out - loads of great US guitar records came out in 91-93 (most of them on Touch & Go as I recall).
Broadsheet journo in blinkered, crap article SHOCKER. He's a dope, but there's plenty of dopes out there. Why bother listening to their crap?
Having said that, it is a bit of a shame, I generally like the Guardian, so it would be nice to read some decent music coverage in it. Also I have the utterly awful Observer Music Monthly to thank for turning me onto Magma when they did an article on Steve Davis, so they're not entirely worthless. Pretty close but.
Having said that, it is a bit of a shame, I generally like the Guardian, so it would be nice to read some decent music coverage in it. Also I have the utterly awful Observer Music Monthly to thank for turning me onto Magma when they did an article on Steve Davis, so they're not entirely worthless. Pretty close but.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
The man who wrote this article has quite possibly never heard of fun...
Neither has he been out in the past five years, as 'Out of Space' and 'Let Me Be Your Fantasy' are mainstays of even cheesey indie nights.
Man do I ever love rave...
Neither has he been out in the past five years, as 'Out of Space' and 'Let Me Be Your Fantasy' are mainstays of even cheesey indie nights.
Man do I ever love rave...
swears
preppy-kei
The man who wrote this article has quite possibly never heard of fun...
Neither has he been out in the past five years, as 'Out of Space' and 'Let Me Be Your Fantasy' are mainstays of even cheesey indie nights.
Man do I ever love rave...
Yeah, one "eclectic" night my mates used to drag me to played "Super Sharp Shooter" and "Only Love Will Set You Free" in the little dance bit towards the end. This was only about three years ago, BTW.
88-90: LFO, KLF, 808 State, Baby Ford, Nexus 21, Rhythmatic, Nightmares On Wax, Scientist, errrrr Guru Josh
the undisputed truth
Banned
I still thrash the 2step 'let me be your fantasy' with trick or treat.