OFF: Muzak thru the decades.

[Mark Lee]

Alex gets off the point with...

>>I thought '99 produced a great number of really good albums, if you
searched
>>long and hard enough.  And the 90s have been spectacular, at least in
>>comparison to the absolutely dismal 80s.
>
>Duran Duran over Backstreet Boys
>(*feels sick at the mention of BB*). The 90's have struck me as
particularly
>bland and tasteless (again, I'm talking mainstream).

I was never talking mainstream, and never will I again here (except perhaps
to criticize it mercilessly), and I *thought* I made that clear, as below.

>>(Who would waste their time wondering if Culture Club was better or worse
>>than Matchbox 20?)

BTW, FWIW, I have said here before that I thought Duran Duran was the worst
band I'd ever heard.  (I'm sure there are worse that I've never heard.)  And
amazingly, took heat for it!

Gotta agree with this, even tho I did work with a band in the 80's who
covered all of the then popular chart music, including Limahl, ABC etc
and all that bleuch !!

>Obviously, if you go digging underground, you're gonna find some pearls.
All
>decades have them. I just think they were buried deeper in the 90's.

This was when I 'discovered' Rock Music, Deep Purple, Rush (here we go
again),
and Led Zep.  Don't want to argue the rip-off cover theme again but at the
time
this was new to me, and I loved it.  Maybe because it 'spoke' to me, lots
of angst ridden lyrics and solid power chords.

That's ok.  But I only found five in the 80s, and hundreds in the 90s.

>>Surely, my thoughts aren't unique?!

Nope, I'm with you there.

>
>Likely not. I even share some of them - though I do disagree about the 80's
:-)

Disagree?  How?  We're not talking about the same thing.  'New wave' and
'hair metal' vs. 'alterna-hipsters' and 'girl power/boy bands' is totally
irrelevant (to me).  All of it is vile, so what?  The question is...beyond
this rubbish, is there anything to listen to?  In the 80s, hardly (that's
why I listened to (some) metal)...in the 90s, absolutely!

>Also (and I wonder if anyone else has noticed this) it seems to me that the
>90's were a lot more darker. Like the singers and bands out there were more
>depressed or something. The 80's were more joyful, cheerful. It shows in
the
>videos too. Nowadays, all the videos are really dark and gloomy, at least
>the vast majority.

I really hate this 'labellling' of music, why categorise stuff, the stupid
thing to me is that even the so called people in the know miss-label stuff
all the time, how often do we hear DJ's saying "the greatest rock and roll
band of the xties", for me rock and roll was the 50's and 60's, rock and
then
punk was the 70's, new wave, new romantic, new age, new..... was the 80's.
Since then it's all become a blur (including Blur).

Videos?  I haven't seen a video since Mark Goodman (probably DD's "Rio").
:) Now I understand where you're coming from.  :)

Keith H. (FAA), revisionist youth at 35 (owns no CDs recorded before my
birth, except maybe 1...B.B. King)

I think you'll find that at 35 there were no CD's 'recorded' before your
birth Kieth.... :)  But I know what you mean. I must confess to having
a mediocre collection of Classical music on disc tho. I frequently
find myself listening to Orf's Carmina Burana or a lot of Tchaichovsky's
pieces. There, my secret is out, I'm bound to get stick for this.

Anyway, we now return to semi-lurkdom.  If anybody is interested we
are playing (Dr Hasbeen) in Scarborough on Sat 18th.  Mail me for
details.Mark (The Master of Disaster)

mark at esparto.org
mark.p.lee at genie.co.uk
mark.p.lee at sms.genie.co.uk  (to cellphone)

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