1980 Calling

I know I said I was signing off for a few days, but I spotted two things today that prompted me to want to whip up another quick post before I went.

As I mentioned back on my roundup of favorite new tunes of 2012, so much of what is currently championed as this era’s greatest music just leaves me cold, clammy and filled with seething, palpable contempt. Never was this truer than today, in the wake of the Super Bowl, when practically everyone with access to a computer was feverishly vomiting all over the Internet about what an amazing artist Beyonce is (I believe I hinted at my withering disdain for “Lady Bey” here, in the wake of her global-stability-threatening lip-synching scandal). At the office, I blithely mentioned how I thought she was abjectly lacking in the talent department, and I was met with the sort of bug-eyed stares normally reserved for the pantsless hobo that wanders onto your subway car. Evidently, I’m something of an anomaly in thinking that the sun doesn’t shine out of Beyonce’s over-rhapsodized posterior.

Look, I’m just simply of the opinion that her music isn’t good enough and that she has nothing important to say. That would be fine if she was just your average pop singer, but the fact that she’s positively deified just irks the bejesus out of me. Let’s raise the bar.

But speaking of the raised bar, those unrepentant nostalgists at Slicing Up Eyeballs put up a poll for readers to vote for their favorite LP from 1980 today, and the choices are fucking staggering. Seriously, regardless of your particular cup of tea, the albums that were released in that single 12 month span are unbelievable. To name BUT A FEW…

Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam & the Ants, In the Flat Field by Bauhaus, I Just Can’t Stop It by the English Beat, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) by Bowie, Catholic Boy by the Jim Carroll Band, Group Sex by the Circle Jerks, Songs the Lord Taught Us by The Cramps, Seventeen Seconds by The Cure, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables by Dead Kennedys, Freedom of Choice by Devo, Crocodiles by Echo & the Bunnymen, Crazy Rhythms by The Feelies, Sound Affects by The Jam, Closer by Joy Division, Killing Joke by Killing Joke, the first Pretenders album, the first Psychedelic Furs album, Kaleidoscope by Siouxsie & the Banshees, Underwater Moonlight by the Soft Boys, Argybargy by Squeeze, Remain in Light by Talking Heads, Los Angeles by X, Black Sea by XTC and Colossal Youth by the Young Marble Giants.

…and those are just my personal favorites. The list is vast.

Honestly, I’m biased, as I was 13 years old at the time all these records came out and only in the beginning throes of my lifelong love of music. Will 2013’s harvest bear as much greatness? I’d wager not, but then I’m a grumpy old poop, so what do I know?

Comments

[DrBOP]

A few things :
1)I can't remember who said this first(paraphrased)..."The music we listened to in our teens will be the music that we not only think is the best EVER, but will be the touchstone for ALL the music we listen to for the rest of our lives....and it will NEVER measure up to that standard".
And I think it was in a book written in the 60s about music in the 40s, so they weren't even talking directly about rock.
I have found it to be a truism for film, comedy, burgers, etc. I guess it's called aging, and I'm not trying to be snippy when I say that. I'm always questioning this weird process of getting older. I look in the mirror (I'm 62), and I'm wondering who the hell is this geezer I'm looking at......OH....MY.....GOD.....It's ME.....YIKES!!!
2)I get to talk to alot of 'yoots, and music is simply not as central to their lives as it was to ours. A MASSIVE whack of competition for a young person's attention/span these days. They also can't THINK of music SOLELY as an audio experience....it's ALWAYS accompanied in their minds with a moving visual picture. Since they have had no experience with what we had (Me = Janis, Joni, etc ; You = Siouxie(sp), Blondie, Chrissie, etc.), Bebouncy fits the bill. (I also think she's NOT ALL THAT.) But as I'm discovering over the years, nobody REALLY cares what I think.....they're 'YOOTS. (Did you give a rat's ass what your folks thought about the Dead Kennedys?)
3)One of the things I was ALWAYS interested in was WHERE my favorite musics came from. You know.....tracing punk/new wave to rock to rock'n'roll to rockabilly to R&B(old school 40s) to jazz to swing to blues to ragtime to marching band to folk musics (and on, and NOT straight-line evolutionary or exclusive).
Now think of the extra periods and types of music between then (mid-60s/70s)and now. WHAT an amazing challenge, that is HIGHLY complicated by most music being multi-mediated to death.(Start with EDM, and work backwards.) It's no wonder that some kind of experience of the roots of the music they are listening to/watching TOTALLY evades them. Thus, Beboring can seem like a BIG deal to them, while we think Billie Holiday might be nodding off from the obviousness of it all.
But it also points to the importance of music education in schools....which as you are well aware is under attack. And I'll stop (THANK GOD:+) with the fact that I think there is still some pretty good music out there.....it just takes ALOT of work to find it....and unfortunately the places to hear it live have mostly disappeared. I place my hope in more and MORE livestreaming to introduce people to a smidgen of what LIVE music can be....and that MIGHT produce a new demand for more live music venues.
Naaaah.....good luck wit'dat!

And sorry for your loss.....may they Rest In Rhythm.

[Alex in NYC]

Awesome, insightful response, Doctor. Thanks!