Who needs Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, they're not our music, they're out of date

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Jaysis I'm ruined.

The pop quiz was somewhat of a triumph - £330 in the kitty for charity, pretty good result, bigger things expected of the auction on Friday tho. Nobody got the Bradford fire question; nobody got Chernenko; I think one team got Chumbawamba; nobody got I'd Rather Jack; almost nobody got ABBA; EVERYBODY got Busted, hurrah.

Does anyone want more bits and pieces questions?

Here is a question that's been floating around my brain a bit: is pop music a good medium for self-expression? When I think of records which have some kind of confessional or soul-baring component to them I tend to be thinking of records I think are a BIG BAG OF SH1TE. "Self-expression" isn't exactly the right words here, maybe with conversation I can work towards a better way of phrasing this...

Comments

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i think the thing i like abt lennon/plastic ono is that it's on the borderline between utter confessional and high-end craft: you see the bad side being morphed into the good side, or failing to be so morphed, or something

(for example: on one hand, an outpouring of unshaped ME ME ME; on the other, it's all double-tracked -- ie his voice is sent thru some kind of slight reverb to "chorus" it, which is a weirdly "anti-authentic" device to reach for)

(also: there's ringo on drums behind him)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Well isn't he saying, yes I am a pop star (even if I hate it) and this SHOULD be part of the business of being a pop star.

(OK maybe 'could' instead of 'should').

I guess I wouldn't want it removed from the armoury of pop completely because as Jeff and Alex suggest there are things that can be done with it. But surely there are better ways to get something off yr chest than writing a song about it.

(I think I phrased this as "Blogging killed indie for me" once)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

lennon's famous massive two-part interview w.jann wenner in the stone at this same moment (ie of plastic ono band) is the virtual INSTALLATION of rockism ordinaire -- not to mention the rock'n'roll CANON -- in the critical discussion

so i think his WRONGNESS was part of a reactive project against "it has all gone horribly wrong"

(of course you also have to factor in the sheer topsyturvy HORRIBLENESS of 68-69 out in the world, when EVERYONE totally lost their bearings) (so i am interested in this record as a marker of that side of lennon -- as bellwether for the topical -- as much as using it as a tour-guide round the inside of a man's whiny heart)