Pop has been SO BAD recently, that I...

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

...have been listening to Neil Young.

Does anyone have a more shameful confession?

Comments

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

don't want to go on about this, but that cleverness falls flat when you realise that that was alread in the original. it's like when someone makes a joke, and someone else explains it.

Re: dig that crazy crate

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I once dug around in an MVE crate and found Man Not A Boy by North & South. I was so happy!

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Claiming Neil Young sounds like Travis is like saying Beyonce sounds like Javine.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Neil Young's voice is responsible for SO MUCH WRONGNESS in rock vocals, especially in the 90s.

Don't get me wrong, I love Neil Young, but no Neil Young = no Wayne Coyne, no thingy from Grandaddy, no bloke going 'ooh!' from The Thrills etc.

Re: ok -- possibly even worse

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Boys Of Summer was played on Friday night and remains fantastic.

(I feel a POLL IDEA coming on)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

You like Neil Young as well?!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't think it was in the original! At least, not the same sort of humour. There's the feminist agle to Tori's which is hard to ignore.

Re: my shame

[cis.livejournal.com]

Oh, I dunno, I never really had to grow into Neil Young - though I only ever listen to Harvest and Harvest Moon.

In fact I had a moment last year where I felt I couldn't go another day without listening to Harvest but the CD was wherever my brother was so I had to go out and buy it.

[cis.livejournal.com]

Nothing I listen to is ever shameful! Although I do feel kind of ashamed of being 'into' certain j-boybands while not really liking their music very much.

Re: my shame

[fathands.livejournal.com]

I had after the gold rush for a year before I decided I liked it. I think I played it once and relegated it to the shelf before coming back to it later

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Surely most of them don't actually release records, so that makes it okay?

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Yes. Very much so.

[cis.livejournal.com]

Obviously the ones who don't release any records are the best!

Re: my shame

[cis.livejournal.com]

If I relegate records I don't tend to come back to them - my usual thing is listen once, maybe another time, and then if something turns up either in my head or is played near me and I think both 'oh i know this' and 'oh i like this' I'll go back to it.

Re: my shame

[fathands.livejournal.com]

yeh, on the whole if something doesn't take immediately it won't get another chance, but sometimes I feel guilty about this and grant a second chance, and sometimes by this point I am more receptive.

[cis.livejournal.com]

I don't think this intuitive paradigm is right at all - or at least it isn't right if we're using your man-in-street defs of pop and indie! For one, there's the gig, which is often assumed among indie-ists as being the best setting for song X, which is a lot about communal experience. Indie for indie-discos isn't for sitting in yr bedroom but for hanging out and dancing with yr mates.

Also people seriously INDIE EVANGELISM, it is strong and it is there, the difference I think is that indie sharing of musical knowledge etc is more hierarchical - the granting of information, the educating of others in what is the 'right' music, the recognition of other gatekeeper types by certain codewords and handshakes - whereas pop sharing of musical fu is more a dissemination, more taken for granted, somehow more egalitarian.

Re: ok -- possibly even worse

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i believe Q magazine have beaten you to it...

Re: See you and raise..

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I agree, Aimee Mann is ace- my favourite song would be 'I should've known,' though.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

I am listening to the comp CD from the latest issue of Robots and Electronic Brains. It starts with some minimal techno type stuff, you know beaty Aphex-twin farty noise stuff.

Today at work I listened to the new Puffy AmiYumi album, Sufjan, the Vacaciones (Spanish indie pop), Rilo Kiley, Midnattsol (des. Nordic Folk Metal), and J Mascis live at CBGB's. Just a typical day really.

Neil Young is great. Zuma is my favourite NY album.

Re: See you and raise..

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Ba-ba-ba!

Aimee Mann's lyrics are a true rarity in indie clever-clever lyrics in that they are a) good, funny, wise and b) actually clever. And I like her dedication to melody.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Hey kids, if you are intrested in established rock artists doing the unorthodox, then I recommend: "Flush the Fashion" by Alice Cooper. It's his Gary Numan phase.

Re: ok -- possibly even worse

[mooxyjoo.livejournal.com]

seek help now

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Really good discussion that I missed here. :(

I am somewhat surprised that no one has voiced the way I think about these things. The "communality" and the "effort" aspects are important, but what makes something "pop" for me is some kind of intrinsic quality that makes something memorable and approachable -- the best pop must, by definition, be ubiquitous, because everyone who hears it immediately likes it, e.g., this is why 'Dragostea Din Tei' must be a really great song. How else could it come out of nowhere and become popular in so many places, despite being in a completely unintelligible language?

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I am being fed all kinds of post-rock and sludge and "psychedelia" (a la the stuff Julian Cope likes nowadays, thought none of it is his) by someone -- something like 1Gb over the last week.

(But I'm not sure I like any of it!)

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that if you have to pay that close attention (ie., follow all the lyrics), isn't that by definition working too hard?