utterly forgotten but NOT OBSCURE

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

by terming david byrne "obscure", alexmacpherson touches the exact, interesting nerve i think -- maybe even more than with his legendary "why SHOULD i have heard of john wayne?" argument

which is that in every generation (wait, that's how BUFFY starts!! -- er er focus) in every generation there are figures very well-known to all who have just VANISHED from mainstream radar by the next cycle

it's not that they're still popular but currently unfashionable; it's more that "what they meant" is no longer part of the pop discussion -- is that right?

so why has byrne vanished this way? or is it just not making "the right kinds of records" any more?

(disclaimer: i LOVED LOVE LOVED early TH and have i think every record they made --- BUT i went off them INCREDIBLY fast, round abt "true stories", and it took me years to rediscover any fondness)

Comments

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

I think Peter Frampton could be the best example of this. I first heard of him in the early 80s because he was in the Guinness Book of Records for having the biggest selling album ever or whatever it was, but at that time – only six or so years later – he had vanished. It was only years later that I heard anything by him, and I still reckon I've encountered Baby I Love Your Way more often as a cover version than the original. But for a moment or two, he must have been huge... I have no idea what kind of recognition factor Frankie Goes To Hollywood, say, have now, although we do now exist in a perpectual present in pop culture.