I Love #1's - 1997

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

What ho, pop-pickers! Last week's jaunt back to 1954 was something of a non-starter, with only 12 voters having heard anything on the list! Secret Love, Such A Night and This Ole House all tied with a piffling 8 votes each, but our Doris was the overall victor in the tie-break box. This week we have something for everyone. The last death throes of Brit-rock, teenpop perfection, lots of songs about dead people and...Tubby Toast? It's 1997!

[Poll #824745]

Comments

[cis.livejournal.com]

1997 I LOVE YOU

actually, authentically, a year so full of love it is amazing it didn't burst and splatter itself all over the rest of the nineties.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

It wasn't bad, was it? Despite learning the guitar and affecting an indie sn0b outlook* I was still utterly obsessed with the pop charts. My loathing for the Spice Girls was utterly overturned by their mindblowing performance at the 1997 Brit Awards. The Union Jack dress! The backflips! Fireworks! AMAZING SONG!

*No guitars, no fun. Ha!

no guitars, no strobes, no leather, no HUMPS (check it out!)

[cis.livejournal.com]

I realised, quite recently, that my version of 1996-7 had been totally stalinised by looking back and thinking "but i was totally indie surely", cos I really liked the Spice Girls especially! I remember when they were interviewed in the NME (was it by stephen dalton? i bet it was), it were awesome.

I however hated 'don't speak' at the time and was really annoyed that No Doubt got big off the back of it and not off "Just A Girl", which I thought wayyyyy better.

My lovely lady HUMPS

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Just A Girl was GREBT esp if you were 15 innit. Haha, I remember laffing heartily at all the ppl who bought Tragic Kingdom expecting album full o' ballad ala DS, and found themselves lumped with some mid-paced Californian ska punk.

oh, I've had it up to HUMPS

[cis.livejournal.com]

actual ANTHEM for girls who loved the guitars! It's one of the first records I can remember having a proper in-depth conversation about, with my friend who was all about the SoCalPunk. Plus she appeared to have the longest midriff in the WORLD in the video.

Cos they won't let MY HUMPS out at night...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I could go on like this all afternoon.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think this is one of the years I'm least looking forward to doing on P'lar. I don't love the shiny pop nearly as much as the 96 or 98 equivs, and I hate the dreary britrock even more!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

At least it's about half and half dreary/shiny. But when I wrote the blurb up the top it really did strike me how morbid this year was!

Professional WIDOW
I'll be missing BIGGIE
Candle in DIANA
Richard Ashcroft's MUM (or someone)
Lou Reed turning in his GRAVE (ok not quite)

[cis.livejournal.com]

My reaction to this year is barely even critical, I think? It's mostly just ("just") a really important year for me, personally, in terms of my relationship to music, a point at which I was experiencing everything. All this stuff I'd nowadays shrug off as schlock-sentimental or substandard or cynical or... whatever, that at the time was fresh and moving and more meaningful than anything else.

I secretly don't think of the dreary britrock as separate from pop, even!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I mean it wasn't really actually separate from pop.

Actually that's an interesting thought - the original move from Swinging London pop to late 60s rock was marked by a format shift to albums (and a radio format shift too!) which left the singles chart actually somewhat adrift (the period currently being covered on Popular) - maybe one of the things that made britrock SO irksome was its total refusal/inability to give up the pop infrastructure of radio/video airplay, appearances on TV shows etc.

[cis.livejournal.com]

And there was that weird thing where they still acted like they were Taking On The Man by appearing on TOTP and having number one records - they were still locked in the groove of the indie mindset, even the boorish beerish stuff. I think that's lasted, you know? Current irksome britrock stuff - yer Coldplays and whatevers - still does what's left of the singles-based promo trail, and still acts like it's surprising. ("britrock is teh art of pretend indie ethic" etc etc.)

Mind you I don't think I consider it irksome, anymore! I have come a complete 180 on this.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

this is why I refer to Oasis et al as indie!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Tell me more of yr love of SNOW PATROL!

[cis.livejournal.com]

I have not got that far yet but I am working on it! Amazingly sentimental stuff with string sections tacked on for ADDED EXTRA GRAVITAS is kind of amazing, though, how it pounds and chimes and soundtracks preview commercials for One Tree Hill with people sighing mopily!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I would agree but I wish they'd drop the singing style, LET JEFF BUCKLEY REST.

[cis.livejournal.com]

Mmm, that weedy overhigh straining that remembers how "jeff buckley never had any vocal training" but forgets the "however he was a singing genius" bit! I like to think of it as the beating, yearning, frailly fluttering heart of the stuff. (oddly enough one of the things that 180'd me on it was r'n'b use of the general eggy-sentimental sonics, but twinned with female voices that have such things as depth, ability to hold a tune, control of emotion, etc.)

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

This was a HUGE year for sales though - obviously Elton's as the biggest ever, but also Aqua, Teletubbies, Perfect Day & Puffie all sold over a million copies. If I recall correctly this was one of the biggest years for single sales ever, rivalled only by a couple at the end of the 70s.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

OMG YES!

there are a few dreadful dreadfulnesses present but they are totally overshadowed by:

- sentimental and emotional r&b! (Puff Daddy and R Kelly)
- Olive getting most improbable No 1 ever on fourth re-release!
- glorious pop back-to-back of 'I Wanna Be The Only One' and 'Mmmbop'!
- TORI GETTING A NUMBER ONE!!!!