Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been....?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

One of the battlegrounds in the Hip Hop Wars was NME's "C86" cassette, a tape compiled by some of the paper's writers, later described as "the most indie thing to have ever existed". While many of the bands were later embarassed by it and while it suffers from the usual post-facto "OMG it wasn't a scene" backlash (sure, it wasn't a scene in the sense of bands working and collaborating together, but it captures a mood quite well), its legend lives on.

Here's a poll about it:


[Poll #829524]


SHAMBLE ON.

Comments

Re: Sides still being taken!

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

hiphop was NOT strictly speaking a breach-point -- they were the hiphop hitlers because they were hitleresque in their love of hiphop, i think the argument ran

it was the rise of dance music in 87 -- chicago house in particular -- that the indie side were suspicious of: as early as this it only had a TINY following in the uk; and the london club-scene was notoriously elitist and not especially "black" (obv more than indie was, but nevertheless); some of the "soulcialist" rhetorical armory was quite flawed by now

IMPORTANT: the very vexed question of what appeared in the "indie" charts -- how they were compiled, whether dance labels like Jive or manu-pop like SAW were to be included (yes economically, no "ideologically" was the "indie" attitude)

also there was at this date a series of "straight" soul acts hugely promoted by CBS (ie the major majors) -- terence trent d'arby the most dramatic (and least "straight"), but a string of others wyho i now forget -- who were fielded VERY uninterestingly by the soul faction

Re: Sides still being taken!

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

The most notoriously duff "real soul" band of the time was surely the dismal Hot House, with the distinctive and never pleasant vocals of Heather Small, later of M People.