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: THE HIPHOP WARS: a personal memoir

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Very very interesting mark, as I started buying NME in 1986. (My first one was WOULD YOU PAY £4M FOR THIS CRAP?.) While I agree (and not completely in hindsight) with the "contempt towards indie kids" writing of the One Side, it *did* make me give hiphop etc more of a chance than I may have done otherwise. (The visible Norwegian music press at the time was not usable here, they were on a prolonged "roots" bender at the time (or doing the alt.country thing 20 years in advance? t/s) -- Stan Ridgway touted as the big thing etc.)

Re ""artistically valid" and "politically correct"" -- if I read you correctly, PC was actually used as a positive yes? (A friend of mine who studied in the us in the late 90s introduced me to the term, at which point I did not get the impression it was meant as ridicule.) Backlash of the century, digging one's own grave etc eh?

Re: THE HIPHOP WARS: a personal memoir

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

anatol it's worse than that! "politically correct" was first used as a SELF-DEPRECATING JOKE by elements of the left against their fellow elements, who were a bit too earnest or humourless or "rigorous"!! then it was taken up by the anti-left, who kept a tight grip on it ever since

if it was in use in the office at this time, i'm not sure i heard it or recognised it as such -- so the point i'm making is a bit glib and double-edged hindsight-wise : viz that the "ORDINARY RADICAL POLITICS" being argued for i more or less agree with, and some of the hiphop faction's taste was good; but the ATTITUDE TOWARDS POP i think stinks, actually, tho i didn't have the rhetorical firepower at the time to do anything about it

Re: THE HIPHOP WARS: a personal memoir

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Ok thx for answer. (I'm still looking out for an ilx opportunity to say "It's political madness gone correct!")

NB!: guy studying in US in "late 90s" above should obv be "late 80s"!!