Public Carmodism

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Discussion on the tournament thread about GHOST TOWNE by the Specials - is this the biggest example of Carmodism being generally accepted and written into the executive summary of rock history?

(Definition of Carmodism for the 99% of you who won't know what I'm on about: the belief that the state of the charts reflects the state of the nation, or at least the belief that it makes for more interesting analysis to pretend it does. From Robin Carmody, cultural critic and high practitioner of the art.)

Comments

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it seems more interesting to look at how broad trends had a practical influence on popular culture. Like, how did the actual economics of the depression change the movies that were being made? Could you make the argument that the depression was actually lengthened because of popular culture, because pop represented an economic inefficiency that stood to further drag things down, or was it the opposite (movie-making as an economic engine that carried things forward)? Etc. etc.