I posted this on ILM and I wonder if I actually believe it. I'd certainly like to.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"One of the things I really like about Eurovision is that it's a pop space which regularly and brutally REJECTS retro and revivalism via the ballot box: the regular ABBA-clones now can only scrape 12th or 13th and the French entries in their early-60s timewarm end up in the bottom four. Eurovision's commitment to the modernist project is impeccable!"

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

What amazes me is how the majority of countries come up with the same 'theme' each year. Last year was RAWK. Year before = tribal drumming. Year before that = eastern string samples. Year before that = overblown celtic LotR nonsense epics. Where do all these trends come from? Are we so separated from the rest of the continent that said theme is always a SURPRISE?

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

Year before that = overblown celtic LotR nonsense epics

i think i know where this might have come from!

You always fight the previous war

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Well I always feel that each year's new entries are basically reacting to last year's winner: if the reaction isn't interesting enough the terms of engagement shift suddenly as a new unexpected winner emerges. Was there really a lot of RAWK last year aside from Lordi - seemed to me the context was still very much working through the Ruslana aftermath!

Re: You always fight the previous war

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Not so much rawk as haircut indie, I suppose, but definitely plenty of guitars. Which actually matches the trend in the UK I suppose... OK scratch that theory :-)