The Last John Peel Post

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I was going to do a poll on the 1982 All Time Festive Fifty but got bored about 5 songs in. It's an astonishing thing in its way though: of the 1976 tracks (also 'all-time'), NOT A SINGLE ONE survived - a handful were later reinstated for the 2000 all time poll. If you want a bit of "punk was year zero" evidence this is surely it EXCEPT I still don't think we've got to the heart of the Peel question, beyond "was he good?" or "was Burchill good?" or whatever:

- How much did he CONVERT his audience to punk and how much did he get a completely new one?

- And the really big question (for me): how come he couldn't then convert his audience to the kind of wideband listening we were talking about on Matt's post?

And the same goes for the NME too, or Pitchfork now to an extent - why is it difficult for tastemakers to move their audience's tastes? It's a question about elitism really - the difference between "knowing what's best" and "knowing what's best for you", the latter being virulently reacted against. Should media gatekeepers - like Peel or the NME - try to educate their listeners and where do the listeners say "that's enough thanks"?

Comments

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Pitchfork kind of stands out today as being a (sorry) old media "These are the ArtFacts" attempt at tastemaking, doesn't it?

Was Peel doing the wideband playlist before 76, though? Was it just a result of the narrowing of focus (as Kat said, 1/4 of the best single ever being Joy Division/New Order is crazy, even to me for whom 1976 is basically year zero)?

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

sorry i am still superbusy and have still not explained this aspect in ref peel in particular in 75, the uk vs us rockpress in particular in 75 (difft to each other AND to peel)

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Don't be sorry dude, I look forward to it!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes PFM is very old media in a sense. I think it's moved from one kind of elitism - we are the cool kids with the cool taste - to the more Peelite mission-to-explain kind. In terms of its content span it feels quite like a version of the 80s NME, except the occasional verbal pyrotechnics have been smoothed out - stylistically Pitchfork now is a completely different beast than it was when it became famous.