Brother, can you spare a DRM?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I remember around the time of Bush getting in and the dotcom bust a few articles (that great pop seer Jim DeRogatis may have written one!) saying, ah well at least this will be good for music as recessions mean a return to grassroots creativity and proper music not this manufactured etc etc.

But on the other hand you could just as easily argue that in bad economic times music can provide a bit of escapism and fantasy - Busby Berkeley dreams and all that.

Do you have a view on the effects of economic gloom on the 'mood' of pop - the type of things that are likely to get big?

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

End of year reviews repeatedly using Flying Lizards/Pink Floyd/theme tune from 'Are You Being Served'...

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Well you'd think all this light and airy RUBBISH would go away but maybe not.

Increased sales of 'Back To Black,' tbh, probably.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Also probably an unwillingness to release anything other than "safe-bet" albums in the run-up to christmas, ie: bet they're wishing they'd held back on the new Coldplay.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

hahahahaha, um, didn't marilyn manson write one of those articles?

"historically" economic gloom = DRESSING UP, viz teddy boys, glam, also new romantics, but i don't know if there are rly enough datapoints to "prove" this...

i think there's always so much music being made that you can use it to prove any half-arsed theory either way innit...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

ALSO ALTERN 8!! Point proved I think.

I wonder if there are different prevailing half-arsed theories in Britain and the US.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i guess so, given that all three of those were VERY uk-based scenes (or at least not "properly" big in america at the same time), but then economic badness hasn't always hit both countries at the same time...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Young Jeezy's The Recession is the first credit crunch themed album to my knowledge!

I approach most of these macro theories with suspicion though. Critics will pay more attention to albums which seem topical, and this might make it seem like the pop culture winds are blowing one way, but really for every gloomy recession album to your right there'll be a new Pussycat Dolls opus to your left so it's a false picture.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Each time someone mentions the PCD I am tempted just to link to the latest gofugyrself, but are there enough hours in the day?!

Novelty record to contrast with loadsamoney perhaps.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

OMG has anyone seen the Virgin TV-on-demand ads - they were in Metro this morning - "ALL FIVE PUSSYCAT DOLLS FOR YOU TO DOMINATE", steady on Mr Branson it's only a TiVo.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Yes :(
That's all :(

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Good lord!

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Yes! I thought "that's a bit dodgy!"...I pointed it out to my temp.

???

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

OK I have now caught up on GFY and the...the thing about the whole "they put the tart in tartan" thing is that it's not just a GFY witticism, you just know that those outfits were inspired by that very pun.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about 'reality shows', as 'reality' gets more and more DO NOT WANT, where does this leave the X-Factor lot? Seeing as I've found X-Factor et al a total snoozefest since the first two I wouldn't really mind as long as it does not affect glamourous escapism via Strictly - or perhaps it's the chance for make-or-break tv to get better!

I read an article along these lines just recently but can't remember where. I think I sniggered and thought "Donny Tourette".

People getting angry at Social Causes and making records about them of course doesn't necessasrily result in good records (punk 101 nyah) and in fact given the blandout across pop I'd be depressed thinking it might just result in yet more moaning - either way you look at it some energy is the key, it's whether economic gloom stomps on the energetic elements and they can't be bothered to come out.

More

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

...?? clearly I was saying something VERY INTERESTING in the last para and LJ ate it because IT CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"More sad pugs on record sleeves"?

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Gerald Way dogging up in a dal-may-shee-yan costume.

[cis.livejournal.com]

BAN THIS SICK FURREMO FILTH

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Look, I'm not the one with 28736478236 dog icons.
Oh hold on.
Yes I am, that is what I am.
MUST HAVE MOAR

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

oh bugger I was just talking about this yesterday and I think the whole question of what happens to the celebrity industrial complex in a recession is v interesting but I have to rush off to Notting Hill to interview a grime singer now! agh. to sum up I think the celebrity industry, much like the booze industry, may well hold steady or get stronger because it appeals to fundamental base human instincts.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I was thinking something along these lines - how quite a bit of the stuff coming out of the UK nowadays reminds me of the late 90s in Montreal (bubble era technically, but the economy took a while to pick up in Quebec post-referendum). Sort of... socialist slacker dub-pop / boho girl rap. Selective thinking or not instinct says it has something to do with macroeconomics, the 90s will be making a storming return. Checkered shirts are back in!

(Also demographics - 90s teenpop for instance was driven by the boomer-echo bump, i.e. people my little sister's age, and the Miley/Jonas wave is driven by kids-of-Gen Xers, whom logic sez will turn out to be bigger slackers than Gen X themselves.)

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

hahaha, YES! RETURN OF TEH LUMBERJACK SHIRT!!! end timez etc. did we fight the britpop wars for this etcetcetc

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking the other day about how cosy my old lumberjack shirt was! I assumed it was the onset of Autumn but in fact it was the ECONOMIC WINTER NOEZ.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

OTOH various directional stirrings are also pointing toward MOAR GLITTER, consistent with your theory above. Patrick Wolf** might have jumped the gun with The Magic Position's tour last year is what I'm thinking.

** Former tween-aged Kenickie fan; there was more than one 1998.

[cis.livejournal.com]

there was more than one 1998

AND WE HAVE LIVED THEM ALL

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

GRUNGE REVIVAL!