I’ve been meaning to write something about the Brit Box, a compilation of NME/Melody maker bands 1984-1999, that seems to be exciting certain sections of the indie-blogosphere. Luckily Simon Reynolds already summed up my feelings pretty well.
Racists in Britain used to chant “There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack.” Draping themselves in this flag, Britpop artists inadvertently sealed themselves off from the invigorating stream of new ideas coming from black music in the ’80s and ’90s, a good proportion of them — genres like jungle and 2step — spawned on Britpop’s own doorstep. Cultivating their quintessential quaintness, clinging tight to a glorious and storied past, the British groups instead concentrated on appealing to patriots at home and Anglophiles abroad. But in the process they lost the world.
The images above are covers from the comic Phonogram which, as a glance will probably tell you, has quite a lot of interesting stuff to say about Brit Pop as well as some slightly less interesting stuff to say about the author’s fantasy life.
And then Neil said:
Yeah, Reynolds nails it with that piece, I think. Although the question remains how much one can read into the history of British indie since the mid-80s from a boxset compiled specifically for Anglophile Americans.
And then tom said:Yeah, the path joining Spacemen 3 to Gay Dad is not an obvious one. But I think the story they’re drawing out of the era is all the more interesting to me because of the geographical - in addition to the temporal - distance. I think Americans are basically totally unaware of how huge ‘dance music’ was in the UK (and europe in general).
For much of the period that the discs cover indie music couldn’t get arrested (’88/9 - ‘97/8 most of the the bands on the CDs only made pretty cursory appearances in the top 40) and I think that the popularity of Oasis etc. was a reaction to this as much as punk was a reaction to prog (i.e. I think it’s a nice idea but somewhat debatable ).
tangentially: I love the Stereolab lyrics quoted in the article…
Also: here’s the tracklist
And then Neil said:That distance is definitely interesting. The critical stock of those bands on the tracklisting is incredibly varied- the likes of the Bluetones couldn’t get arrested these days, whereas MBV are hailed as art-rock genuiuses. It’s that distance that allows the compilers to get away with it, I think.
And then Neil said:Just noticed another thing from that Reynolds quote: “a good proportion of them — genres like jungle and 2step — spawned on Britpop’s own doorstep” In what sense were 2-step and jungle spawned on Britain’s doorstep? Surely they’re British genres through and through? Or does he mean that they were spawned in Ireland or Holland or somewhere?
And then tom said:they were spawned on britpop band’s doorsteps (not britains) i.e. in britain. that’s how i read it anyway.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Login [ « ] [ » ]