Chart Music

[diggedy derek]

Publications always want eloquent letters! Seriously, you sit around in the office for ages twiddling your thumbs, and you punch the air when someone finally gets it.

[Hot Pepsi]

I thought letters to the editor had mostly died out in the age of the fucking online comments, which are rarely coherent, let alone eloquent. When they are eloquent, it's pearls before swine.



I once got a letter published in the Batman comic in the 80s. It wasn't all that eloquent. But I was right. I told them to bring back the top-tier colorful villains people liked - Joker, Penquin, etc. I didn't say "Stop trying to make Hugo Strange happen," but it was implied. I don't recall what else I had to say.

[G-Man]

I have appointed a couple of columnists on account of their letters (one is now a celebrated novelist). But these days I get the same five people writing letters to the editor, so, yeah, that art is dying out.

[diggedy derek]

Yeah, been going that way since advent of social media.

[Satchmo Distel]

Speak Yer Branes. Infact it might go all the way back to Radio 5 and Talk Sport, early 90s, and daytime TV (Kilroy etc) which started in 1986.

[E10 Rifle]

Just to say, that on the CM live podcast, that was put out last week, contains discussions on I've Never Been To Me, and on Madness, that had me dissolving in laughter and joy. And it's all so poignant now.

[Hot Pepsi]

When I worked for theheart.org, we got comments under the articles. 99% were from actual cardiologists who used their real names, which was usually helpful on the scientific stories, but not always. There was one who insisted on using the handle "truthteller" which was exactly as obnoxious as you might imagine.

Needless to say, perhaps, any article that discussed how much cardiologists at teaching hospitals get paid was not received in the same spirit of open-minded scientific inquiry. And there is occasionally some sexism and racism comes up in discussions of how doctors are trained and mentored.

[G-Man]

I usually don't feature music journalists or DJs in my monthly round-up of musicians who have passed away, but Neil gets featured in the January In Memoriam -- and he would have featured even if he had not been a musician as well.

https://halfhearteddude.com/2024/02/...-january-2024/

[Satchmo Distel]

Taylor's 2014 article on Britpop is always essential reading:

https://thequietus.com/articles/1509...versary-review

[Hot Pepsi]

Do British pop culture critics ever like anything?

[Plodder]

I think they were pretty keen on New Model Army and The Wedding Present in the 80s.

But you can't be liking too many things if you want to be setting the scene.

[ad hoc]

Do British pop culture critics ever like anything?

If you listen to Chart Music they are frequently incredibly positive about lots of records. Even (in fact especially) self-styled curmudgeon Taylor.

[San Bernardhinault]

They like things that are either current, obscure and not liked by many people or that were popular in the past but were deeply uncool at the time. The key is being somewhere between iconoclastic and contrarian.

[Lang Spoon]

I dont think Taylor's stance has shifted at all between now and then. In fact compared to Kulkarni and Price he was a positive shill for Oasis at the time.

[Satchmo Distel]

Taylor likes early Oasis but not their imperial phase. Price has said that Britpop had some positives at the beginning but became worthless by the time of Supergrass, Shed Seven, Sleeper, etc. The Britpop label also embraces good stuff that wasn't really Britpop - Pulp, Manics.I think that's all in the article.

[delicatemoth]

I dont think Taylor's stance has shifted at all between now and then. In fact compared to Kulkarni and Price he was a positive shill for Oasis at the time.

He reviewed their third album and was told that it had to have a positive review. God that record was dull.

[Hot Pepsi]

My unscientific hypothesis is that a lot of critics embraced Britpop and Blairism simply because they were tired of being angry all the time and were grasping for any reason to hope that the UK was getting better.

[Hot Pepsi]

The Britpop label also embraces good stuff that wasn't really Britpop - Pulp, Manics.I think that's all in the article.

The no true Scotsman defense?

[Satchmo Distel]

More that to critique Britpop we need to clarify the parameters of what it was and wasn't.

[Hot Pepsi]

Do we?
It was pop music from Britain in the early 90s. How about that?

[Jah Womble]

’Britpop’ as an entity doesn’t really require too much analysis given that it didn’t really mean anything in particular and was initially simply used by the music press to try and create a scene.

The only elements that the bands categorised thus had in common was that they played guitars. One might claim that the majority were influenced by distinct past styles, but that’s arguably true of all pop music.

[Lang Spoon]

When that biege man Maconie forst coined the term it also wrapped in St Etienne, possibly the least guitary band of the time that was still "indie".

[Lang Spoon]

Do we?
It was pop music from Britain in the early 90s. How about that?

Its an awful term, inextricably linked with that awful flag, and the rising Blairy beery triumphalism of the time contained the seeds of a now all conquering English nationalism. Im not a massive fan, but Edwyn Collins' contemporary rejection of and contempt for Britpop was bang on and quite brave.

[Jah Womble]

When A Girl Like You went Top Five, Edwyn Collins was briefly roped into the scene by some journos - which he doubtless would’ve hated. (He also dismissed grunge in Keep On Burning.)

When that biege man Maconie forst coined the term it also wrapped in St Etienne, possibly the least guitary band of the time that was still "indie".

Yep, and The Auteurs, if I recall correctly.