On Revivals
New column for the Guardian in which I talk about different types of pop revivalism.
“Back in the 1990s, wags like me would occasionally quip that the decade couldn’t be revived; it was already such a hotchpotch of half-borrowed styles that any music drawing on it would be a Xerox of a Xerox. I was being silly.”
That made me laugh.
“…From one angle much British music of the 70s – from Roxy Music to Showaddywaddy to the Sex Pistols – seems like an attempt to work out what to do with 50s rock’n’roll. It was a music waking up to the fact that it had a history, reacting with fascination and repulsion, and transforming itself in the process.
That’s the good side of revivalism. The element I’m less keen on – though it’s inseparable – is the aspirational return, where musicians and fans see pop’s history as a rebuke to its inferior present.”
Appropriate enough for this.
I am reminded of my reaction to Lard’s “‘70s Rock Must Die,” the appeal of which started out as “yeah, fuck this nostalgia shit” (I had a brief phase where I rejected classic/hard rock, which anybody who knows me may find bizarre) and eventually mutated into “hey, this fake ’70s riff is actually pretty catchy, or at least better than everything else Lard ever put out.” From such things an unironic appreciation of Foghat’s “Slow Ride” is forged.
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natepatrin reblogged this from hardcorefornerds and added:
I am reminded of my reaction to Lard’s “‘70s Rock Must Die,” the appeal of which started out as “yeah, fuck this...
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hardcorefornerds reblogged this from tomewing and added:
the 1990s, wags like me would occasionally quip that the decade couldn’t be revived; it was already such a hotchpotch of...
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