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a feeling : no really new music can be recorded any more.
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IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited Aug 30, 2008, 21:44
Re: a feeling : no really new music can be recorded any more.
Aug 30, 2008, 21:43
keith a wrote:
Dog 3000 wrote:


maybe that's the thing right there -- "punk" severed popular music from musicianship, and it became more of a "star system."



1. "Punk" didn't severe popular music from musicianship. Loads of 'punk' bands had members who were good musicians. It was more a reaction against the likes of ELP and Yes where the contents seemed to be more about musicians abilty than the actual music.

2. There was a star system waaaay before punk. 'Punk' was surely as anti-star as it ever was anti-muso.

3. How did 'punk' lead to a star system. I really don't follow.

4. Technical ability is even more over-rated than Randy Newman. Idea's are far more important than musical ability will ever be.

You wouldn't say you prefer one author to another because his handwriting is neater, would you? ; )



Agree on 1. Lots of great players ended up in punk bands because they came out of that Pub Rock / Bar Band culture. Playing covers is one surefire way to learn your instrument inside out. Ask Paul Weller. Or rather don't bother, he's boring.

2 & 3 Punk ended up being about personalities because the musicians couldn't carry the burden of expectation. Most of the recorded output of British 1st and 2nd generation British Punk bands was utter cack. "Damned Damned Damned", "The Clash", the first four Pistols singles and much of "Bollocks" - all utterly brilliant. And er ... not a lot else in terms of albums. Lots of great singles in a Nuggets / Pebbles kind-of-a-way but very little evidence of extended creativity unless you count Art Rockers like Wire and Pop Group and Go4. But they were not Punk. Not like UK Subs. Not like CRASS.

4 Can could play, Magic Band could play, Blockheads could play, Cheap Trick could play, Television could play, Pere Ubu could play. The list is endelss and none of them could have made the music they made without being able to play. Virtually anyone with a career stretching beyond one album can play. Being able to play should be the minimum requirement.


Taste is the key issue not techncial facility but learning to play gives you choices that the whole monkey-with-typewriter thing does not.

That's exactly is what got lost in the shuffle when Peel was championing all those no talent, can't sing, can't play, can't write indie acts in the early 80s. A monkey with a Telecaster could get in the Festive 50 circa 1984. That monkey is not going to come up with "Last Train To Clarksville"

It's like everyone took the most reductive and easily Xeroxed aspects of The Velvets, The Fall or The Smiths tried to make a career out of it without having an iota of the intelligence or charisma. As the classic heckle of the time goes "practice at home".

If only they had.
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