Modern Music And Brit Pop.

So, while the 80's had The Clash, The Cure and Guns n Roses, The 90's had Nirvana, Blur and oasis and The 2000's saw the Queens of the stone age and Biffy Cylro form, This humble decade that is to be, so far has accomplished next to nothing. With a quick internet search revelling the only band formed in 2010 to see any form of success so far being the wanted, so I went and listened to one surprisingly awful track called "All time low" which I must say has to be the all time low of modern music if you'll pardon the pun. I was shocked by the lack of diversity in modern music. The main artists being Lady GaGa and Rhianna is fine with me. I can understand the appeal of their music but it seems more than that, it's the media controlling the industry which is frankly absurd. Lady GaGa makes this point so well, Strip her of her weird clothes and publicity focused stunts and videos and you're left with just another good tune and a crazy lady in an egg. I think what she has achieved is marvellous, her sudden rise to fame is something to applaud her on, but it shocks me that people think what she's doing is so amazingly new. People have been wearing weird clothes and doing crazy things for such a long time, Kiss, although I may not be their biggest fan, were quite something. Not to mention Queens video for "I want to break free". The modern concept off weirdly wonderful has become far too driven by a desire to turn heads, I bet Lady GaGa doesn't even know what the message behind her choice of clothing is. I do praise her for the nerve to do it, But she's not the first and she'll by no means be the last.

An era of music I absolutely adore has to be Brit Pop when it was at it's finest. Somebody told me to watch a feature length documentary on the rise and fall of Brit Pop called "Live Forever" and it was bloody brilliant. It explores not only the musical side of the Brit Pop revolution but the political and cultural sides too. It features The Gallaghers, Damon Albarn and Jarvis Cocker talking about the era from their perspective which is really amazing. The documentary itself is hilarious yet so educational to exactly why such a great part of music died so young and the Gallaghers are on amazing form. Brit Pop is such a brilliant time in music as so much of it is about things that Brits can really relate to. It really pushed for alternative music to enter a more mainstream audience and the way it was accepted was electrifying. When it comes down to the battle of brit pop however I have to take the side of Blur, because they were in fact a better band with more complex instrumentals. Oasis as good as they were wrote stadium anthems whereas Blur wrote solid music focusing on just that, The music. Of course thats not all Brit Pop is about. The politics of the era where amazing too, we saw the beginning of new labour a government so pressed on change that they used pop culture to force their ideology through, And it worked. Being a Labour supporter myself I feel that this is what politics is about, it's about talking to the people in their own language through their idols and musicians. I feel like the down fall of Brit Pop was inevitable though. Without the support of America in the arts we would achieve nothing and America didn't quite get Brit Pop, it was all about Britain and policies and the issues the people of Britain were experiencing, so it's not difficult to understand why that didn't appeal to Americans. And while America kept producing new exciting sounds the people of britain became more drawn toward the dead Pop tunes we have today that have every ounce of originality sucked from them. So although Brit Pop may have been short lived it made a lasting impression, just take a look at the ticket sales of wireless this year where Pulp are doing a reunion concert, For which i'm crazy excited, They alone show that the buzz of brit pop is still happening and it is in fact timeless. 

Finally I want to say watch out for some amazing bands hitting the alternative scene:

Sleigh Bells - listen to infinity guitars it's so brilliant, You'll be humming it for weeks. 

War paint - They're going to get even bigger than they are. It's some crazy all female experimental art rock. 

The Phoenix Foundation - after 10 years success in New Zealand they're hitting the British indie- rock/pop scene. Coming in with all that experience means they are going to be huge.

Thats all for the now, 

Lovely Love,

Aisling 

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