Life is Joy and Frustration

Sunday, July 31, 2005

Was 80's music really crap?

You hear it over and over again: people making fun of music in the 80's. They call it crap and say 'What the hell were we thinking back then?' It even seems to be trendy to say it. But is it true?

As a big Prince fan, whose work in the 80's I find the best (as many other Prince fans), I don't agree wholeheartedly, of course. His work is the inspiration of so many other musicians. Famous jazz musicians, like Miles Davis and Maceo Parker, agree that they find his music about the best music they know. But it's not just Prince. What about say the Eurythmics and the Simple Minds? Can anyone really say that their music was crap? I loved their music, and still do. And although I'm not a fan of U2, R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen, the Talking Heads, The Pixies or Joy Division, who also became big in the 80's, I wouldn't call their music crap.

Of course, there was crap in the 80's. Michael Jackson and his siblings, Madonna, Mel and Kim, Sabrina, Paula Abdul, Spandau Ballet, Modern Talking, and many more that I have forgotten because I couldn't care less about them (why do I still remember so many of them?). But we now have crap music as well. Britney Spears anyone? Do you really like Eminem for his music, not for his bad mouth? We have tons of RnB music on the TV - some of it is actually good, but most of it just thrives on RnB's popularity. In Belgium and another big part of Europe we have countless groups who make diluted trance music, with a sexy singer in a videoclip because that still sells.

Well, maybe the people who complain about the 80's music, actually loved that music back then, later realized their mistake by growing up, and now overreact by spitting on the whole decade. I however, actually have fond memories of the 80's.

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Life and music

Lately I've been corresponding by email with a friend about how annoying some people can be. It seems to be a constant of life that quite some people try to get what they want, even if it's at other peoples expense. Sometimes they just do it for fun.

Strangely, it reminded me of a Pet Shop Boys' song called I'm Not Scared, that has those beautiful lyrics:

Tonight the streets are full of actors
I don’t know why
Oh, take these dogs away from me
Before they, they bite

Aah, a universal truth about life, poured in such beautiful wording, that's what I really love. Not something you expect in a song by the Pet Shop Boys, but they actually have great lyrics from time to time. You can find the whole text here and a slightly different version they made for Eighth Wonder here (sung by the lovely Patsy Kensit, actually a more beautiful song).

Has Bush his own clothing line?


Today I noticed something funny in a shop. I saw a clothing line of men's shirts, jackets and pants, called Bush. The weird thing is that the label says 'Bush intelligent wear'!

Is this Bush' subliminal way of making us believe that he is intelligent? :-)