60's pseudo-nostalgia being rammed down throats: C/D?

the fact is, all the social change and upheaval (including in music, art, etc.) was a function not of the intrinsic value of the art/ideas itself/themselves, but the demographic quirk that allowed it to claim for itself a supersized place in the canon of cultural history.

every time someone gives me that shit about all the things they did, i tell them i think the boomers/hippies squandered their mandate to make real lasting change in a lot of respects and their art and music reflects that.

that's not to say that it wasn't both an interesting time to be alive or that it didn't yield some good things artistically. just that the apparent scale of their achievements (and, indeed, the ongoing magnified nostalgia) is purely down to how many of them there were/are. try telling jonathan king that, though.

Instead I told him that although music is undoubtedly the better for the innovation and inspiration of the 60s, the world -- and, in particular, his country -- was and still is in the hands of a corrupt cadre of crusty old war-happy rich white guys, and that at the end of the day all they accomplished was the birth of a generation who would be forced to feel a nostalgia for a time they never experienced. If people had just skipped straight from 59 to 70, who would have noticed?

Sub-question: Would anything like Beatlemania be possible today? Given that the signal-to-noise ratio out there is fast approaching zero, and that the majority of teenagers are now suffering some kind of collective ADD, can we ever have our own Beatles, our own high-water mark of new millennial culture? Or have we shot ourselves in our own zeitgesity feet?

If it were possible to create that kind of presence, it would surely be people like us who could do it. The fickle masses vs. the come-hell-and-high-water diehards. Only we can't agree on anything at all. I'll tell you that Stephin Merritt is the most talented songwriter working today, and you'll race to your keyboards, anxious to show a little courtesy (because ILx is an absurdly nice board) and redirect my misguided belief. And the point is that a random poll of those who bought the current #1 single would show that much less than 1% of them had ever heard of Merritt.

I think most people will be talking about the 90s, exactly as you say. Except me: who will still be talking about the 80s.

Personally, I'm sick of having retro 80s culture (elecro music, ironic mullets, etc.) shoved down my throat. But then again, my generation has got to the age where they control the horizontal and the vertical, so it's their turn to inflict their nostalgia on the next generation.

The 80s were when I *REALLY* got sick of boomer culture. The current obsession is like a weird Freudian thing where you want to fuck your GRANDFATHER instead of your father. Yeesh.

(So glad I quit lurking and started posting today.)

Isn't the thing about the 60's that a lot of it was 7 people in a pub off carnaby street and that for most people life was the same as it ever was - 5 days work/2 days either drinking and trying to get laid or sitting in front of the TV shouting at the kids.

As for 90's nostalgia I read John Robb's book on the subject which didn't really amount to much - uh alcopops, combats trousers and uh oasis. But since for some people the 60's consisted of flares, the beatles and weed.... hum maybe we did get ripped off (apart from the trousers).

They had some progress with social change- do you know how few women used to go to college, or work full time after getting married? It really changed in the 1970s, but the 60s started it off.

See Uncut Magazine !

Next month it's John Lennon & Yoko Ono - the ultimate romance story and also Rolling Stones in the Sixties. ZZZZZZZZZ what a lot of crap, It was bad enough growing up as a teenage in the 80s with the Sixities culture/music/lifestyle constantly being bigged and digged up by the media. But for the sixties rampant nostalgia to still be over promoted and recycled in 2002 - it's unbelievable.

I am also sick of the NME and its 90s brit trad rock obsession, this week is Oasis's third front cover of the NME in the space of 4 months? NME was not this overloaded even at the peak of Oasis in 1995.

So much for a change of editor and new ideas - Conor McNicholas is a spineless conformist puppet just like Ben Knowles !

haha I was born in 1959, so I'd have missed my entire childhood! Anyway, as one of the few people here who lived through the whole of the '60s, I can only completely agree - but the '80s does seem to be the new '60s, etc. These nostalgia things happen, and they never bear that much resemblance to how you remember any of it. In 20 years people will be trying to tell you that the charts were all Chems/Underworld/Orbital, or Eminem/Wu or something, and you'll think, "Hang on - that's not right!"

Martian: I could swear that there's an old thread or several where you say things like 'Will the NME still be going in 6 months? Seems unlikely'. Are you constantly having to revise your predictions?

(PS / I don't think I like the contemporary NME any more than you do)

Pinefox you got to know your enemies/ eNMEies in life !

There's more bullshit next week the basic rock sound of The Cooper Temple Clause.

Libertines and stacks of naff garage rock - NME is full of crap in 2002 !

Pinefox do you still read my weblog ?

This is what happens if you use Typhoo tea leaves instead of PG Tips leaves to see thee future

'Citizen Kane' can eat a dick. Also, 'deep focus' is a totally overrated cinematic technique. The stuff about Xanadu was corny. Some films should come with expiration dates. Hey, has there been a 'Citizen Kane: Classic or Dud?' thread yet?

Name Bosko Balaban
Team Aston Villa
Total Appearances 0
Starts 0
Substituted 0
Total Minutes Played 0
Avg Minutes Played Per Start 0
Goals 0
Avg Goal Mins When Starting 0.0
Avg Mins Played/Goal Scored 0
Goals Scored As Sub 0
Number of Bookings 0
Total Booking Minutes 0
Avg Bookings Per Start 0
Number of Red Cards 0
Total Red Card Minutes 0
Avg Red Cards Per Start 0