Entryism

The idea that the charts is by-rights just for 18-year-olds and that 35-year-olds are by-rights forbidden from enjoying what they find to enjoy in them is reactionary nonsense disguised as wised-up anti-conformism. I don't like eg Scritti cos they're "subversive", I like 'em cos they amuse me and sound good: ditto Aqua (say). And (obviously) the opposite for Sputnik, who were lazy rubbish from the get-go.

I think my sneaking regard for entryism is nostalgia, partly, for a time when the 'alternative' and 'mainstream' were more interpenetrated, a time which crucially I wasn't actually listening to music during so the various strategies and moves of the early 80s become a kind of just-missed-it golden age for me.

2. Didn't quite understand the link between Shop Assistants and Mike / Mechanics.

3. Is 'subversion' EVER good? Well, probably Yes - if you pitch the question as far and wide as that.

4. Naturally I don't share Tom's perspective on 'the charts'; but nor do I want anyone to 'subvert them from the inside', really. If they did, I wouldn't know about it - because I wouldn't be able to tell, if I heard them; and because I wouldn't hear them anyway. It's surprisingly easy never to hear what is in the charts. I suppose you have to make an effort to hear it.

5. But having said all that, I think that I still know where Tom's coming from - in the precise 'emotional' and 'personal' sense that he has articulated.

It was a joke about them both being entry-level jobs.

Over the years, Nolan Ryan's reputation as a tough, quiet country boy had always brought him a strong following. He was seen as a throwback to a simpler, grittier era. After a Ryan pitch grazed Chicago's Robin Ventura's arm during a game in 1993, the White Sox third baseman charged Ryan, hoping to knock the 46-year-old pitcher off of his feet. But Ryan stood his ground and caught his assailant in a headlock before subsequently delivering several blows to Ventura's head.

Granted, this is from an American perspective, but, for a while, the biggest band in the land was fronted by a blatantly upfront drag queen. That might've expedited the public embrace of homosexuality & alternative lifestyles.

MTV is fond of showing one of Culture Club's Video Award acceptance speeches (or was it the Grammies?), where he credits the American public for knowing a good queen when they see one. Something like that.

Re: Radiohead in the Top 10 - I don't think there can be any sort of aesthetic subversion. If you manage to break into the public consciousness, and your "art" is accepted, then what's so subversive about it? "Born in the USA" isn't about American pride; try telling politicians that.

Maybe Chumbawumba's "Tubthumping" was a bit subversive. I think they donated all the profits from that single to various charities - if that's true, it's a nice touch. But, of course, since then, they've managed to find themselves back where they started (which I doubt they're all too upset about).

Sample quote (not exact words, I confess, but gives the awful gist): "I find I am no longer so impressed by Derrida and Foucault. These days I read more and more Habermas."

_Lexicon of Love_ is good though. Just totally not "subversive" — unless it's assumed that intelligence or humour are somehow BY LAW and BY DEFINITION excluded in advance from the charts, until "smart foax like us" insert them.

Pat Kane!!