Sean O'Hagan's 50 Years of Pop

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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1207579,00.html

50 moments that shaped popular musical history - and in the process changed our lives...among them:

1955 - Chuck Berry's 'Maybellene' is released
1965 - LSD hits the streets
1971 - King Tubby and Lee Perry create the template for modern dance music
1981 - 'Ghost Town' goes to Number One
1988 - Madchester and the second summer of love

― frankE (frankE), Sunday, 2 May 2004 19:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Sean O'Hagan will be online to defend his choice at 3pm on Tuesday. You can log on now to post a question.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Sunday, 2 May 2004 19:38 (twenty-one years ago)

O'HAGAN! I CHALLENGE YOU AND YOUR FEEBLE LISTING! I AM MIGHTY THORRRRRRRRR! I CRUSH YOU AND YOUR DISMISSAL OF 'COUNTRY HOUSE'!

― THORRRRRRRR, Sunday, 2 May 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

these things are so incredibly boring that you immediately zip forward to the last 5 years to see what's making the canon nowadays. mp3s and eminem, unsuprisingly. at least the hip university professors'll feel validated. speaking of slim shady, i dislike the accusation that he "singlehandedly made rap a medium for the kind of solipsistic whining usually expressed by pampered white guys with guitars" (though it's getting truer by the minute).

― m. (mitchlnw), Sunday, 2 May 2004 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

1987: Prince's 'Sign 'O' the Times'
Prince was the most prodigiously gifted singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist to emerge in the Eighties. Momentarily ditching the sexual thrust of his earlier music, he created the most perfect merging of dancefloor funk and social commentary since the heyday of politically conscious Seventies soul.

UGH UGH UGH

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Sunday, 2 May 2004 20:24 (twenty-one years ago)

"Prince was most important when he was boring your pants off with a 'socially conscious' lecture."

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Sunday, 2 May 2004 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

crappy

― CAss (CAss), Sunday, 2 May 2004 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

well it seems close enough to what i would have expected, o'hagan managed to avoid his own influence (who could deny the high llamas infatuation with brian wilson / spector) to create a fairly unbiased article which tight-ropes between american and english events.. not bad.

― chris andrews (fraew), Sunday, 2 May 2004 20:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Chris, I'd guess that this is ex NME journo Sean O'Hagan and not the High Llamas SO'H.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Sunday, 2 May 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Momentarily ditching the sexual thrust of his earlier music

'cause when I think of "Housequake" I think of cold showers.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 2 May 2004 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

..damn, my mistake..

― chris andrews (fraew), Sunday, 2 May 2004 20:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Is this the same guy as the guy from the High Llamas?

― Daniel DiMAGGIO (Daniel DiMAGGIO), Sunday, 2 May 2004 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

yes.

― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 2 May 2004 21:03 (twenty-one years ago)

nice. in other news, i wrote almost every single one of sandy shaws top 20 global hits in the 60s, despite not being born until 1979..

― chris andrews (fraew), Sunday, 2 May 2004 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

so'h is a hilariously funny man if you spend time w.him in a pub, but a lame lame LAME writer (except on his youth in n.ireland)

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 2 May 2004 21:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"George Bush declares Eminem 'The biggest threat to American youth since Polio'"

WRONG.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/eminem.asp

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 2 May 2004 21:36 (twenty-one years ago)

the 90s were pretty uneventful, apparently.

― keith m (keithmcl), Sunday, 2 May 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

just read the whole thing. it's unspeakable. what a godawful writer and researcher.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Monday, 3 May 2004 00:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Prince ruled.

― uh, Monday, 3 May 2004 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)

It's a really random list. Most of the choices are fine, if written about stupidly, but the omissions are really bizarre (esp. in the last 15 years?!?!?)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 3 May 2004 01:04 (twenty-one years ago)

putting the wackness of his choices and penchant for 'socially conscious messages' aside, if a reader was actually using what he wrote as some kind of music guide (god forbid), they'd be horribly misled. the stuff he lists about ambient music is almost prendergastian in its wrongness

― geeta (geeta), Monday, 3 May 2004 05:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Him on Live Aid: "One of the greatest philanthropic events of all time, but the moment when pop became enshrined as pure showbiz entertainment. "

Umm... was this not what pop always was? What an absurd statement. This article is pretty poor.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 3 May 2004 06:30 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a good thing black people didn't do anything between 1989 and 2003.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 3 May 2004 09:52 (twenty-one years ago)

or haha you know, anyone

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 3 May 2004 09:53 (twenty-one years ago)

How exactly was The Velvet Underground and Nico "reviled on initial release"??

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Monday, 3 May 2004 14:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Some of you are being a bit too hard on him re: completeness. The article is only a few hundred words long, so of course he's going to miss some important events.
However, none of that excuses dumb comments such as
"Rap's first landmark single, and the first record to use samples". (G. Flash on Wheels of Steel). Huh?

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Monday, 3 May 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

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