Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental gal pal/morphine drip administrator Fah Lo Suee and I will be heading off to lovely Brentwood, California and the home of Andrew Breitbart [R-Unbelievably Despicable Shithead]. Specifically, to a high-tech video editing suite in his basement, where we'll be assisting Andrew and a crack team from Fox News as they doctor outtakes from D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation.
That being the case, and since things will be otherwise quiet around here til until then, here's a hopefully amusing little project for us all:
Post-Elvis Pop/Rock Music Trend You Either Fervently Wish Hadn't Caught On or Are Glad That Actually Didn't!!!
Totally self-explanatory, I think, and no arbitrary rules of any kind, you're welcome very much. And if we've done this before, mea culpa, but basically I just wanted an excuse to follow up the Mary Schneider clue.
And my totally top of my head Top Five is
5. Manufactured Boy Bands
Seriously -- with the exception of this song, which I think is a gorgeous piece of modern day doo-wop, I can say pretty safely that if the Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, New Edition, New Kids on the Block and any of the rest of their ilk had never existed, the world would be, on balance, if not a better place than certainly no worse than it is now.
Oh, and of course they're not actually bands. Thank you.
4. Sensitive Soft-Rock Singer/Songwriters
You know, I really like James Taylor, and I still listen to the Sweet Baby James album for pleasure, but jeebus -- does he have a lot to answer for.
3. Electronica
This was the most over-hyped trend of 1996 -- declared The Next Big Thing here even before the records showed up -- and if memory serves it actually never materialized as a result. Although I'm told today's kids really dig some up-to-date form of it.
2. Hassidic Hip-Hop
Anybody else think this bespeaks some really serious identity issues? Can you imagine an entire school of this guy? Yuck.
And the Numero Uno too-trendy-for-words pop/rock trend that ever was or was not is...
1. Yodelling!!!
Turns out the world really wasn't ready for a prog-rock version of Slim Whitman.
Alrighty then -- what would your choices be?
[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania -- theme: (inspired by Roger Corman's Galaxy of Terror) best and worst big screen performances by actors originally associated with TV -- is now up over at Box Office. As always, if you could see your way to going over there and saying something pithy, I'd be deeply in your debt. Thanks!]
Where the hell did you dig up that Batdorf and Rodney album?
ReplyDeleteMime rock as exemplified by Leo Sayer:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.last.fm/music/Leo+Sayer/+images/37243609
Then there's Marx Bros. Rock, as practiced by the Hudson Brothers:
ReplyDeletehttp://30daysout.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/tb1274hudsonspu.jpg
And let's not forget Hanna-Barbera Rock:
http://franklarosa.com/vinyl/BigImg/splits.jpg
Thankfully, Stooge Rock never caught on:
ReplyDeletehttp://powsley.blogspot.com/2010/07/rock-n-roll-stooges.html
Rap. The novelty song that devoured a culture.
ReplyDeleteThe trend of indie bands putting out mediocre albums and then suddenly being treated like The Beatles.
ReplyDeleteFleet Foxes, Bright Eyes, The National, Field Music, Deer Tick, Arcade Fire, The Magic Numbers.
And thank you Sal for enumerating (in John Water's immortal phrase) Today's Hit Parade of Hell.
ReplyDelete:-)
There is so much for this category but since this actually hit #1 in 1972 it deserves special mention.
ReplyDeleteMouth and Macneal: "How Do You Do"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2skBGdyoMkk
Tartan Rock - The Bay City Rollers
ReplyDeleteSaturday Morning TV Rock (similar to Hanna-Barbera Rock): The Banana Splits,The Archies, The Hardy Boys, Josie & the Pussycats etc, etc.
(Rodney on the Rock notwithstanding) Disney rock from Annete Funnicello to Britney Spears.
And while we're at it Death to the "Soft Rock" radio stations of the world. I still remember the ads with the yuppie couple saying "I like good rock, not loud rock."
Jeebus...I had totally blocked that Mouth and MacNeal song from my memory.
ReplyDeleteThat video is...words fail me.
I lived in Bangkok in 1972 when How Do You Do hit that country like a tidal wave.
ReplyDeleteIt dominated the radio for six months. If I hadn't heard what seemed to be distinctly unAmerican voices, I'm not sure that I'd ever have returned to these star-spangled shores. . . .
you'd better ban barangus if he's going to keep bombarding us with this stuff.
How about Eurotrash pop?
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of the injuries done unto us by the likes of Ace of Base, Los Del Rio and Right Said Fred.
The Urban Cowboy craze, whew, glad that is over.
ReplyDeleteI have to confess a weakness for Saturday morning cartoon powerpop. There is some really catchy music on Phinease and Ferb.
Remember the great folk scare of the 60s? Whew, just missed that one!
Trey
* Vanilla Ice.
ReplyDelete* The Monkees(w/ the exception of "Last Train to Clarksville").
* Guys like William Shatner singing Dylan songs.
* Idiotic overly-patriotic country songs.
The modern smooth-jazz concept by which every great soul tune of the 60s and 70s must be re-made by a wanker instrumentalist, using a drum machine.
ReplyDeleteBecause that's what soul music really needs: to have all the soul sucked out of it.
There's much to be grateful for. For instance, remember that "ooga chacka" chorus on Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling"? That song was an huge success, and might have sparked a years-long trend of "ooga chacka" songs. But it didn't.
ReplyDeleteAnd how about "Eefin'"? That could have swept the world like pitch shifting. Somehow we dodged a bullet.
Gee, I liked that Mouth and MacNeil song...
ReplyDeleteWait till you see what happened to MacNeal.
ReplyDeleteI may post that one next week. The Horror, The Horror....
:-)
I can't figure out why this guy never caught on in the States!
ReplyDeleteArcade Fire ain't bad. Not the Beatles, not the Stones, but not worth of dismissal. Let the kids have their fun.
ReplyDeleteJazz Rock.
Yacht Rock.
The trend of indie bands putting out mediocre albums and then suddenly being treated like The Beatles.
ReplyDeleteFleet Foxes, Bright Eyes, The National, Field Music, Deer Tick, Arcade Fire, The Magic Numbers.
You can add Franz Ferdinand to that list.
And how about the blissfully short-lived phenomenon of choosing a new lead singer via a reality tv show?
Songs about people dying in traffic accidents.
ReplyDelete"Tell Laura I Love Her" "Leader of the Pack" "Last Kiss" "Teen Angel"
"D.O.A." by Bloodrock was the absolute worst but that was later and not part of the trend.
For the record, I was really disappointed to discover that the Batdorf and Rodney "One Day" and the Matisyahu "One Day" were different songs.
ReplyDeleteAt least I think they were.
Hard to tell.
Cowpunk, even though I genuinely like some Cowpunky-type bands, I don't think a big Cowpunk explosion (eww.) would have been a good thing.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, my 7-year-old daughter just asked me, out of the blue, if the Del Fuegos were still together. That kid is listening to better music than I am now!
re: kid charlemagne's submittal - frightening, truly frightening!
ReplyDeleteMarsupial, I assume your kid listened to Dan Zane. 5 his kids cd
ReplyDelete"Rap. The novelty song that devoured a culture."
ReplyDeleteGreat line!
How about Fascist Folkies like Jimmy Buffet?
But of all the negative trends in popular music...
Look out, I'm gonna say it.
Punk.
All of it.
You will love the new Arcade Fire album.
ReplyDeletemcpart
Listening to new Arcade Fire now. Very good.
ReplyDeleteHow about Fascist Folkies like Jimmy Buffet?
ReplyDeleteWhich brings up one more: military jingoistic crap like "The Ballad of the Green Berets."
Michael -- sorry for the super-late response that you will probably never see, but, no, not Dan Zanes. She got the Del Fuegos reference from Juliana Hatfield. I was the one who had to tell her about Dan Zanes, of all stupid things...
ReplyDelete