Pop On Trial 2038?
So the vote has been cast... the 1970s was the best decade for music (at least until the next series of this ilk is made)
And here lies my point... in thirty - or twenty - years time, will programmes like this still be commissioned?
If the way people access music continues down the road it is at the moment, will judging and categorising music in terms of the era in which it was made eventually become meaningless to successive generations? If every piece of music one could possibly wish to hear is suspended in the ether as an mp3 file waiting to be downloaded, then surely contextual background will start to recede in our collective memory and cease to be as important as it is today. Sure, there will still be ways of finding out about soul music's ties with the civil rights movement in the 1960s, but will it be a case of someone actively trying to source such information rather than learning about it by osmosis?
It will certainly be interesting to see what happens. I for one hope that people in decades to come still know their pop history, because understanding why and when a form of music evolved gives us a deeper appreciation of it.
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Didn't think much of that series...
...so I wouldn't worry too much if another series of that ilk was never compiled again. Was left to Paul Morley to speak some sense on yesterday's 'final', pointing out that the series was ultimately flawed by the music journalists imposing their idea of a 'canon' onto the show; witness David Quantick's cliched prog bashing whilst Gaz Coombes and Pete Shelley (of a punk band, interestingly enough) didn't seem to care either way on the 70s one.
Only episode I really enjoyed was the 50s one; there was a really upbeat feel to that with lots of enthusiasm that boded well. Joe Brown made some of the few insightful points on the whole series, having lots of first-hand experience from the rock and roll period (contributed some very fine guitar work to 'The Sound Of Fury' as was noted in that episode). Otherwise, I thought this was just as glib and generalised as that 'Seven Ages Of Rock' series last year...
Some of us out there do still care about the stories behind the music, though. I may well be alone in my age group of not having an i-Pod and actually still buying CDs!!!
To be fair to Stuart Mac and
To be fair to Stuart Mac and the other people involved, it wasn't taken entirely seriously - how could it be? I'd agree with JJ that the 50s episode was the best, in that it was the most interesting and informative, but I did find the others entertaining in a 'post-pub discourse' kind of way. I did find the choice of guests slightly strange too - although I love Pete Wylie and his music, is he really the most qualified person to talk about 50s music and its influence? And I'd say the same thing about the chap speaking on behalf of the 60s (who I hadn't heard of previously). At least the others were teenagers during the decades they were heralding - was Pete Wylie even alive in the 50s?
I also thought only lip service was given to some bands/music that deserved more time as part of the discussions. Reggae was barely mentioned in the 70s episode, New Order virtually ignored in the 80s one (despite the Hacienda and its baggy aftermath being brought up a few times - surely New Order were the catalyst for a lot of the ideas behind the dance/indie crossover of the late 80s?) and, worst of all, The Kinks weren't discussed at all in the 60s one, the only song heard by them was in the end titles!
All in all, an opportunity missed, methinks,but good to see BBC4 giving some time to pop music - and wasn't Slade In Flame fantastic!
Slade In Flame
It was the first time I'd seen it, and I think it's a genuinely good film! Way better than most rock movies. Why it coincided with a downturn in their fortunes (or to put it another way, their appeal becoming more selective), is a mystery to me. Hugely enjoyable, and great seeing Tommy Vance in it!
Bugger!
Missed it!
I liked it
I agree with the points made but as a more general observation I really liked the general laid back vibe of the way it was made - no horrible voice overs, no "celebrities", and a healthy genuine enthusiasm for the music and respect for each other's opinions. More like this please commissioners. We CAN actually sit and listen to people talking intelligently and passionately about a subject without a sportsman cooking worms whilst standing on his head and pretending to be a ballet dancer in the background!
It did seem that in the
It did seem that in the finale, Wylie and that Paul Weller-alike aside, the apologists for the different decades were the same old bunch of media hacks who'd probably been assigned 'their' one by the producers. Let's face it, it's easy enough to pick out the good things that came from any given span of 10 years; likewise to single out a few naff novelty records as a way of arguing otherwise.