Me: George and i were talking about the influence of Thatcherite Britain on music. His argument goes: Spandeau Ballet, Depeche Mode, Human League. shit shit shit.
Kev says: yeah but she also gave us the Cure, the Sisters, Ghosttown, Sex Pistols and Maiden!
Me: it also supports that theory. on the one hand banal synthesizer pop. on the other dark shoe-gazing depressive goth pop (or 'crap' depending on taste) and punk. All born from the same period of severe economic reforms. Punk and goth is protest music, the rallying cry of the dispossessed.
So what does that say about 90's drum 'n' bass and psytrance. What politics would that be attached to?
Kev: The politics of apathy. Empty worthless generation, dumb flag waving scum. Revolting quasi hippie mess. Fucking e-generation writing books about the good old days of the Hacienda: there were no good old days, you were just to fucked to notice. Awful awful time for music and humanity in general.
Shoe gazing wasn't politically empty, it was just a generation of people who'd given up, they new they'd lost and they had the decency to regret that loss. E generation were too stupid to even realise the war was over. They went and sat in the poppy fields unaware they were surrounded by corpses.
That dreadful place was considered a spiritual home, but it was nothing more than the birthplace of music for people who wanted to play guitar wearing a moustache. And there is no excuse for that.
If it wasn't for Thatcher, we wouldn't have The Clash - and today we wouldn't have Kaiser Chiefs.
"It's enough to make you stop believing when tears come fast and furious in a Town Called Malice". - The Jams
Thatcher's Legacy
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