Original video located here. Accessed 25th September 2024
Song title: Sorry
Artist: Easybeats
Year: 1966
Why I like this song:
R.I.P. Dick Diamonde
This band was Australia's Beatles. And they were made up of immigrants from the UK and Holland
Still its a damn catchy song...
Geez, this blog is turning into the book of the dead...
Original video located here. Accessed 18th September 2024
Song title: Can You Feel It
Artist: The Jacksons
Year: 1980
Why I like this song:
R.I.P. Tito Jackson
Be with your brother :(
Original video located here. Accessed 10th September 2024
Song title: Don't Ever
Artist: Missy Higgins
Year: 2004
Why I like this song:
So Missy Higgins will be this year's inductee to the ARIA Hall of Fame? Well good for her.
Like a lot of other people, I did buy her debut album, The Sound of White, and I did enjoy it to a point here I can associate this song with twenty-two year old me.
Thing is, that I am only finding this out now shows I don't think much of the ARIAs. Sure the Hall of Fame has an induction criteria but I'm not convinced it works. What I am convinced is the following scenario:
ARIA: So who shall we induct into the Hall of Fame this year?
Go-Betweens: We are one of the most respected bands here and overseas!
Ratcat: We are trailblazers for alternative music and had the most successful Australian single in 1991!
silverchair: We are one of the most popular Australian bands and we have 21 ARIAs to our name!
You am I: We are one of the most successful Australian bands and have inspired many other bands!
Powderfinger: We are have a long and successful career and won Album of the Year three times!
Daryl Braithwaite: I covered a woman's song
ARIA: Come on in Daz! Glad to have you!!
Original video located here. Accessed 9th September 2024
Song title: Westway
Artist: Sky
Year: 1979
Why I like this song:
R.I.P. Herbie Flowers
Somehow, this song would be a lot different without his bass line
Original video located here. Accessed 27th August 2024
Song title: Wonderwall
Artist: Oasis
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
Huh? Oasis are reforming? Apparently so
From here, the obvious remark is how long Noel and Liam will last until they, once again, can't stand the sight of each other. And the real surprise will be if Noel and Liam actually get along.
But then again, this reunion shouldn't come as a surprise seeing as Definitely Maybe is thirty years old and (What's the Story) Morning Glory is approaching the same milestone.
So what of Wonderwall? Well, for me its a song of early mornings and taking on the responsibilities that come with being in a relationship.
Song title: Glockenpop
Artist: Spiderbait
Year: 1999
Why I like this song:
It's a cute song with some surprisingly biting lyrics about the vapidity of pop music.
Recently Triple J put an online survey, no doubt to engage the audience and try to garner some market research. What it involved was presenting the participant with samples of songs and asking for a rating.
I did the survey last night and it was quite the challenge: here were seven sections, each having 105 song samples. So that's 735 songs to get through!
Granted I have long ceased being a teenager so that places me well outside Triple J's demographic and granted I have subsequently not heard Triple J in years but I still did it because I will not refuse an opportunity to say what I think.
Listening to the songs I found the following of note:
I lament the day that Triple J went pop, thereby making it indistinguishable from the other radio stations and it abandoned the alternative roots that made it interesting, Yes it is futile to complain about such a change since one can't stop the march of time, but I would welcome the day that a change comes around that alters the trajectory and the current model is looking old news.
It's well documented that Nirvana's simplicity destroyed a lot of careers of production heavy acts. You wouldn't think that now seeing the pendulum has swung back but there's nothing keeping the pendulum there....
Original video located here. Accessed 2nd August 2024
Song title: Know Your Product
Artist: Saints
Year: 1978
Why I like this song:
This song may roar like no other (moreso in the decades since) but it also encapsulates my suspicions towards trends in modern music.
Earlier this week, YouTube music critic Todd in the Shadows posted a video assessing the Kendrick Lamar hit Not like Us. I can't say that I'm a fan of the song but it is the middle section (starting 13:00) that is of interest to me.
So: Poptimism, A reaction against Rockism and it's gatekeeping. Where those who once weren't taken seriously as artists now had a new sense of credibility.
I however challenge that narrative.
I was a teenager in the nineties - an era known as the apex of alternative rock. So what does that mean to me? Well it showed me that there was a world beyond what was being played on the pop radio at the time. A world that had slipped under the radar of pop radio and now looked far more appealing. So whilst the pop radio looked vapid, dull and cheesy, the brave new world of alternative rock looked fun, real, varied and with far more teeth.
And in the wake of Nirvana's success, alternative rock, once overlooked by the mainstream, had a new found sense of credibility.
But as is often the case, the pendulum can always swing back.
And that's what Poptimism is for me: Pop music coming roaring back to life. Pop is a dominate force again. Song that did successful on the charts only to be dismissed as nonsense is now reassessed as classics. And the underground is now being forced back to where they were.
But to me it's not so much a reaction of the success of alternative rock but regaining the ground lost. Its the sound of a schoolyard bully punching back at the nerds who dared stand up for themselves. Does some higher up in the music industry actually resent the revolution Nirvana (however unwittingly) brought about?
Disagree?
Very well then: Tell me, without looking it up, who was the highest ranking Australian artist on the ARIA singles End of Year chart in 1991.
I'll give you a hint: It wasn't Daryl Braithwaite.