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Sunday 21 February 2010

The Shameful Music Meme

I haven't got the time to blog properly today. And so I'm being frivolous with y'all again and try and get another pointless Sunday meme off the ground. This one is a bit of a toughie for me. Since leaving my teeny bopper past behind me my musical tastes have evolved in a shamelessly snobby direction - first electronica/dance, followed by indie, then a detour into heavy rock, and for the last seven years or so back to the bleepy beaty side of things. It's the sound of the future, man. At all times I've dismissed the mainstream with a derisive snort, and quite rightly so - most of it is pap. But now and then one song stands out among the dross and gets its hooks into you. You can't get the bloody thing out of your head and to your eternal shame, you really like it. This post is dedicated to three such songs from the 80s, 90s and 00s.

I'm ashamed to say it but I've always liked this



This



And this



Shocking and shameful.

Now it's over to you. What three songs from the 80s, 90s and 00s do you hate to love? Would admitting you penchant for a bit of Cliff, Kylie and Boyzone wreck your standing as an arbiter of quality culture? Let's tag the usual suspects - Jim, Dave and Paul, Louise, Splinty, Anna, Red Maria and Glyn.

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31 comments:

  1. Dave Semple21 February 2010 at 15:58

    I shall definitely have a few corkers for you tomorrow Phil; and boy will everyone have the right to sneer.

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  2. EFComrade21 February 2010 at 16:06

    Shamefully I also like your 3 picks, but even more shamefully my 3 picks came to mind instantly

    for the 80's
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIrCFrFpHvw

    for the 90's
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvgUdrzGNys

    and for the 00's
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jJVRcCdvyY

    by far more shameful than joining the Labour Party

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  3. tim f21 February 2010 at 16:27

    Ooh, those are really dreadful.

    I think I can beat them, though (despite being an unashamed music snob). I'll even add a decade.

    70s Only Women Bleed by Alice Cooper
    80s Cherry Pie by Warrant (ok technically released in 1990, but it belongs in the 80s; if you're gonna be pedantic just pick anything by Saxon)
    90s: From The Cradle To Enslave by Cradle Of Filth
    00s: Deep by NIN

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  4. Phil21 February 2010 at 16:42

    Glyn, those choices are really, really awful. Teenage dirtbag? FFS! I bet you liked their cover of the Erasure classic, 'A Little Respect' too.

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  5. EFComrade21 February 2010 at 16:46

    I think it is only fair to point out that when that song came out I was a 14 year old Iron Maien fan, though I would quite happily listen to it now as i have just done.

    A little Respect was good as well, their second album which followed was very different and followed a much more electronic path

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  6. tim f21 February 2010 at 16:51

    Nothing wrong with Iron Maiden!

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  7. Imposs190421 February 2010 at 17:10

    Phil, those are the best three songs you've ever mentioned on your blog . . . and they're shit. ;-)

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  8. EFComrade21 February 2010 at 17:12

    I agree completely, but that is why teenage dirtbag appealled to me as a teenager

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  9. Brother G21 February 2010 at 17:38

    Prepare to be well and truly horrified...

    1980s
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21VbKgOM0gg

    1990s
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUTJgk0HFqw

    2000s
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYnFIRc0k6E

    And one which transcends mortal concepts of space and time:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ0sW7KOFhU

    ReplyDelete
  10. EFComrade21 February 2010 at 17:52

    apart from the first 1 i like them all

    I a currently putting together a playlist of for someone to lay down some beats for a musical collaboration and I justed added Gangsters Paradise

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  11. SamG21 February 2010 at 18:04

    Not quite the face of Jesus in a buttered scone but not far off!

    A New Labour psychological trick at de-radicalising I suspect.

    Anyway here is my choice from the noughties,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFzyYYZsxGc,

    Me, Martin Smith and Alex Callinicos do a great karaoke of this incidentally.

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  12. Phil21 February 2010 at 19:31

    Sam, you actually like that shit? Good grief!

    Bro G, I reckon I could live with Imagination. But Coolio? Ugh. When it came out it was absolutely bloody everywhere. Within a week of it getting heavy Radio 1 airplay I couldn't bear to hear it again. Even now I consciously avoid it, pretty much like the buboes and the collected works of Oasis.

    And Darren, you know where you can go :P Haven't you got some shameful passions you'd like to own up to?

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  13. EFComrade21 February 2010 at 23:41

    is there some special secret to uploading videos i dont seem to beable to

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  14. Ms Chief22 February 2010 at 00:01

    My favourite song is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX9LSOshOYY

    I know you will all go for goodness sake but it really is my favourite song

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  15. Anonymous22 February 2010 at 00:48

    George Michael isn't shameful. Wham Rap! was a classic that should be on every lefty's iPod.

    Evanescence, though... tsk, tsk.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sara Hannam22 February 2010 at 13:24

    Ha ha - masterpiece Phil. It made me laugh that lefties spend so much time worrying about liking music that is potentially cheesy and how to justify it. But I like the post-modern tongue in cheekness of this blog as its really also a chance to get it off your chest isn't it and that I applaud having carried a few musical secrets of my own.

    My worst... Recently I have been re-embracing a bunch of music that I didn't listen to for ages and some of it includes songs from "Les Miserables" - it made me weep with the retrospective angst of it all (and I should just point out I never saw the bloody stage production or wanted to but some of those songs just rip me to the emotional core!!) And now with Susan Boyle its made my indulgence so much more complicated! Talk about mixed emotions.

    And well yes...dare I say it...a few tracks by the Commodores. Surely in terms of per kilo cheddar it doesn't get any worse, but it reminds me of slow dances at the school disco and first boyfriends etc...when I allowed myself a break from hard core punk rock....and just concentrated on being a teenager minus the political aspirations :)

    I like almost all the selections posted so far - and I like your three. I loved Careless Whisper - I mean doesn't everyone relate to it. OK the video clip with the friends romping around at some posh swiss chalet in the snow without a care in the monied world wasn't quite how my teenage years panned out, but well.......music links to the core.

    Thanks for this!

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  17. Anonymous22 February 2010 at 14:20

    Oh my!! I will be doing this meme!!

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  18. Sara Hannam22 February 2010 at 15:57

    May I just apologise for having got my wham videos confused (well it can happen to the best of us). Expensive swiss chalet with suntanned friends on skiing holiday was "last Christmas" which I have to say I draw the line at. I agree with sunrise that "Wham rap" could sort of pass itself off as a class anthem, if it weren't for the fact that GM and his cohorts were from middle class backgrounds in Bushy, Hertfordshire (you heard it first here!) - and I don't remember the video clip but I think there was a dance involved that some of the boys at my school tried to copy. But yes, at least it speaks of the world out there. The "Careless Whisper" video clip which I have just reacquainted myself with is GM wondering around a stage full of.....ropes. Yes I didn't get the significance of it then, and still don't. But perhaps what is appealing about that song is what is not being articulated. All that pain......is that what we relate to. And knowing how GM's life has panned out, and that he was carrying secrets of his own at that time, well I think that makes it something I can get my claws into. I can't believe I have spent all this time analysing Wham but I now feel cleansed, calm and ready to return to the politically acceptable world of stylish music only! Culture eh - a complex question for the best politico.

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  19. Phil22 February 2010 at 16:37

    What do you mean pomo tongue-in-cheek? :P

    Ms Chief, Fat Larry's not too bad. I think cheese is more acceptable the further back in time you go. But if you'd gone in for the Bay City Rollers or Showaddywaddy you'd have to bear the shame until your dying day.

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  20. socialrepublican22 February 2010 at 17:25

    80s I Ran - FOS

    90s-Home fires - The Bluetones

    00s-I write sins... - Panic at the Disco

    Tho some consider it shameful, I shall defend to the death the opinion that 'All I what for X-Mas' by Mariah Carey is the finest Christmas song scientifically possible

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  21. Phil22 February 2010 at 18:16

    You can get away with The Bluetones. I remember when they were The Next Big Thing. Come to think of it they came up with some pretty good ditties when britpop was at its peak.

    But I will draw a line when it comes to Mariah Carey's awful effort. I stand with Sara - Last Christmas is the mutt's.

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  22. socialrepublican22 February 2010 at 18:43

    Ver 'tones had some tunes, but were possibly the wettest band I've ever seen or heard, Oddly have a tea towel with them on. (Incoming lazy muso-journo clinche)Made Lush and Echobelly look like Public Enemy having a ruck with Slayer

    "All I want..." is a perfect x-mas song, an quasi-derranged rejection the fripperies of the festive session, driven by a lustful, near nihilistic passion. Its "Fuck Christmas, I need to fuck you, otherwise I'll die" set to polished Motown

    Mind you, second best X-mas song

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOzjZzEhe3c

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  23. Brother G22 February 2010 at 20:37

    @socialrepublican: That comment just made me listen to Miley Cyrus out of morbid curiosity. I'd never actually heard her before, she sounds like a chipmunk having a stroke.

    Incidentally the connoisseurs choice of xmas song has to be 'Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis' by Tom Waits. Classic.

    Either that or Slade anyway.

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  24. Phil22 February 2010 at 20:54

    Leave Echobelly alone. They had some top tunes back in the day. And Sonya Aurora Madan.

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  25. sjhannam23 February 2010 at 08:50

    The Pogues "Fairy Tale in New York" has to be *the* top Xmas song. But that is not for this blog post, which is all about songs you are ashamed of isn't it! RIP Kirsty. Here's a live version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrAwK9juhhY

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  26. BenefitScroungingScum23 February 2010 at 11:40

    OMG! Haddaway, I'm having a total trip down memory lane...or I would be if my memory from that decade functioned! BG

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  27. Sister C23 February 2010 at 18:00

    Here are my very interesting choices...

    For the 1980's we have
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW3gKKiTvjs

    The 1990's
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjm_7oMh638

    The 2000's
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk2Ufpf8mDY

    I have to say I like 2/3 of your choices Phil.

    Anyway have fun listening to these

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  28. Phil23 February 2010 at 18:31

    Sugababes ... worrying. But as the first commenter beneath the vid says, "sick bassline".

    And Medusa? Pah. Cradle of Filth have done it all before - but with added Satanism.

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  29. Sister C23 February 2010 at 18:37

    Its Bring Me the Horizon Phil, and they are nothing like Cradle of Filth. They have a very very pretty lead singer (that peed on my friend because she wouldn't sleep with him, but this doesn't stop him from being oh so very pretty).

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  30. Phil23 February 2010 at 19:40

    Alas everyone who doesn't sing 'proper' sounds like Cradle of Filth to me. Or Napalm Death.

    But anyway, get this slice of 90s rock down yer

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLo-gny54GM

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  31. Phil23 February 2010 at 20:08

    Meanwhile, a list of not-at-all-shameful choonage can be found here. No guitars!

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