The Green Day-inspired rock opera, American Idiot, is now open for business. And the reviews are good [via The New York Times]: A pulsating portrait of wasted youth that invokes all the standard genre conventions — bring on the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, please! — only to transcend them through the power of … [Read more…]
It’s hard to sum up an entire year of pop music in one concise “best of” list. Instead, here’s a tidy little look at some of the highs and lows in pop music over the past year: Hip-Huh?: The New Yorker‘s Sasha Frere-Jones declared that hip-hop was dead and upset a lot of hip-hop heads. … [Read more…]
Kanye West is back, back to being an artiste of merit, back from the depths of hell he was cast in after a disastrous VMAs appearance, back from South Park cracks and autotune-haters’ smacks. Or something like that. MTV reported that the short-film collaboration between Where The Wild Things Are director Spike Jonze and West, … [Read more…]
Woodie. Whatever possessed mtvU to name their annual music award as such is beyond me. Is it supposed to be a joke aimed at their college audience? Cause I’m pretty sure college kids these days are smart enough to figure that one. Anyway, mtvU recently released the ballots for the awards show. What’s the big … [Read more…]
It’s hard to turn down a free concert, even if that means watching Taking Back Sunday. Especially considering the underlying theme o’ this blog. I’ve never been entirely “in” to TBS. Just something about them never really caught me, even though I was their prime target when they first hit it big. I can understand the … [Read more…]
Last year, Mexico City was the scene of an all-out subculture battle that shook the country to its very soul. Or so the media made it seem. And so the media made it. Period. The very reason I was upset by the illogical and false comments by a “journalist” from the Louisville Parent Examiner was because … [Read more…]
James Montgomery’s recent piece for MTV, “Are We Ready For Barack Obama’s Emo America?,” is great not only because of the juxtaposition of stereotypical American values and musical genres, but because the work gives support for emo as a generally progressive and positive mode of communication. Although Montgomery lumps Sufjan Stevens into this mix, the … [Read more…]
Roundup of various end of the year music lists…
Naomi pointed me the way to this excellent piece by Thursday/United Nations’ Geoff Rickly on the MTV Headbanger’s Blog site on my previous post, and it got me thinking about the impact of fashion on culture. Rickly astutely notes the power of the image, and in doing so recalls Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the … [Read more…]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1001xArPVk] They really don’t make ’em like this anymore. That was one of many thoughts that jumped in my brain while watching Rock N’ Roll High School the other day. Camp doesn’t even begin to describe it. Joyful absurdity. Now that might do it. Whoever had the idea to take a simple B movie, combine … [Read more…]