|
Post by eva on Feb 28, 2014 8:27:23 GMT -5
Would Oasis make it today, when pop music has been colonised by the posh and the pathetic?By Brendan O'Neill Arts and entertainment Last updated: February 28th, 2014 Man, I miss Oasis. On Wednesday the Mancunian rockers, formerly both the kings and the scourge of the 1990s Britpop scene, got the media's pulse racing by posting a cryptic hint on their Facebook page about a possible reunion. But it turns out they won't be reuniting, probably because there isn't a patch of land on Earth big enough for the Gallagher brothers, Noel and Liam, to bury their legion hatchets. Instead, the big announcement from the Oasis camp was that a remastered version of their first album, the goosebump-coaxing Definitely Maybe, will be released on 19 May, to celebrate its twentieth anniversary. That was nice enough news for old fans like me, for whom the sounds of that album are a glorious reminder of being 19 years old and off one's nut. Listening to Definitely Maybe now â as I did last night, following the media frenzy about Oasis's announcement â it is striking how foreign it feels, how different it is from what passes for pop or rock or indie music in the 21st century. The album is gloriously unironic and free of twee. It's totally blokey, which is of course anathema in 2014, when Facebook offers no fewer than 58 gender options (none of which is lad) and every man is supposed to be in touch with his inner feminine spirit. The lyrics â most of which are rubbish â speak to aspiration, including of the materialistic variety, which is also a big no-no today, when academics warn us of the dangers of "affluenza" and it's the in thing to be a recessionista: someone's who eco-thrifty and resistant to the charms of bling. On Rock'n'Roll Star, Liam bellows: "I live my life for the stars that shine / People say it's a waste of time / When they said I should feed my head / That to me was just a day in bed." Rough translation: these guys want glory, not education; they want material wealth, not mental stimulation. There's another reason Oasis now look and sound like creatures not just from another millennium but from another planet: their rise to stardom was really the last time a working-class band made it big, storming to the top of the pops through swagger and self-belief rather than with the aid of high-up connections and nepotistic favours. These days, as Michael Gove pointed out a couple of years ago, the sharp-elbowed sons and daughters of Britain's public schools have thoroughly colonised every corner of public and cultural life, including popular music. "2010's Mercury Music Prize was a battle between privately educated Laura Marling and privately educated Marcus Mumford", said Gove. "And from Chris Martin of Coldplay to Tom Chaplin of Keane, popular music is populated by public school boys." (Noel Gallagher, you won't be surprised to hear, has been far more stinging about Keane: "I feel sorry for them. No matter how hard they try, they'll always be squares. Even if one of them started injecting heroin into his own câââ, people would go: 'Yeah, but your dad was a vicar, good night.'") Oasis are a reminder of what now seems, quite sadly, to be a very bygone era, a time when a combination of confidence within working-class communities and the existence of a public space for the rise of working-class entertainment and art meant that rough men with guitars could take on the world. This means that, 20 years on, Definitely Maybe strikes an unwittingly melancholic note. It feels like a relic, a blistering cry from a time when politics had not yet been totally taken over by foppish men from Bullingdon or the sons of academics from Hampstead and pop music wasnât yet the preserve of the skinny, oh-so-knowing offspring of professors and millionaires who wear Bruce Springsteen T-shirts for a JOKE. Would a Definitely Maybe be possible today? Iâm not sure. Who today would venture into inner-city Manchester and offer a record deal to two foul-mouthed sons of Irish immigrants who wanted to sing songs about cigarettes and alcohol and living forever? Not many, I would wager. Modern record producers would likely be bamboozled by the earnestness of these young northern men â âI need to be myself / I canât be no one elseâ, Liam sings on Supersonic â and would ask where the lolz were. The twentieth anniversary of Definitely Maybe is an occasion not only for tapping oneâs toes once again to those gorgeous songs, but also wracking oneâs brains as to what happened to the phenomenon of the working-class band and creative inner-city attitude. Oasis were the last great rebels of rock. They are, as you would expect any decent rock rebel to be, agitated by the mainstream morals and pieties of our time. So Noel lambasts environmentalists as âhippies with no place in the worldâ, asking, quite sensibly, âHow do you suggest we get millions of Chinese not to have a fridge?â He rails against worthy, charity, green-minded, ishoo-led pop. Of the Live 8 concert that accompanied the G8 meeting in Gleneagles in 2005 he said: âAre they hoping that one of these guys from the G8 is on a quick 15-minute break at Gleneagles and sees Annie Lennox singing âSweet Dreamsâ and thinks, âFâââ me, she might have a pointâ?â He laments the disappearance of a âwork ethicâ among Britainâs youth, who now, he says, prefer to tweet than make art. All of this has made Oasis somewhat unpopular in the music press and among young bands, which is further proof of the extent to which those worlds have been conquered by middle-class mores, so that even an undisputed rock god like Noel Gallagher can now appear to them as little more than a terribly rough and ill-spoken man with outrageously outrĂ© views. blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100261465/would-oasis-make-it-today-when-pop-music-has-been-colonised-by-the-posh-and-the-pathetic/
|
|
|
Post by birchy on Feb 28, 2014 8:36:46 GMT -5
Great article! Thanks for posting.
|
|
|
Post by bardes on Feb 28, 2014 8:41:37 GMT -5
"Would a Definitely Maybe be possible today? Iâm not sure. Who today would venture into inner-city Manchester and offer a record deal to two foul-mouthed sons of Irish immigrants who wanted to sing songs about cigarettes and alcohol and living forever?"
That's the point.
Music is different now, everything is different. Second 'Definitely Maybe' is impossible.
To be honest - I still can't come to terms with this. The current trend in music disgusts me.
|
|
|
Post by mimmihopps on Feb 28, 2014 8:42:52 GMT -5
Great to read. Thanks eva!
We all love Oasis. I still love Oasis, I do miss Oasis and that's why I don't want them to reunion.
|
|
|
Post by freddy838 on Feb 28, 2014 8:57:52 GMT -5
I think every generation British music returns to default which is very uninspiring pop shite, until BAM a band comes along and changes things. We're roughly at that stage where a band is due to come along. It comes down to the quality of the songs at the end of the day, so of course Oasis would have made it today.
|
|
|
Post by themanwithnoname on Feb 28, 2014 9:00:56 GMT -5
Well fucking said Brendan O'Neill, whoever you are.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2014 9:03:54 GMT -5
Would Oasis make it today, when pop music has been colonised by the posh and the pathetic?By Brendan O'Neill Arts and entertainment Last updated: February 28th, 2014 Man, I miss Oasis. On Wednesday the Mancunian rockers, formerly both the kings and the scourge of the 1990s Britpop scene, got the media's pulse racing by posting a cryptic hint on their Facebook page about a possible reunion. But it turns out they won't be reuniting, probably because there isn't a patch of land on Earth big enough for the Gallagher brothers, Noel and Liam, to bury their legion hatchets. Instead, the big announcement from the Oasis camp was that a remastered version of their first album, the goosebump-coaxing Definitely Maybe, will be released on 19 May, to celebrate its twentieth anniversary. That was nice enough news for old fans like me, for whom the sounds of that album are a glorious reminder of being 19 years old and off one's nut. Listening to Definitely Maybe now â as I did last night, following the media frenzy about Oasis's announcement â it is striking how foreign it feels, how different it is from what passes for pop or rock or indie music in the 21st century. The album is gloriously unironic and free of twee. It's totally blokey, which is of course anathema in 2014, when Facebook offers no fewer than 58 gender options (none of which is lad) and every man is supposed to be in touch with his inner feminine spirit. The lyrics â most of which are rubbish â speak to aspiration, including of the materialistic variety, which is also a big no-no today, when academics warn us of the dangers of "affluenza" and it's the in thing to be a recessionista: someone's who eco-thrifty and resistant to the charms of bling. On Rock'n'Roll Star, Liam bellows: "I live my life for the stars that shine / People say it's a waste of time / When they said I should feed my head / That to me was just a day in bed." Rough translation: these guys want glory, not education; they want material wealth, not mental stimulation. There's another reason Oasis now look and sound like creatures not just from another millennium but from another planet: their rise to stardom was really the last time a working-class band made it big, storming to the top of the pops through swagger and self-belief rather than with the aid of high-up connections and nepotistic favours. These days, as Michael Gove pointed out a couple of years ago, the sharp-elbowed sons and daughters of Britain's public schools have thoroughly colonised every corner of public and cultural life, including popular music. "2010's Mercury Music Prize was a battle between privately educated Laura Marling and privately educated Marcus Mumford", said Gove. "And from Chris Martin of Coldplay to Tom Chaplin of Keane, popular music is populated by public school boys." (Noel Gallagher, you won't be surprised to hear, has been far more stinging about Keane: "I feel sorry for them. No matter how hard they try, they'll always be squares. Even if one of them started injecting heroin into his own câââ, people would go: 'Yeah, but your dad was a vicar, good night.'") Oasis are a reminder of what now seems, quite sadly, to be a very bygone era, a time when a combination of confidence within working-class communities and the existence of a public space for the rise of working-class entertainment and art meant that rough men with guitars could take on the world. This means that, 20 years on, Definitely Maybe strikes an unwittingly melancholic note. It feels like a relic, a blistering cry from a time when politics had not yet been totally taken over by foppish men from Bullingdon or the sons of academics from Hampstead and pop music wasnât yet the preserve of the skinny, oh-so-knowing offspring of professors and millionaires who wear Bruce Springsteen T-shirts for a JOKE. Would a Definitely Maybe be possible today? Iâm not sure. Who today would venture into inner-city Manchester and offer a record deal to two foul-mouthed sons of Irish immigrants who wanted to sing songs about cigarettes and alcohol and living forever? Not many, I would wager. Modern record producers would likely be bamboozled by the earnestness of these young northern men â âI need to be myself / I canât be no one elseâ, Liam sings on Supersonic â and would ask where the lolz were. The twentieth anniversary of Definitely Maybe is an occasion not only for tapping oneâs toes once again to those gorgeous songs, but also wracking oneâs brains as to what happened to the phenomenon of the working-class band and creative inner-city attitude. Oasis were the last great rebels of rock. They are, as you would expect any decent rock rebel to be, agitated by the mainstream morals and pieties of our time. So Noel lambasts environmentalists as âhippies with no place in the worldâ, asking, quite sensibly, âHow do you suggest we get millions of Chinese not to have a fridge?â He rails against worthy, charity, green-minded, ishoo-led pop. Of the Live 8 concert that accompanied the G8 meeting in Gleneagles in 2005 he said: âAre they hoping that one of these guys from the G8 is on a quick 15-minute break at Gleneagles and sees Annie Lennox singing âSweet Dreamsâ and thinks, âFâââ me, she might have a pointâ?â He laments the disappearance of a âwork ethicâ among Britainâs youth, who now, he says, prefer to tweet than make art. All of this has made Oasis somewhat unpopular in the music press and among young bands, which is further proof of the extent to which those worlds have been conquered by middle-class mores, so that even an undisputed rock god like Noel Gallagher can now appear to them as little more than a terribly rough and ill-spoken man with outrageously outrĂ© views. blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100261465/would-oasis-make-it-today-when-pop-music-has-been-colonised-by-the-posh-and-the-pathetic/ Thank you eva . Great article. So ironic THE MAINSTREAM WORLD MISS OASIS . GREAG READ !!! Shows if they ever do reup it will be monumental !!
|
|
|
Post by allingoodtime on Feb 28, 2014 10:59:13 GMT -5
People should be missing Oasis, there hasn't been a band like them since they split up..not even when they were still a band!
They had the attitude, the style and in my honest opinion, no one can beat their songs.
I don't think they'll be as successful now as they were before but if their management were to promote them a bit better on Facebook, Instagram etc then they can be a hit again.
A lot of kids nowadays have horrible taste in music, but if you show them Oasis' music they can change their taste..i've shown my 14 and 12 year old cousins Wonderwall, DLBIA and CS and they love all 3 of them so why not the rest of the world?
|
|
|
Post by allingoodtime on Feb 28, 2014 13:40:46 GMT -5
That being said if we're just talking about DM I think the music is great (esp supersonic and C&A)as are some of the lyrics but i'm not a huge fan of Liams voice on some of the tracks..imo he sounds miles better on WTSMG
|
|
|
Post by bardes on Feb 28, 2014 13:56:18 GMT -5
That being said if we're just talking about DM I think the music is great (esp supersonic and C&A)as are some of the lyrics but i'm not a huge fan of Liams voice on some of the tracks..imo he sounds miles better on WTSMG Exactly. His voice without the hoarseness wasn't so interesting. C&A sounded horrible, too slow and that irreproachable voice
|
|
|
Post by oasisserbia on Feb 28, 2014 17:11:40 GMT -5
That being said if we're just talking about DM I think the music is great (esp supersonic and C&A)as are some of the lyrics but i'm not a huge fan of Liams voice on some of the tracks..imo he sounds miles better on WTSMG Exactly. His voice without the hoarseness wasn't so interesting. C&A sounded horrible, too slow and that irreproachable voice
|
|
|
Post by dontgoaway92 on Feb 28, 2014 18:12:43 GMT -5
Not solely to do with the changing of the music scene, but youth culture itself. Britain is going through a phase where the modern day working man is sneered at. Everywhere there are spoilt kids who intend to go to university and want to come out of as the big CEO, the reality is though that there are only so many CEO jobs about.
Incredible how such a phase has turned in such a short space of time. Forget the music for a minute, Keith Richards in his era does drugs, looked at as the pinacle of cool. Pete Doherty does drugs, sneered at and looked down upon. Youth culture has certainly changed though, it's no longer deemed cool to become a labourer and pick up a guitar in your spare time, he's simply seen as a loser.
You only have to look at the general attitude from the Daily Mail readers. Low income households are simply dismissed as chavs, nothing more, nothing less.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2014 2:28:13 GMT -5
Ugh those pretentious snobs in that comment section again, yea music taste is dictated by intelligence and they're all too smart to listen to Oasis...I bet they all look like Gok-Wan and spend all day listening to the latest clicky electronic music to make themselves feel cool and smart while they iron their many chinos or spend all day posting selfies on instagram with their thick rimmed glasses on with #nerd hashtags, all the time feeling like they're part of the out crowd...Fucking sheep!
|
|