It was a pretty one-note alternative music scene in 2002. Garage rock had taken off and mop hairdos were all over the magazines and MTV. It was all the The bands with the rocking and the rollicking riffs and the coarse snarls. Nu metal was in its twilight phase, with just over two years before it was abruptly extinguished. Emo, indie rock, and post-punk revivalist acts were popping up sporadically but hadn’t established a firm footing in the spotlight yet. Pop-punk came and went in waves but the two biggest Blink albums were in the rearview mirror.
Category: Thursday Thinkpiece
The Geek
There is perhaps no internet user more detestable than the geek.
There is no subset so aggressively uncool, so unrelentingly irritating, as the individuals who clamour for Reddit upvotes both on and offline, who are fluent in sarcasm, whose brains have been irradiated by the pop culture sci-fi they were raised on.
There is no internet user more detestable than the geek.
The Grey Tsunami: Why is Twitter Furious Over the NPC Meme?
Let’s not bury the lede here: the histrionics over the NPC meme are absolutely ridiculous.
It’s ridiculous that those who promulgate it believe that they’ve uncovered a great truth about the human condition, because this is a long rehashed idea and the fact that it’s making any sort of headline is laughable.
It is also ridiculous that some people believe that it’s a weaponized political tactic.
Also, I’m a little bit jealous, because observing and satirizing mass trends in pop culture has been my bread and butter for years, and a lot of the ideas that have emerged from this meme have been jabs that I’ve taken many times.
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Covers Uncovered
I’ve written before about the tricky art of appraising a cover song, both on its own merits and in relation to the original. As cynical as it may seem, it turns out it’s much easier to say what isn’t a good cover rather than what is. There is of course that pesky ever-present quandary in the form of subjectivity, but in this realm there are some clear cut and nearly bulletproof statements one could make.
Thursday Thinkpiece: The Continued Stagnation of Rock Music
There’s a rather contentious recurring statement that’s been made on this blog over the years, and that’s “music (as a viable commercial commodity) is dead”. Although I still stand by it, I will concede to the fact that it is arguable, and that some recent developments have breathed new life into the medium.
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