prince

[zero000]

Back in those days you wore an onion on your belt, such was the fashion at the time.

[Buff124]

One could pore over the semantics of this exchange coupla times and arrive at opposing conclusions. Its the exclamation mark.

When asked about Glastonbury he said: "Do you want me to play there tomorrow?" saying he was concentrating on the current tour.

Prince was asked, "That's not a no though?" to which he responded, "No!"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26045864

[kpins]

Just been reading this thread and wondered why everyone is so obsessed with dividing music into decades?

Surely music from 1981 has more in common with music from 1979 than 1989?

And people who use the charts as a barometer for measuring good music need their heads looking at!

[captain reido]

Kinda hope he doesn't play to be honest, not my cup of tea.

[GlastoSimon]

Kinda hope he doesn't play to be honest, not my cup of tea.

[captain reido]

There is stuff elsewhere ya know...

[eFestivals]

Surely music from 1981 has more in common with music from 1979 than 1989?

In some ways yes, in many others no.

To my mind there's sort-of a line that can be drawn across music, at the end of punk/new wave (which doesn't have a firm year it could be tied to, in part because of how 'new wave' evolved)) and at the start of the big use of synths, and new romantics, etc.

(I say 'to my mind'. It might well be the case that for those older than me the line is more distinct at the end of supergroups and with the advent of punk, and if that's how they see it I get why. But what I'm talking about is 'my era' of music, when I was of an age that plugged me to each of those scenes)

The end of the 80s is very much the evolution of that synths & new romantics stage, while synths/new romantics of the early eighties were much less a continuation of what was before them or (as punk was) a reaction against what was before them. That synths/new romantics was a new scene, organically grown in quite a separate flowerbed to what was popular before then.

And people who use the charts as a barometer for measuring good music need their heads looking at!

who said they were a measure of good music? They are (or at least were back then) a measure of what music is popular.

[CaledonianGonzo]

But there's a whole separate yet simultaneous timeline of electronic /synth based music that has little to do with Punk Rock, New Wave or New Romantic - from Terrry Riley and Silver Apples in the 1960s - Kraftwerk / Popol Vuh - Yellow Magic Orchestra - Eno - Suicide - Throbbing Gristle - Cabaret Voltaire - Depeche Mode - Coil - right up to the Belleville Three / Detroit Techno and from there to pretty much everywhere. The latter very influenced by Prince, as it happens.

By comparison, New Romantic was just a transient fashion blip more concerned with clothes than music and impacted as much by Bowie as by anything else.

[suzie sue]

Yes New Romantics were fashion centric but an important part of the club scene and emergence of gay club culture, would we have had Frankie goes to Hollywood, pet shop boys etc? All of the best music stems from bowie

[eFestivals]

But there's a whole separate yet simultaneous timeline of electronic /synth based music that has little to do with Punk Rock, New Wave or New Romantic - from ...

I can't say i know the histories of all the acts you name, but some that you've included are laughable as a way to try to dismiss what i've said.

By comparison, New Romantic was just a transient fashion blip more concerned with clothes than music and impacted as much by Bowie as by anything else.

A fashion blip that last for eight years, and which Bowie chose to imitate.

[eFestivals]

A fashion blip that last for eight years

I'#ll rephrase that, as it's not been put as well as it could have been.

A fashion blip that dominated mainstream music for eight years.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Yes New Romantics were fashion centric but an important part of the club scene and emergence of gay club culture, would we have had Frankie goes to Hollywood, pet shop boys etc? All of the best music stems from bowie

[CaledonianGonzo]

I can't say i know the histories of all the acts you name, but some that you've included are laughable as a way to try to dismiss what i've said.

A fashion blip that last for eight years, and which Bowie chose to imitate.

[suzie sue]

I think that was only because bowie paved the way for it, so people weren't so shocked, was still very important times for music

Edited February 6, 2014 by suzie sue

[eFestivals]

Yes - and it makes perfect sense in that context. I just don't think it's indicative of any seismic shift that announced the start of a new era.

was it something that grew out of the existing scenes, or was it - much like punk - something new and stand-alone?

(I'm talking about in the general scheme of things).

Yet (UK) punk was reactionary - a reaction to the overblown 'supergroups' - and so wasn't really that stand-alone, it just sounded like it was.

While new romantics were very much a part of a clubbing scene, it was a new and different scene in different venues to disco and with a totally different and distinct sound.

That to me was a big shift (rather than evolution) in mainstream musical direction - but as I've already recognised, part of how I look at is likely to be the result of my age in relation to what was going on.

[eFestivals]

The quality - or not - of the acts in question isn't really relevant so much as their place in a continuum of electronic music.

I didn't mention quality at all.

(there's never been much in the way of quality that made the charts - which is a big part around Prince).

And there's a massive difference between experimental electronic music and the mainstream that became - with that mainstream having little influence from the experimental before it.

It was not evolution by revolution - the electronic revolution that happened when the technology became cheap enough for kids to buy it (eg: DM).

18 months I'd have said. And even then mostly confined to specific parts of London. And Birmingham for some reason or other.

In it's 'pure' form, yep.

But to put you on the right track, which years did the likes of SB and DD have their first and last big chart hits?

I've not checked, but I suspect that eight years is probably an understatement for how long "new romantics" dominated the mainstream.

Edited February 6, 2014 by eFestivals

[stuartbert two hats]

But there's a whole separate yet simultaneous timeline of electronic /synth based music that has little to do with Punk Rock, New Wave or New Romantic - from Terrry Riley and Silver Apples in the 1960s - Kraftwerk / Popol Vuh - Yellow Magic Orchestra - Eno - Suicide - Throbbing Gristle - Cabaret Voltaire - Depeche Mode - Coil - right up to the Belleville Three / Detroit Techno and from there to pretty much everywhere. The latter very influenced by Prince, as it happens.

By comparison, New Romantic was just a transient fashion blip more concerned with clothes than music and impacted as much by Bowie as by anything else.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Synth music became prevalent in the early 1980s for myriad reasons, but New Romantic wasn't the only game in town - and things like disco and Roxy Music's art-schoolisms had just as much of an impact on the pop music of the era.

TBH most of the music doesn't do much for me, but that notwithstanding it was a still a pretty fertile period, creatively speaking. Just because I don't especially dig Skank Bloc Bologna doesn't mean it's not valuable in a wider sense.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Throbbing Gristle had nothing to do with punk? Their lo-fi, DIY ethos IS punk!

[eFestivals]

Synth music became prevalent in the early 1980s for myriad reasons, but New Romantic wasn't the only game in town - and things like disco and Roxy Music's art-schoolisms had just as much of an impact on the pop music of the era.

Well, it can't be ignored because it's hugely unlikely that the new movers and shakers hadn't heard it, but....

In all senses of what those new movers were trying to do those were irrelevances. They were the things which those new movers wanted to NOT be.

And the likes of DM wanted to be a pop band, pop pop pop pop pop! So pop that Vince left cos they weren't.

[eFestivals]

PS ... back in the day, the most common thing said about Prince was what?

That he desperately wanted to be Hendrix, and was a very poor imitation.

Edited February 6, 2014 by eFestivals

[CaledonianGonzo]

I didn't mention quality at all.

[Osama Jim Laden]

spot on! 70s was the best wasnt it??

00s was the worst I reckon...by a mile.

70>60>90>80>00

50s and below never happened

[russycarps]

Sun Records russy.. O'course the 50's happened..

[CaledonianGonzo]

Get some Benny Goodman down yer lugholes.