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| Why do people buy records by people they fancy? |
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| Talk,
Justin Harries,
18 January 1999 | |
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Recently an argument occurred between myself and a number of friends, concerning that top pop strumpet of the moment Britney Spears. I was praising the song that paved the way for this particular madam’s reign, ‘Hit me baby one more time’, a stunningly morbid anthem that in another era could have been penned by a certain Andrew Eldridge. When explaining this unexpected attribute, my group of friends took up an offensive position. "Surely the song you’re speaking of"; they chimed, "is in fact a thinly disguised rehash of a Backstreet boys number?" Spluttering into my pint, I finally had to agree. Indeed, when ‘da boys’ were knocking up hit no. 34, Mrs Spears was down on the cutting room floor, getting her knees dirty scrabbling around looking for snippets to aid her in her quest for pop domination. And it worked.
One thing niggled at my admittedly beer-swilled brain – "But I hate the Backstreet Boys, and their crummy songs, and if Britney sounds just like them, why don’t I hate her too?" I wailed. "Ah" the reply began " that is because you are a heterosexual male, and on the whole heterosexual males enjoy the sight of underage, silicon infused females shaking their breasts whilst singing songs about unrequited sexual tension."
"You mean," I stammered, as I begun to finally comprehend the undeniable truth "pop is not really about the music, butÂ… but" I could hardly say it aloud "but simply about getting the horn?"
OK, most people with any clue about popular culture are all too aware of this fact, after all sex sells. So if this is the case why is my record case filled with albums by Joy Division and not Louise Nerdling.
I though that even with the advent of the pop promo, music was an abstract, sensual experience, not reliant on visual imagery, but the immerse, visceral impact of sound itself. However, my recent epiphany has made me question how I consume the stuff altogether.
During my youth I was preoccupied with that all together sadder other S word that sweaty male adolescents obsess over across the globe – Science fiction. The first album these very hands purchased was Jeff Wayne’s musical adaptations of H G Wells’s classic alien invasion novel War of the Worlds. Guitars raged like kazoos whilst Richard Burton blankly narrated Wells tale of Victorian defeat – a cheesy triumph. So much for sex – girls could wait. What really floated this young man’s boat were the pictures included in the accompanying booklet - a priest being zapped by a Martian heat ray, even better, crows pecking flesh from a tripods eye socket. When combined with Burton mumbling classic lines like "It was the beginning of the route of civilisation, of the massacre of mankind" – I was in heaven, so much so that I didn’t have to buy another album for years. And when I did it was the soundtrack to the Terminator.
Eventually I grew up, got hormones (just) and even began to think about girls – but still didn’t fall into the pretty face – great song trap. Instead, as the visceral nature of the music I listened to increased so did the cragginess of the artists. So this is how it seems to work for boys. Unlike those girls who get to swoon over Westlife, us chaps have to be all macho and gritty about things. For men integrity and authenticity is all important – this is how my heroes came to be people like Steve Albini and John Coltrane. The sci fi connection has not escaped me altogether, the retro futurism of Stereolab and Peter Thomas, the cosmic jazz of Sun Ra and Coltrane himself come to mind.
What all this does point to is something else outside the music itself – a context to ground your enjoyment. There seems to be a tendency to push the visuals in pop, where video is king, to a point where the music is the most insignificant part of the product (just try telling a 14 year old Boyzone fan this). The product here becomes totally inseparable from its image. And this is how I too consume music – weather it be attributed to Martian heat rays or even a bit of jailbait action, it’s not just about the music, however much I like to think it isn’t.
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