Last night, we finished watching a four-part (BBC?) documentary called Boys & Girls, about music and sex and how sex (and sometimes politics) influenced musical trends -- and other way around -- in Britain. Each of the four installment covered a decade: sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties. The part about the eighties was my favorite. It just seemed like the campiest and most fun era. Plus I grew up on some of this music. Pet Shop Boys! Depeche Mode!
It was interesting to see how much sexual ambiguity was used in each of these four decades. But the conclusion – the nineties – was disappointing. While previously artists tried to challenge and/or provoke the mainstream, the nineties culminated in something bland and, well, democratic. Instead of wanting to stand out, the artists now try to blend in. Anyone can be an artist. Hence, the American Idol (or Pop Idol in Britain).
The saddest thing, though, is how little the nineties have to show for themselves. The sixties had The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The seventies had David Bowie and the Sex Pistols. The eighties had The Smiths and Morrissey and lots more. And the nineties? Spice Girls? Something called Robbie Williams? There were cameos by the members of Garbage and Chambawamba, but their music was barely mentioned. Suede sounded interesting – I didn’t know of them before -- but they, too, became lost amidst the mainstream.
That said, the documentary is worth taking a look at. It is ambitious, to be sure. And maybe it tries to bite more than it can chew. And inevitably some musicians get ommited. Still, the four installments give a good sense of how pop/rock music developed in Britain, how the country itself changed, politically, culturally, and sexually.
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