Top Of The Pops

[poliphilo]

It's a good long while since I last watched Top of the Pops. Sometime in the late 90s- when every other act was a boy band- it finally dawned on me that middle-aged blokes were not the target audience.

Up until then I had tried to keep abreast with what was going on. I may not have liked the music, but I wanted to know what people were buying. I'm a keen cultural observer, me I am.

(The last new artist I really liked was Eminem. I thought he was funny.)

But last night, Ailz was fooling around with the control and suddenly there we were on Top of the Pops and there we stayed. The Black Eyed Peas were on stage- all tricked out in in Andy Pandy costumes like something from the 70s. I liked the song. Peter Gabriel used to dress up as a dhalia, but he too was a serious musician.

Then we had some good looking chap singing something ballady. Good looking ballady chaps have always made me feel queasy. But I didn't say anything, because Ailz was enjoying him.

Then came the Back Street Boys (bleeeagh) and then came the count-down to Number One. So who would it be this week- Some boy band, some crotch fiddling hip-hopper, some ballardy chap?

No, by gum, it was Oasis!

But Oasis are finished aren't they?

Apparently not. This new song is exactly like every other Oasis song- a Beatley melody played in the style of the Who- but well, it has character. Oasis are hugely derivative but their sound is unmistakably their own. And if that reads like a contradiction I can't help it. The truth is rarely simple.

Anyway, I like them. They're naff but they're naff in a good way. And I'm so glad they're at number one. It's a reminder of the unpredictability and sheer, downright cussedness of the universe.

Because if Oasis can have a number one single in 2005 then anything is possible!

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

This was fun reading, even if I didn't know the artists.

I remembered, reading this, Hit Parade from the 50s: my father loved Gisella MacKensie, who played the violin and sang.

The singers on Hit Parade all popped out of the center of the Lucky Strike cigarette logo at the beginning of the program.

Seems to me "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" was at the top of the charts for months.

--Oasis! What a name.

--Did you ever experience Lawrence Welk? Oh, my: the polyester suits! the helmet hair! the strangled English of Mr. Welk!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oasis were the premier bad boy Brit-rockers of the 90s. They never managed to crack America, but they were huge everywhere else.

Lawrence Welk rings a very faint bell. Was he German?

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Giselle McKensie. She was beautiful, and had a very nice voice.

I have no idea who Oasis is...but I have a question for Tony- do you know of Pete Morton?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Pete Morton? No, i don't believe I've ever heard of him. Is he a musician?

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Folk singer. VERY good one. His music is impossible to find on this side of the Atlantic.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I had a sudden twinge. I remembered having reviewed a disc by a folk singer called Pete. I rushed to my shelves and - no- this was Pete Castle not Morton.

I like folk music. It's what I mostly listen to. I'm a big fan of the Waterson-Carthy clan.