Things you often Wonder

[Follyfoot]

7 minutes ago, sidcow said:

The mobile phone.  Has that affected anything? Obviously not. 

MTV? very little impact. A cultural vacuum MTV. 

Microsoft Word/Microsoft Windows? Nada. 

The Simpsons.  I guess a few people think they were mildly interesting. 

Thriller? The A Team? The Breakfast Club? Ferris? KARPOV vs KASPAROV, Borg v McEnroe? Ayrton Senna 1st World Title. 

The rise of Hip Hop.  Black music from The Ghetto becoming mainstream consumption globally for white middle class kids and developing from there into the various forms currently dominating such as Grime. 

League 81, Europe 82???????????????

Must stop.  Promised myself I wouldn't. 

 

 

Good to mention regarding the tenniswear of the early 80s. The wife got me a pair of Diadora Borg elites Kangaroo skin re issues for my 50th, Only worn them a couple of times, last time was at Wembley In March

[sidcow]

Boy George, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Jimmy Somerville, Andy Bell.  Gay people going on TV and being very very openly gay and becoming global superstars in the process. Cultural vacuum the 80's. 

[sidcow]

Sony Walkman. Super Mario Bros, Sega Mega Drive, VHS v Betamax, The Modem, The CD, The Space. Shuttle, Michael Gorbachev, The World Wide Web, Delorean, New Romantics (who now are leader in fashion, design, the arts and music) DJ culture, Rambo, Daley Thompson Torville and Dean, Mike Tyson, Pacman, Miami Vice (has there ever been a TV show that has had more impact on Style and Fashion), Madonna - you may not like her but she is a mammoth Cultural Icon. 

I think the 70s were shit because they were all about flares, disco music, Brotherhood of Man and power cuts. 

 

[il_serpente]

1 minute ago, sidcow said:

Sony Walkman. Super Mario Bros, Sega Mega Drive, VHS v Betamax, The Modem, The CD, The Space. Shuttle, Michael Gorbachev, The World Wide Web, Delorean, New Romantics (who now are leader in fashion, design, the arts and music) DJ culture, Rambo, Daley Thompson Torville and Dean, Mike Tyson, Pacman, Miami Vice (has there ever been a TV show that has had more impact on Style and Fashion), Madonna - you may not like her but she is a mammoth Cultural Icon. 

I think the 70s were shit because they were all about flares, disco music, Brotherhood of Man and power cuts. 

 

You started out with some great points, but you're getting to where some of your mentions are arguing against yourself!

[sidcow]

9 minutes ago, il_serpente said:

You started out with some great points, but you're getting to where some of your mentions are arguing against yourself!

Culture isn't about something you like, I don't like a lot of these things.  But their influence on the world are unarguable. 

I'm assuming you're not questioning my sarcastic attack on Brotherhood of Man. Save Your Kisses for Me is worthy of 6 weeks at number 1 in any decade obviously. 

Edited June 26, 2020 by sidcow

[bickster]

1 hour ago, Follyfoot said:

Sir Clive was da man, ZX81 then the spectrum if I recall? Then some mad one seater electric car

Zx80 was first

[sidcow]

44 minutes ago, bickster said:

Zx80 was first

Wow. Wiki says a completed Zx80 sold at £100 in 1980 which is about £400 now. 

£400 would not be a huge outlay now for a laptop. Bearing in mind they are all built in China and sell in massive global amounts £400 for a UK made small selling machine is astonishing and probably illustrates the profits made by global corporations from huge mark ups on today's machines. 

[Mjvilla]

5 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Yeah that's what I try to do. Windows on either side of the lounge. get them all open. Door to the lounge open and windows in the other rooms open to to get it moving through

Problems arise when everything is open and the front door opens and other doors slam shut. If everything is open (barring the front door) and we open the front door, the utility (glass door) door will slam shut. I'm terrified it'll shatter soon.

I think I said the word door too many times in that sentence. I'm 9 hours into my 12 hour night shift so will allow myself a break for it though.

[Seat68]

I’m on my phone and its early so not going to a lengthy post about how @sidcow is wrong, the many shades of wrong and the level of wrong. 
You pick all the good stuff, which is fair, lots of good stuff happened. Lots of dreadful things happened too.
Music was absolutely diarrhoea. Yeah there were some good bits but for every one of them there was a Bee Gees You Win Again, or Diana Ross doing Chain Reaction. 
There was more of an acceptance of Gay and Lesbian artists but there was also Clause 28. 
Money dictated everything in mainstream culture and not love, certainly during that awful period between 83 and 88 music in particular had an awful sheen. I should be grateful as this was what pushed me to go looking for the good stuff. 
I don’t speak for @mjmooney but we tend to have a similar hate for the 80s. Absolutely awful. Not all films and music were shit, but my god a lot of it was. 
The absolute worst thing of course is nostalgia for that decade is huge now. 

[Follyfoot]

7 hours ago, sidcow said:

Sony Walkman. Super Mario Bros, Sega Mega Drive, VHS v Betamax, The Modem, The CD, The Space. Shuttle, Michael Gorbachev, The World Wide Web, Delorean, New Romantics (who now are leader in fashion, design, the arts and music) DJ culture, Rambo, Daley Thompson Torville and Dean, Mike Tyson, Pacman, Miami Vice (has there ever been a TV show that has had more impact on Style and Fashion), Madonna - you may not like her but she is a mammoth Cultural Icon. 

I think the 70s were shit because they were all about flares, disco music, Brotherhood of Man and power cuts. 

 

Don’t forget red Robbo and the three day week and the dead piling up in the streets. Lord Mountbatten being murdered by the IRA and bombing of mainland England. Argentina needing to win six nil against Peru in the World Cup as host  nation to qualify and winning six nil and tickertape. Yes the 70s sucked, the only bright light was Aston Villa football club and the expansive attacking side created by Ron Saunders

[snowychap]

11 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Here's one, when the weather is like it is now, hot and muggy, I always open as many windows in the flat as possible. Get some air circulating around the place to cool it down.

But my other half is adamant that opening the windows lets the hot air in and in fact makes the flat hotter.

I cannot see how she is right, unless we had air conditioning (which we don't. We have a fan and that's it.)

 

Who's right?

Hot and sunny weather = (for me) windows and curtains/blinds closed from about midday at the front of the house until the sun goes behind the hills (from 8pm onwards) and then open them all to get some fresher air in.

It makes a huge difference if you get lots of sun.

 

Edited June 27, 2020 by snowychap

[snowychap]

10 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

That's my theory. Maybe if you have one window open she'd be right because it doesn't really circulate. 

We came back from a whole day out of the flat the other day and it was sweltering inside. Half an hour with the windows open and it was noticeably cooler

I think you're looking at two different things.

How do you cool down a room when it's already hot and stuffy (high temperature & all windows shut)? Increase the air flow by opening windows.

How do you keep a room cool when outside it is hot and the room is cool? Try to protect the room from the temperature outside by keeping windows closed and sunlight out. What you're largely doing, I think, is slowing the heating of the room rather than preventing it from warming up. At some point there's likely to be a crossover where it becomes worse to have the windows closed, i.e. when the temperature inside reaches a similar level to the temperature outside, and then the above (cooling down the room) would apply.

[mjmooney]

9 hours ago, sidcow said:

The rise of Hip Hop.  Black music from The Ghetto becoming mainstream consumption globally for white middle class kids and developing from there into the various forms currently dominating such as Grime. 

 

[cyrusr]

1 hour ago, Seat68 said:

I’m on my phone and its early so not going to a lengthy post about how @sidcow is wrong, the many shades of wrong and the level of wrong. 
You pick all the good stuff, which is fair, lots of good stuff happened. Lots of dreadful things happened too.
Music was absolutely diarrhoea. Yeah there were some good bits but for every one of them there was a Bee Gees You Win Again, or Diana Ross doing Chain Reaction. 
There was more of an acceptance of Gay and Lesbian artists but there was also Clause 28. 
Money dictated everything in mainstream culture and not love, certainly during that awful period between 83 and 88 music in particular had an awful sheen. I should be grateful as this was what pushed me to go looking for the good stuff. 
I don’t speak for @mjmooney but we tend to have a similar hate for the 80s. Absolutely awful. Not all films and music were shit, but my god a lot of it was. 
The absolute worst thing of course is nostalgia for that decade is huge now. 

Isn’t it true for every decade though? Bay City Rollers anyone? The Monkees? The whole Disco fiasco? @bickster’s absolute hatred of the Beatles is obviously well known on this board. You can pretty much go to any “top 40” over the last 50/60 years and pretty guarantee that over half of each which is pretty poor.

I think with the 80s, it is quite easy to pick on because of its complete eccentric fashion and the chart music. For me though, you have the rise of NWOBHM with Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Saxon etc and then the rise of Thrash with Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth etc. Don’t get me wrong, even in those lot, you can get a lot of tripe (still can’t stand Megadeth) and don’t get me started on Hair Metal, the pinnacle of why metal gets such a horrendous reputation. I do agree the nostalgia can be a little off, currently in metal there seems is a nostalgia for nü-metal which to be honest, is probably best left buried. 

I think the point I’m making is there is good music all decades, you just have to find it. As I’ve got older, that’s been another element rather than just finding new bands. I mean, I’ve ended up buying a load of stuff just because I’ve seen it here, hell I even picked up Screamadelica the other day because a load of you kept on going on about how it’s the greatest record of all time (disagree but can see why its well liked, a lot better than a lot of the other stuff from around that time). I mean, the stuff that influenced what you liked post 1988, do you not enjoy that? Although I know your not doing this per say, but I don’t think it’s fair to rule out a decade in its entirety. Ultimately, there is A LOT of good music out there, l and finding it is part of the fun is it not? 

Oh, and Arms of Mary? Nope never heard it either, and to be honest, having now listened to it, I’m  glad I hadn’t  

[bickster]

Going back to that Arms of Marything, look at what it leads to... its a sodding crime... its the musical equivalent of fish with gravy

I only listened to the first line of juvenile poetry to confirm it was the same abomination

There are other covers out there too... Smokie (I daren't listen to that) , ... Chilliwack (Who?) and they even named their album after the first line in the song so ...

But FFS BOYZONE!

[chrisp65]

18 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Yeah, it does sound like a bridge from the 80s to the 90s. The 90s was a bit of a relief for me, as it suddenly became more acceptable to display a range of 60s/70s influences again (Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Byrds, Doors, etc.) In the 80s, the only influences permissable from that era seemed to be the pernicious trio of Kraftwerk, George Clinton and the Velvets (none of which were particularly among my favourites). 

To just add my two penneth.

Through ‘80, ‘81. ‘82’. ‘83, and ‘84 I don’t think there was a band I was listening to that wasn’t citing The Kinks, The Small Faces and The Creation as major influences. You had bands like The Jam that were close on a Beetles / Kinks / Who tribute band. 

All those bands like Squire and The Prisoners and The Chords were achingly 60’s based. In to the mid 80’s and bands like The Times were still trying to put some Beetles in to a few tracks on every album. Then the Creation label came along, with bands like The Cramps, Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine. Back then, Primal Scream still had aspirations to be a Byrds tribute band before they became a Stones tribute band.

Whilst on record labels, Respond in the mid 80’s had all that power pop, bands like Big Sound Authority and Makin Time. Hell, even the Style Council had some stuff that had council estate lyrics, 60’s jazz influenced music and wasn’t total wank.

Billy Bragg was doing his old school english working class song lyrics schtick exceptionally well, channelling the spirit of Ray Davies, whilst also reviving some folk and protest atmosphere. If the only thing he’d done in the 80’s was give Kirsty MacColl ‘New England’, then he was well worth having around. 

I think, then as now, it was probably just about knowing where to look.

A lot of criticism of 80’s music is actually criticism of 80’s radio 1 and Top Of The Pops. But even then, ‘pop’ could include synth bands like Bronski Beat and The Communards where, if you ever heard Jimmy Somerville sing live, man, that was an out of body experience. Massively underrated guy, but pure mid 80’s pop production.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2020 by chrisp65

[mjmooney]

35 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

To just add my two penneth.

Through ‘80, ‘81. ‘82’. ‘83, and ‘84 I don’t think there was a band I was listening to that wasn’t citing The Kinks, The Small Faces and The Creation as major influences. You had bands like The Jam that were close on a Beetles / Kinks / Who tribute band. 

All those bands like Squire and The Prisoners and The Chords were achingly 60’s based. In to the mid 80’s and bands like The Times were still trying to put some Beetles in to a few tracks on every album. Then the Creation label came along, with bands like The Cramps, Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine. Back then, Primal Scream still had aspirations to be a Byrds tribute band before they became a Stones tribute band.

Whilst on record labels, Respond in the mid 80’s had all that power pop, bands like Big Sound Authority and Makin Time. Hell, even the Style Council had some stuff that had council estate lyrics, 60’s jazz influenced music and wasn’t total wank.

Billy Bragg was doing his old school english working class song lyrics schtick exceptionally well, channelling the spirit of Ray Davies, whilst also reviving some folk and protest atmosphere. If the only thing he’d done in the 80’s was give Kirsty MacColl ‘New England’, then he was well worth having around. 

I think, then as now, it was probably just about knowing where to look.

A lot of criticism of 80’s music is actually criticism of 80’s radio 1 and Top Of The Pops. But even then, ‘pop’ could include synth bands like Bronski Beat and The Communards where, if you ever heard Jimmy Somerville sing live, man, that was an out of body experience. Massively underrated guy, but pure mid 80’s pop production.

Yes, yes, I know. All that. But the good stuff was way out of the mainstream (I know that it usually is). And it wasn't that good, even then.  The Prisoners? The Chords? Well intentioned, but lame copies at best. Billy Bragg? Good bloke, decent songwriter, but bloody awful singer. Cramps? JAMC? MBV? Sorry, unimpressed. I actually bought a lot of that stuff at the time, in a desperate attempt to convince myself it was good, but deep down I knew it was lame. Hindsight has confirmed this, big time. 

[sidcow]

2 hours ago, mjmooney said:

 

Like I said, it's no about what you like, that's a personal taste thing.  I don't like "rap" music but you can't accuse the 80's of being a cultural vacuum when something as important and fundamental was happening which have echoed through to today. 

It's like saying I don't like heavy metal music so basically nothing whatsoever happened musically in the 70s. 

Don't like is not the same as didn't happen. 

Also it IS a really socially important thing because suddenly black people were becoming musical stars, visible and successful which would have been very difficult with other music forms (with a few notable exceptions) because it was their music.

It's like saying "I don't like Motown music so it's an unimportant music scene". That would be ludicrous. 

[chrisp65]

I’ve cleaned the pond and now I’m listening to some Dave Brubeck.

So everything is nice.

[mjmooney]

Fair enough. My case against the 80s IS based on my personal opinions, I've never said otherwise. I also concede that had I been ten years younger I may well have loved New Order and The Smiths, etc. But I wasn't.