These are all genres where I can articulate a difference between them. If I can’t articulate a difference, I don’t
use the term. Take, for example, hip
hop. Can anyone really explain to me the
difference between it and rap? As I understand
it, rap is the musical expression of hip hop culture so why do some parties tag
acts as hip hop?
I also appreciate that there are sub genres but very few are
meaningful to me. Take for example heavy
metal. From what I can understand,
thrash is a sub-genre of heavy metal as is death metal, hair metal and the New
Wave Of British Heavy Metal. I use the
term thrash because it is basically heavy metal played at a faster tempo with a
greater emphasis (or at least it seems to me) on twin guitar attacks and
drums. The other sub-genres mean nothing
more connecting acts with something meaningless to me they have in common whether they are Scandinavians
preoccupied with death (death metal), British bands that emerged in the late
1970s/early 80’s (the NWoBHM) or crap bands from the American West Coast (hair
metal). Let’s face, irrespective of
where they come from or how good they are, they’re still playing metal.
It was against this background that I selected my first
album to play today and I noticed a sticker on the cover which read “The 1979
Art-Punk Classic”. Art-punk? What the
hell was that? It was bad enough that I’d
never understood the term Art-Rock. (I
mean what did these acts do to attract such a label? Sculpture while they
play? Use cans of paint for drums? Record
the sound of chalk scratching on footpaths whilst reproducing the works of Michelangelo?) And now there’s a punk version of it. What,
did the sculptor bands smash the statues after the gig and sell the limbless
remains to the Louvre? Did the chalk artists on Swanston Street or Southgate
spit on anyone donating coins for their works of art? What have I missed?
And so I went on to play the aforesaid classic art-punk
album:
(# 292) Tin Huey –
Contents Dislodged After Shipment (1979)
Tin Heuy came out of the same Cleveland & region scene
that spawned acts such as Pere Ubu, The Dead Boys, etc. To these ears they sound like a classic
punk/new wave act from the 1970s.
Opening track, I’m A Believer is a good piss take of The Monkees
original. Second track, The Revelations
Of Dr. Modesto reminded me very much of early Roxy Music. Third track, I Could Rule The World If I
Could Only Get The Parts, reminds me of Devo or Oingo Boingo. I could go on but you get the idea – a good
album of experimental music with humor that appears to be much in the same
mould as another contemporary act from that era…
(# 293) Devo – Devo’s
Greatest Hits (1990)
For a brief moment in circa 1983/4, Devo became the most
popular act in Australia mainly due to their inspired videos for Whip It, Beautiful
World and Freedom Of Choice, all great tunes and all accounted for on this
compilation. Even better are the earlier
experimental numbers – their awesome reconstruction of The Rolling Stones’ (I
Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Jocko Homo, Smart Patrol/Mr DNA and Gut Feeling. Add this to other relatively more well known
material such as Gates Of Steeel, Girl U Want, Through Being Cool and their
reworking of Working In A Coalmine and
you have one unbeatable package.
Keyboards and odd instrumentation are very much to the fore which
spurred me on to:
(# 294) Roxy Music –
Roxy Music (1972)
Their debut album contained songs by fine arts university graduate
Bryan Ferry and unusual instrumentation courtesy of Andy Mackay’s oboe and synthesiser
that Brian Eno worked out how to play. This album seems to fit a definition of art
rock at least (at least in Devo terms) but, despite the at times unusual instrumentation, the songs have
stood the true test of time.
Re-make/Re-model, Ladytron, Viginia Plain and Sea Breezes are all bone
fide classics with the band eventually maturing in time to receive mass success
in much the same way as:
(# 295) Talking Heads
– More Songs About Buildings And Food (1978)
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Three of the four members of the band (leader David Byrne, his nemesis
Tina Weymouth and her husband Chris Franz) are graduates from the Rhode Island
School Of Design and on this, their second album, they roped in as producer one
Brian Eno. But aren’t they a punk/new
wave band? Anyway, this was the album
that really set them on their way to the big time, including their first substantial
hit, a marvellous version of Al Green’s Take Me To The River. The opener, Thank You For Sending Me An Angel
was still good enough years later to make it into the Stop Making Sense tour
and movie. The criminally underrated I’m
Not In Love was to provide the first hint of the rhythmic structures that were
to be unleashed on Remain In Light and other great tracks abound such as The
Girls Want To Be With The Girls, The Big Country and Artists Only.
And so am I any wiser?
Not really. All I can say is that
Art-Rock appears to be experimental music played by musicians with a background
in art which, therefore, must mean that Art-Punk is Art-Rock played by punks…………
……and which also goes some way to explaining why I hate
anything other than the broadest of genre titles.
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