Irony is a dead scene

If it's undiplomatic to mention them how can you back up your case? I can see your point to an extent but surely it needs illustrating...

Hmmm. I see what you're saying of course, but you seem to be disparaging any kind of dialogue on this at all. I think it's quite useful to try and pin down how certain attitudes are formed within my 'peer group' of music people / hipster / scenester / writer / friendster / whatever-sters.

^not to be taken 100% seriously... it was just an attempt to draw an end to the whole silly debate

Some people are afraid of simply stating that they like something that is considered shit. Sci-fi geeks are laughed at for their love yet they at least are honest enough to admit that shonky Doctor Who sets really get their brain flowing. At university, it was my first real meeting with people who loved Wham! The same club on a Thursday with its usual mix selection CD. I remember how some people back home loved Wham! because they were shit. One of my friends loves them because he genuinely loves the music. But then I met a whole mass of people who danced to Wham! because they genuinely loved the music and genuinely loved pretending it was shit and awful and tacky. I christened this 'post irony': you've got over the ironic dancing stage and now you're dancing for two reasons, not one. I'm sure anyone who watches Celebrity Love Island exhibits post-irony on a nightly basis. I don't think certain London-based musical magazines suffer from post irony, they're just scared of actually being open and saying that they still listen to Tanita Tikaram.

It seems that now it's hard to win within the mainstream. Praise something that's obscure and you're seen as some indieschmindie shitebag with a chip on your shoulder. Praise somethign that sells bucketloads and you're seen as Coldplay's MOR brother. Writing record reviews and liking music will always involve the social elements of the time, it might involve the politics of the band, the social framework they fit in, all manner of things. It would have been impossible to write a review of Never Mind The Bollocks without the political and social considerations because they were an integral part of the music. The problem is when you allow social convention and considerations to dictate to you what you like and what you write. Imagine a world where record reviews were written purely analysing the music

I agree with the opinion above that said we never truly fall in love with the music, there's always other elements. My first real musical love was the Boo Radleys circa Giant Steps, watching them play 'Lazarus' at Glastonbury opened something in my head which continued to expand when I bought the album. I then started reading NME and found out that I loved Martin Carr's worldview, I liked the fact that he was a sad, happy man who liked a pint and got upset about missing his friends. It wasn't a cool thing so much as he felt like the sort of guy you could be friends with, not some aloof Jagger-style rock star or a freak like Lou Reed. Indeed, I've rarely got into people that do feel aloof, Dylan is the only one I can think of offhand and my love of him is strictly based on the music and the lyrics. I sued to love the Manics but th emusic became insipid: the same with Oasis. Two bands I loved and adored are now nothing to me in terms of present output. I still think Liam is funny and cool in some twisted way, the same with Noel, yet the music dies and they die in my eyes and in my ears.

!!!!!

jesus.

i am absolutely speechless for possibly the first time in my life.