Whilst both then and now I have considerable criticism of Harrington’s philosophies, I still understand his music perspectives. Once one has a serious listen to the music of the 1960s and 1970s before I was born, one sees it has the same rhythms as even the least-disrespected music from my childhood.
It was the growth of grunge, which I utterly detested and detest as tuneless noise, which led to criticism on a wide scale of commercial music from the 1980s – my staple listening until the 2000s. I was rather faintly aware of this 1990s perspective before reading Harrington and David Keenan, whose 2003 The Best Albums Ever...Honest reinforced my new knowledge slowly but surely over the following few years.
What was new about Harrington and Keenan was how they exposed the commercial music of the 1990s as they did that of the 1980s. They showed there was nothing new in acclaimed bands like Oasis, Blur, Nirvana, Pavement or even Radiohead – and I can say I never dissent from such a perspective.
Yesterday I saw for the first time a new “worst albums” list from Flavorwire, a webzine I have not known before. It was written by Tom Hawking, actually form Australia and the webzine’s editor until recently changing to deputy editor. The full list is:
- Who Needs Guitars Anyway?; Alice Deejay
- Anthology; Alien Ant Farm
- About That Life; Attila (not Billy Joel’s high school band)
- The E.N.D; The Black Eyed Peas
- Enema of the State; blink-182
- I’m Not a Fan, But the Kids Like It!; brokenCYDE
- Merry Christmas; Mariah Carey
- Cut the ****; The Clash
- No Jacket Required; Phil Collins
- Scream; Chris Cornell
- To the Faithful Departed; The Cranberries
- Human Clay; Creed
- Sinner; Drowning Pool
- Saved; Bob Dylan
- The Eagles, generally
- We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic; Foxygen
- Terrapin Station; The Grateful Dead
- American Idiot; Green Day
- Yes, Please; Happy Mondays
- Primitive Cool; Mick Jagger
- Magna Carta (Holy Grail); Jay Z
- Shine On; Jet
- River of Dreams; Billy Joel
- Cracked Rear View; Hootie and the Blowfish
- Standing in the Spotlight; Dee Dee King
- Lick It Up; KISS
- Peasants, Pigs and Astronauts; Kula Shaker
- ARTPOP; Lady Gaga
- You Can’t Stop the Bum Rush; Len
- The Libertines; The Libertines
- Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog-Flavored Water; Limp Bizkit
- Hybrid Theory; Linkin Park
- Secret Samadhi; Live
- St. Anger; Metallica
- How I Learned to Stop Giving a **** and Love Mindless Self Indulgence; Mindless Self Indulgence
- Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie; Alanis Morissette
- Mr. Blobby – The Album; Mr. Blobby
- Nastradamus; Nas
- All the Right Reasons; Nickelback
- Born Again; The Notorious B.I.G.
- Be Here Now; Oasis
- Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper; Julian Plenti
- Come Clean; Puddle of Mudd
- Their Satanic Majesties Request; Rolling Stones
- x; Ed Sheeran
- Come On Over; Shania Twain
- Thirty Seconds to Mars; Thirty Seconds to Mars
- Woodstock 1999; various artists
- Raditude; Weezer
- The Most Wonderful Time of the Year; Scott Weiland
That leaves forty-three recordings from the last twenty years of the worst fifty – an indication that the culture of the Enriched World has lost the creativity it had between the 1960s and the early 1990s, even as its people aspire for more and more individualism. What this does suggest is that art and commerce are in general as far apart as ever, and that “art ” is very remote from “commerce” as people struggle with increased international economic competition and political systems that may encourage mediocrity or worse via their egalitarianism, besides perhaps leaving the more “feeling” types to concentrate on upbeat, conventional music. Harrington and Keenen admit such a decline but never relate it to cultural norms, which is something that perhaps could be done.
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