Lazer Crystal is a trio from Chicago doing this new fangled electro/synth/pop stuff fueled by the resurrection of 80s electronic music. But they are more than just band playing old Roland Juno's on tape machines. The music sounds like a moog having sex with drum machine in the alley behind a video game arcade. The video looks like an Apple ][ getting high with a VCR in Andy Worhol's basement.
Lazer Crystal is more 80s than the 80s. This video is an excellent example their hyperreal 80s-ness. I am pretty sure the glorification of the 80s is intentional. This song is from their album MCMLXXX, the roman numerals for 1980. MCMLXXX is their first album, but a handful of the songs are from the EPs that came before. I love the song Hot Pink BMX and I play it everytime I DJ. Love Rhombus is a slower, gothier song. Check out their dancier stuff too.
On April 8, 2010, Malcolm McLaren died of mesothelioma. He has had a long career, primarily pulling strings behind the scenes. He managed some of punk rocks most important acts, The New York Dolls and The Sex Pistols, and some less important acts, Adam and the Ants and the splinter group Bow Wow Wow.
McLaren also had a music career, but only two albums Duck Rock and Waltz Darling really had an impact. McClaren's music is more along the lines of collage and collaboration than a solo act. He recruited artist and DJ's from the New York hip hop scene and combined their talents into a record.
While McClaren's music isn't particularly genius, it introduced several styles to mainstream music and culture. Here are two good examples:
Buffalo Gals is the first single off of Duck Rock and surely the most important song he released. Buffalo Gals introduce record scratching, live vinyl sampling, and the early stages of turntablism to the pop world. The video is a mash of early 80s New York street culture.
On Waltz Darling, McLaren's only number one hit ever was Deep in Vogue. Unseating Madonna's hit Express Yourself, the song was number one for only a week. Deep in Vogue introduced the world to the dance style of voguing. Oddly enough, Madonna would come back the next year and turn voguing into an international phenomenon with her music video for Vogue.
I will leave you with my favorite McLaren music video, a reinterpretation of the Puccini opera Madame Butterfly. Also influential, hints of this music video can be seen throughout Lady Gaga music videos.
Tony Cary has been music pretty much non-stop since the early 80's but he never really bit it big with anything. He was part of Ritchie Blackmore's band Rainbow and then went on to do his first solo album, from which this song is taken. This is perhaps his biggest hit.
The song isn't much to rave about, but the video is a good example of a storytelling video. The narrative of the song coincides with the video, including the characters lipsyncing lines from the song.
I like it because it is sort of like Mafia Brokeback Mountain.
Its April Fools Day and what better to celebrate than with Rick Astley and the greatest internet prank in history...RICK ROLLED!
The Rickroll started on the internet board 4chan in May 2007. A user named moot posted a link to the trailer for GTA4, which at the time was one of the most anticipated games. Interested users who clicked on the link were directed to the YouTube video of Never Gonna Give You Up and the Rick Roll was born.
Since then the prank phenomenon has spread. Everyone, from Scientology to local news to your grandmother has been rickrolled. In May 2008, YouTube linked every video on their homepage to the Rick Astley Video. After that people got wise to the trend and would recognize the link. To counter this, some enterprising young punk decided it would be a good idea to start hiding Rick Roll videos all over youtube. Hence the Covert Rick Roll was born.
The Covert Rick Roll videos take two forms. One version is just the Rick Astely video with a different name like "Anchorman 2 Trailer" or "Secrets from LOST revealed" or "Hot Lesbians Kissing." Anything to get you to click on the link. The other version is a split video. The first part of the video would be anything from kittens playing to the start of a strip tease. After 30 seconds or so, the video would then cut to Rick Astely.
Here is a good example of the Covert Rick Roll video cut-in: Speaker Pelosi Presents Capitol Cat Cam (Yes, this is the actual Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and she has a Rick Roll video on her YouTube account)
Covert Rick Roll videos are much harder to find now. They spread because people forwarded the link around, but once the chain broke, the video was lost. Who knows maybe there are people still out there looking for Anchorman 2 (which doesn't exist) and are getting Rick Rolled.
Today is my birthday and I am going to treat myself to my favorite video right now. I have been saving this one for a good day, like a fine bottle of fortified wine.
Full Force has some elements of the Boy Band model, but they are definitely not a Boy Band. Full Force is like a mixture between New Jack Swing and 80s hip hop. They had a short-lived record career, but their work behind scenes is extensive. They have been writing and producing music for three decades. The boys from Full Force have done work with Bob Dylan and Patti LaBelle in the 80s, Backstreet Boys and Selena in the 90s, Brittany Spears and the Black Eyed Peas in the 00s.
The video is ridiculous amazing. The stiff, tragically unhip white folks get a lesson from Shy Shy, Bowlegged Lou, Baby Gee and the rest of the gang. My fav is Curt-T-T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The best part of the song is wild synth at the end.
This is a time capsule of 1987 New York fashion. The hot Jheri Curls, the long-tasseled leather jackets, and don't miss the rockin' keytar. And Nike shoes the band are sporting are all the rage right now. They could pass for a post-ironic hipster throwback band and fit right into Look at that Fucking Hipster
While New Edition may be considered the first Boy Band, the template for the stereotypical Boy Bands to follow would be based on the New Kids on the Block. New Edition was sugary pop sweetness, but the New Kids on the Block were a young girl sensation.
They image was plastered all over teen magazines, Trapper Keepers, lunch boxes, T-Shirts, bed sheets, buttons, shoes, shoes laces, birthday cakes, tooth brushes, underwear, and just about anything you can put an image on. They were the band that every girl and some boys in second to seventh grade loved. You weren't cool if you didn't go to the NKOTB show when they came to your local civic center.
This video is from the height of their popularity as you can tell from all the screaming girls. They had already shot to the top with their first super single You Got It (The Right Stuff). Although it was just called The Right Stuff on the album, they changed the single because Vanessa Williams had a hit earlier that year with the same name.
The video and the song are emblematic of the cheesiness and narcissism of the Boy Band. Synchronized dance moves and thousands of girls screaming and begging just to closer to their favorite member. Donnie was the bad boy, Joey was the baby face, Jordan was the pretty boy, Danny was the ugly one, and Jonathan was the gay one.
The reign of the Boy Band craze of the 80s and 90s has its roots in bands in the throughout music history. The Jackson 5 for their synchronized dance and harmonies. The Monkees for their manufactured image and commercial sheen. Perhaps one of the first true Boy Bands was the Latino sensation Menudo, who famously dropped members when they got to old and replaced them with younger boys.
New Edition was perhaps one of the first American Boy Bands, even though the term Boy Band didn't exist until the 90s. They came to popularity with the song Candy Girl and released sugary pop hits for years. The band was led by Bobby Brown, who went on to a successful solo career.
When Bobby Brown left the band, New Edition went on to do less poppy music and were one of the progenitors of New Jack Swing. They recorded their most successful album Heart Break in 1987 and influenced the development of R&B styled Boy Band like Boys II Men and 4P.M. Some of the member later broke off to form the less successful Bel Biv DeVoe.
This song is bubblegum pop at its sweetest. It is fun and catchy. The influences of the Jackson 5, especially the song ABC are very apparent here.
Alex Chilton died today of a heart attack. You may not recognize his name, but you have heard his music. Throughout his nearly sixty year music career, he has not made a single music video, so his live performances will have to suffice.
Chilton started early. At 16 years old, he recorded international number one hit with his band the Box Tops. In a year that Beatles, The Doors, and Rolling Stones were dominating the charts, The Box Tops' first hit, The Letter, stayed number #1 for over a month, all while Chilton was still in high school. Here is a performance on an early music television show. Alex Chilton is the lead singer.
In the 70s, Chilton did some solo work and then joined a pop rock group called Big Star. They released two albums through an independent label called Stax. Unfortunately Stax had some distribution issues due to a failed contract signed with CBS and legal issues due to an owner being arrested for bank fraud charges. Eventually Stax went bankrupt and was bought out by another indie label called Fantasy records.
Unfortunately, Big Star was never really given a chance to become big stars (I am sure I am not the first to make that pun). Their first two albums were not widely promoted or distributed and their third album got shelved by the new label.
Four years later, the first two albums were re-released and the third album, called Third/Sister Lovers finally came out. Their popularity was ramping up and the third album got great reviews. But soon after the third album's release, unfortunate circumstances again set the band back. Founding member and long-time friend of Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, died in a freak car accident.
In 1993, the band reunited to play a set for spring music festival at the University of Missouri. The show was a success and the performance was released a live record. They toured for a year and disappeared once again.
Here is a song from that live show at the University of Missouri.
In 2005, Big Star released the final album. It was no record breaker, but it was good. In the recent years they stuck around. They had been playing more shows and festivals, releasing old albums and a box set. At least Big Star was beginning to get more widespread recognition for their contribution to music before Alex Chilton passed.
The music of Big Star has influenced several generations of music. REM claimed that Big Star was one of their biggest influences. Three decades of musicians from a range of genres have covered Big Star songs including Cheap Trick, The Bangles, This Mortal Coil, Garbage, Superdrag, Elliot Smith, and Wilco.
Big Star's most famous song is In the Street, even though most people have no idea that it is Big Star that wrote it. It was on their first album, but it didn't gain popularity until much later. Here is a clip of them singing it on The Tonight Show at the height of their stardom in 1993. You probably know the Cheap Trick cover version from the intro for That 70's Show.
I will leave you with a short piece from one of the most important music shows on MTV, 120 Minutes, back when MTV was relevant before it became a reality television network. Alex Chilton walks around a graveyard with an acoustic guitar, playing a bluesy song and two of his songs from The Box Tops.
Ninjas are always a great addition to a music video.
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" is a staple of 1980's music and high school anti-drug lock-ins. This is Bonnie Tylers only real hit. She some success with a couple of song on film soundtracks, but nothing matched the epic power of this song or the epic volume of her hair.
The song was written by Jim Steinmann, the genius songwriter behind Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell 1 & 2 including the twelve minute version of "I'd Do Anything for Love (but I won't do that)". Yes Meatloaf. Jim Steinmann has a habit of writing long epic hits.
Along with ballerina ninjas, this video features food fights and flying choir boys with glowing eyes. Its perfect. If this video doesn't make you happy, nothing will. (Witticism credit to Ani Loizzo)
