OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

That was more of a hipster thing, though, right? In the 80s, we still had radio stations that played this stuff. Sitcom themes were sung by Johnny Mathis instead of Barenaked Ladies. "Feelings" was a song that everyone knew. Someone who wants that world back is still waiting. Even the adult contemporary chart is now topped by people like Maroon 5 and Post Malone; there's not even a Celine Dion. (Maybe Adele??)

That said, I have a bunch of these records and I still prefer Hendrix (who I don't think was ever sold to me as 'what everyone listened to in the 60s').

That opening is stupid though. Obviously "nobody listened to Hendrix" is hyperbole, which fine I'm not that pedantic, but then saying it's anachronistic to play it over footage of protestors, presumably among the small minority of people who maybe actually did listen to Jimi (unless dude has never seen Woodstock?), makes you seem like a bullshitter in the Frankfurt sense.

Oh yeah, not saying the article is any good. Do non-Nrx people talk about 'Whig history' btw?

I've never heard that phrase.

what is NRX? In my line of work "Whig history" is definitely something people talk about.

Whig history is a standard designation in historiography ime

NRX = dark enlightenment

i.e., neo-reactionary

(I am also today literally working on Whig history, as in, history of the Whigs (well, of one prominent Whig in particularly, and of his Whigness, fwiw))

dark enlightenment? think I will stay away.

I feel like Mordy started a thread on it at some point, but maybe it was just a strand within the alt-right one?

yeah I don't touch that stuff

I also don't get the premise of the crate-digging revelation. Maybe he's not finding a lot of Hendrix records because everyone's hanging onto them(?)

Oh cool, thanks, genuinely didn't know it was a mainstream historical term. Yeah, you're fine staying away from NRx.

yeah I'm not a chart nerd, but this whole list seems like a solid refutation of the claim: https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1968-10-19

It's a shame about Land amidst other NRx stuff, because some of his earlier thought is really insightful. He allowed me to feel like I really understood Kant for the first time. The turn toward fascism, while not totally surprising in retrospect, is very disappointing.

https://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/The-Whig-Interpretation-of-History-300x460.jpg

"whig interpretation of history" is absolutely a milquetoast idea in the political analysis history, not something invented by or a gateway drug for the nrx

this is the classic text:
https://cdn.waterstones.com/bookjackets/large/9780/4137/9780413772701.jpg

correct

Yeah, completely believe it, not contesting that at all. Just a testament to my ignorance of political history scholarship that I came across it in the context of NRx guys who wanted to redpill the Whig version of history.

which tbf is what the easy listening guy wants to do

it's not actually a very good way to think about history!

ps i am not a nazi

mark s confirmed nazi, just as I suspected.

lots of questions already answered by mark s’s “i am not a nazi” t-shirt

mark s is the lead singer of Laibach.

eighteen thirty four, i took the whig party to war,

https://www.theringer.com/music/2020/10/1/21494313/radiohead-best-songs-ranked

Radiohead is immune to hyperbole. Many will say “Radiohead is the soundtrack to my life,” and those people aren’t wrong. Others will say “Radiohead is so boring. I don’t get it,” like Kid Rock did in 2001, and … well, who is going to argue Radiohead with the guy who wrote “Bawitdaba”? The fact is Radiohead is Radiohead, existing in its own musical world. Similar to predecessors like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and R.E.M., Radiohead has legions of fans, and endless cycles of rereleased, remastered, and reappraised albums. It’s with good reason. For the past 25 years, these five creeps have defined alternative rock.

The fact is Radiohead is Radiohead

For the past 25 years, these five creeps have defined alternative rock.

For the past 25 years, these five creeps have defined alternative rock.

For the past 25 years, these five creeps have defined alternative rock.

For the past 25 years, these five creeps have defined alternative rock.

For the past 25 years, these five creeps have defined alternative rock.

Christian suburbanites

The fact is Radiohead is Radiohead

where is the lie???

… well, who is going to argue Radiohead with the guy who wrote “Bawitdaba”?

Furthermore, I am me.

Anticipation for the OK Computer follow-up built a comparable head of buzz to Britney Spears doing it again, Eminem threatening moms, and Mystikal yelling, “Shake ya ass, but watch yourself.”

Just saw the author's name. What if this is all a ploy by the similarly named Icelandic band of Ágætis byrjun fame to dislodge their direct competitors in the annals?

https://www.cjnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Burning-Bush-Moses-Ten-Commandments-Movie.jpg

Radiohead is that Radiohead is

head of buzz to Britney Spears

gonna start a radiohead / cure mashup cover band and call it "these five imaginary creeps." we need a singer and a bass player, who's in?

The fact is Radiohead is Radiohead

He uses the same, um, rhetorical device just a few paragraphs later

Radiohead released their seventh album straight to fans, famously using a pay-what-you-want model. The move pissed off Trent Reznor, who then realized he was Trent Reznor and used a similar tactic for his next two Nine Inch Nails albums.

Similar to predecessors like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and R.E.M.,

Where "predecessors" = "groups of white dudes who released records in the 20th Century," I guess?

Because I am not sure in what precise ways Radiohead is the successor to those bands.

And, if the criterion is simply "people who made music before Radiohead did," well, that's a pretty broad category that would, presumably, also include Mozart, Percy Faith, and GWAR.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mathonan/radiohead-kid-a-20th-anniversary

As you might expect, because I am a white Gen X’er bro in my late forties who was not cool enough to be familiar with Aphex Twin but was hip enough to shit all over U2, I really like Radiohead’s Kid A — which came out 20 years ago this week.

It’s easy to forget just how good things seemed back in October 2000. The prevailing mood was one of optimism. The Cold War was over. The Supreme Court had not yet handed a contested election to George W. Bush. The 9/11 attacks were a year away. Climate change still seemed like a distant concern. The economy was in the midst of the dot-com boom/bubble. The internet was going to bring us all together in a marketplace of ideas, make the world a better place. Handjobs all around. And in the middle of all that, Radiohead rolled out Kid A.

(...)

The planet is dying, there’s a pandemic that’s killed a million people and counting, cops are still killing Black people, the country is being rent apart by racism and hate, it’s red state versus blue state, California is literally on fire, and did you even see the fucking debate? Did you see it? Jesus. Talk about “Idioteque.”

Radiohead’s Kid A — which came out 20 years ago this week

just staring at this realizing I’ve lived more post-Kid A than pre-Kid A life and drafting my thinkpiece on what that means

not cool enough to be familiar with Aphex Twin but was hip enough to shit all over U2

He's the "BuzzFeed News San Francisco Bureau Chief"

I’ve been a chief, this guy ain’t no chief of nothin

Tombot knew Jack Kennedy. Tomboy served with Jack Kennedy.

Crud, Tombot, sorry

It’s easy to forget just how good things seemed back in October 2000. The prevailing mood was one of optimism.

Ha ha what the fuck

i remember my October 2000 "Everything's Going Great!" party well

Hahahaha @ “The Cold War was over”

That happened like a decade earlier. You might as well say people were excited about Madchester bands