Beer & Blah

Guitar music for the second half of this decade has been dominated, for better or for worse, by matter-of-fact rock. A celebration and critique of the everyday, it may be argued that Friday-night-fight indie is a continuation of Britpop’s island view.

This music, though a brazen view of the now, is strangely apolitical. Perhaps I view the past through a kaleidoscope of affirmation but popular music seemed to have a message in times past.

They say to write what you know and to apportion blame to musicians for the general political apathy seems unfair. Up until the summer of 2008 these were boom times. It is hard to foster anger with food in your belly and money in your pocket.

Maybe we will see a return to music with bite and cause over the course of the year but, for the mean time, it seems that scene-of-the-street reporting is infiltrating the burgeoning synth-pop realm. The influence of The Streets as well as the streets should also be noted.

To pick Man Like Me as an example in this overall negative post is quite harsh as “9 Lives” is still a ruddy catchy pop tune with wit and swagger that lingers in the mind for an age.

mp3 ---> Man Like Me – 9 Lives (via box.net)