Let’s try again: blogger just ate a massive post where I discussed Fred‘s excellent commentary on the English Tape. In summary:
1. Tape not a summation of what it is to be English, but of how pop has approached the qn.
2. Side 1 is the Q-[…]

Title For Your Purity Test: “a new culture that seems to have exploded in the recent years” – lazy semi-literate tat, jealous of youth, same old jokes since 1992, etc. I’m just annoyed because I only got 13% or so, which isn&#[…]

Giorgio Moroder 1978 interview: Part 1 “Are we really the robo-men-machines of Kraftwerk’s ‘The Robots’ (and, if so, then why aren’t we purchasing their product?) or do we just want to dance?” – fascinating i[…]

Hip Hop Article Directory: Says it all, really. I’ve not got time to look through it but this looks like a really fascinating resource. It’s interesting that a genre comparatively neglected on the web (count the sales of hip-hop albums an[…]

THE ENGLISH TAPE, SIDE 1 TRACK 12
BLUR – ‘This Is A Low’ (from the album Parklife)
You might hear something broader and deeper, but I hear in Blur’s best ballad a song about drinking and sadness, late nights alone with a coupl[…]

THE ENGLISH TAPE, SIDE 1 TRACK 11
THE SMITHS – ‘The Queen Is Dead’ (from the album The Queen Is Dead)
Maybe it’s even their finest hour: a six-minute state-of-the-nation address which bounces from Royal-baiting wit to just pla[…]

GUNS ‘N’ ROSES – Paradise City(from the album Appetite For Destruction)
Well, first of all, this hip-hop thing. Josh was asking about why we can’t look for a middle ground of conscious lyrics with fantastic production. The pro[…]

Online music sites make chart entry: and still looting the Guardian’s website, a not-actually-that-interesting story about how online sales are to be included in the Top 40, which I blog because I’m anal about the charts.[…]

Outraged Israel disowns daring Eurovision entry: and also from the Guardian, the latest top Eurovision news.[…]

Were the Sex Pistols to blame for Thatcher?: necessarily quick piece, it being the Guardian, on the Pistols, which makes two very good points. One – implied rather than made – the Pistols were a glam band and judged as such are excellent.[…]