Pixies, top 50 moments in pop ever, Napster, sponsored wank-a-thon and The Darkness...
Intro...
Welcome to today’s slice of stuff. Read on to learn about what the The Guardian reckon are the top 50 moments in pop ever, the return of Napster, a sponsored wank-a-thon and news on the next album from The Darkness. But first up your chance to have your opinion heard...
Where is my mind?
So come on then, spill the beans...what is your favourite Pixies song of all time? One of the more obvious tracks like ‘Here Comes Your Man’, ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’ or ‘Allison’? Maybe you think that ‘Motorway To Roswell’ from the ‘Trompe Le Monde’ is the dogs bollocks.
Now you have a chance to tell the world what you think. The NME is asking you lot to email them with your favourite song and to tell why you chose it. A top 20 list will appear in the magazine and on their website in the near future.
Send your entries - with the subject Pixies - to news@nme.com right now.
50 of the best...
The Guardian newspaper has took it upon itself to list the 50 most defining moments in 50 years of pop. They are braver than I am.
No doubt there will be hundreds of bands/records/events/ that you think should be mentioned (there is no mention of U2, Pixies or even Ugly Kid Joe for fuck sake) but they are the ones sticking their necks on the block.
Here is a few that stood out for me:
1954 - Elvis Presley records 'That's All Right Mama' at Sun Studios, Memphis
Rock'n'roll's big bang. A 19-year-old truck driver fulfils producer Sam Phillips's dream of finding 'a white guy who sings like a Negro'. There were rock'n'roll records before this one, nearly all of them by black artists, but this is the moment when the embryonic form found its perfect embodiment.
1964 - The Beatles take America
Already the most popular pop group in Europe, the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan's television show in early 1964. The following month, 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' shot to the top of the US charts, swiftly followed by their four previous singles. In March 1964, they occupied the top five chart positions in America. Beatlemania was born.
1965 - The Who: 'My Generation'
The Who were the most aggressive - and the artiest - British pop group of the mid-Sixties. Pete Townsend dressed in Union Jack suits, smashed his guitar and wrote songs that perfectly caught the rising tide of teen frustration. The stuttered teen snarl of 'My Generation' remains one of the key moments in British pop, and the most potent evocation of Mod elitism and amphetamine-fuelled aggression ever committed to vinyl.
1966 - Brian Wilson makes Pet Sounds
While the rest of the Beach Boys toured their greatest hits, Brian Wilson stayed at home in his studio and created pop's enduring masterpiece - and his swansong. Sad songs tied to the most intricate arrangements, it baffled the rest of the band though their vocal harmonising has never sounded so sublime. It was followed by 'Good Vibrations’, which still sounds as close to perfection as a pop single has ever come.
1969 - Jimi Hendrix Plays 'The Star Spangled Banner' at the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock, which attracted half-a-million rock fans, was the most dramatic mass flowering of the hippy ideal and, as with all defining moments, the beginning of the end of that same ideal. Hendrix's startling assault on the American national anthem was interpreted at the time as a political statement against the Vietnam war but in retrospect can be read as a swan song for the era of peace and love, and for Hendrix himself. He died in his sleep the following year.
1972 - David Bowie creates Ziggy Stardust
In January, Bowie told an interviewer: 'I'm gay, and always have been.' Whatever the truth of the statement, it announced the imminent arrival of his androgynous alter ego, unveiled the following June on Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars . The first of Bowie s many exotic personae, and the moment that launched glam rock. Perhaps the most influential album of the decade.
1975 - Bob Marley & the Wailers: 'No Woman, No Cry' released
Bob Marley & the Wailers' first hit single, and the beginning of Marley s reign as an international reggae star. As important a catalyst as Dylan or Lennon, he remains the only reggae artist to achieve iconic status. His death in 1981 robbed the music of its one and only global icon.
1977 - Saturday Night Fever goes on general release
Travolta and the Bee Gees bring disco overground. The film, though cack-handed and corny in its evocation of New York s downtown disco scene, propelled a struggling white actor and an unhip vocal group into the forefront of a global dance phenomenon. The biggest-selling soundtrack ever.
1977 - 'God Save the Queen' goes to 'Number One'
The last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium, and punk's crowning glory. Released at the height of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations, the Sex Pistols' single was deemed so unspeakable that workers in a record plant refused to press it and official chart compilers refused to acknowledge its chart-topping position. It sounds gloriously irreverent now; back then it was nothing short of incendiary.
1980 - The murder of John Lennon
Mark Chapman's shooting of John Lennon on the doorstep of the star's New York home shocked the world. That Chapman was a fan, and someone who craved celebrity himself, only added to the chilling unreality of the moment. 'The world is not like the Sixties,' Lennon said in the last interview before his death. 'The world has changed.' The first, and most chilling, manifestation of the dark side of our obsession with celebrity.
1981 - 'Ghost Town' goes to Number One
The Specials were the last and greatest flowering of the socially conscious pop that emerged in Britain in the immediate wake of punk. They invented the short-lived but vibrant Two Tone movement, whose merging of reggae rhythms and punk lyricism reflected the multiculturalism of urban Britain. 'Ghost Town' was a lament for their beleaguered hometown, Coventry; an anti-Thatcherist song that topped the pop charts at the very moment the country was torn by inner-city riots. Pop as on-the-spot reportage.
1981 - Grandmaster Flash's 'Adventures on the Wheels of Steel' is released
Rap's first landmark single, and the first record to use samples. Snippets of songs by Queen, Blondie and Chic were collaged into one long seamless groove by DJ Flash. 'The Message', released the following year, was a chart hit on both sides of the Atlantic, and broke new ground by replacing the usual lyrical boasting with trenchant social commentary.
1981 - The launch of MTV
The pivotal moment when the pop video became as important as the pop single. The first television channel devoted totally to music, MTV has grown into a global brand as all-pervasive as Coca-Cola or Nike, colonising and dulling the collective pop consciousness with the tyranny of the rotation play.
1982 - Michael Jackson: Thriller released
The biggest-selling pop record of all time, Thriller made Michael Jackson a global icon. Then only 25, he had made his debut at the age of four and had his first hit at 12 sharing the charts with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and the Doors, and was already the subject of much media speculation concerning his eternal childhood. In the light of all that has happened since, it is worth remembering that he was once a pop genius.
1983 - The Smiths: 'This Charming Man'
Their second single and first hit, 'This Charming Man' had a signature sound that would establish the Smiths as the most important British group of the Eighties. Johnny Marr's chiming guitar and Morrissey's odd, genderless lyrics combined to give a new spin to what was essentially a classic rock sound. Quintessentially English, they single-handedly reclaimed guitar pop in a decade when it had almost been consigned to the dustbin of history.
1983 - New Order: 'Blue Monday'
A pivotal moment in British pop, and the best-selling British 12-inch single ever. New Order were the first indie band to absorb the technical innovations of American dance music. 'Blue Monday' merged their trademark detached vocals with a futuristic, computer-driven beat that harked back to disco, and had a huge influence on the sample-driven hip hop and house music that would emerge from New York, Chicago and Detroit later in the decade.
1985 - Live Aid
A great moment for charity, a dreadful moment for pop. Two all-star concerts organised by Saint Bob Geldof and beamed live into millions of homes worldwide, the event raised £50 million for charity. One of the greatest philanthropic events of all time, but the moment when pop became enshrined as pure showbiz entertainment.
1988 - Madchester and the second summer of love
The moment that dance culture moved from the clubs of Chicago and Detroit into the heart of British pop culture and the beginning of the era of the superstar DJ. Clubs such as London's Shoom and Manchester's Hacienda became the new temples of ecstasy-fuelled hedonism, and by the summer illegal raves were attracting druggy revellers in their thousands. Manchester became the centre of post-rave British pop, producing the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, two of the most crucial bands to emerge from the post-acid house scene.
1988 - NWA: 'Fuck tha Police'
The birth of gangsta rap. A record so extreme it was banned by radio and MTV and brought the record company, Ruthless, a warning from the FBI. It kick-started the career of Dr Dre, the most successful rap producer ever, and made Los Angeles rather than New York the centre of hip hop. The machismo and nihilism that fed this record reached an apogee of sorts with the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.
1992 - Nirvana: 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
The single that catapulted Nirvana into the mainstream. A heady mix of metal and punk, with a structural dynamic that alternated Cobain's whisper with his guttural scream, it said all there was to say about America's lost 'Generation X', defining a strain of solipsistic angst that continues to echo through white American rock music.
2000 - The birth of Napster
A word that still strikes fear into the heart of music business fat cats. Launched by 19-year-old Shawn Fanning from his uncle's garage, Napster was the download service that provided free music to an estimated 100 million users in 2000. Now legal, downloading marks the end of traditional music formats as we know them.
The complete list can be found here .
Pay to play...
And speaking of Napster (the fall guy for every downloaded song in the world EVER) they are back in business this time legitimately. The company was shut down in 2001 after a judge in America decided that it was guilty of copyright infringement for letting its 60 million users swap music files for free.
The company was taken over by Roxio and went legit. Napster relaunched last October as a pay-per-download service in a similar fashion to Apple’s highly successful iTunes and the cash has been rolling in ever since. The company announced first quarter sales of more than £3.4 million in the US.
The success in the states has paved the way for an expansion to the UK this summer with some serious backing. The Dixons Group have decided to back the project and are planning to hype the shit out of their new baby with blank CD’s and all manner of assorted crap.
There is no mention of the cost of each downloaded song but you can bet that we will get ripped off something chronic. In the US individual songs retail for 99 cents (£0.53) with full albums for around $10 (£5.33) so expect to pay the equivalent of the Argentinean national debt for a low quality album track. Bastards...
Oi wanker, they need you!
Are you busy on the 15th of May? Fancy doing some rewarding work for charity? How about signing up for the 2004 Masturbate-a-thon! I shit you not! National Masturbation Month was started by Good Vibrations (they promote sexual health) when they wanted to highlight the importance of masturbation for nearly everyone.
This is the tenth year of celebrating with a pledge drive - it's like a Walk-A-Thon, only a lot different. Participants ask friends and loved ones to sponsor them for a certain amount of money for every minute they masturbate during the Masturbate-A-Thon Weekend.
Some facts and figures:
The first Masturbate-A-Thon raised $8500!
Over the past ten years participants have raised over $25,000
Number of Masturbate-A-Thon pledge forms distributed since 1998: 65,000
Number of people who participated (those who returned pledge forms with money): 1,570
Number of countries with Masturbate-A-Thon participants: 6
Largest amount raised by an individual: $1,000
Longest time recorded by a participant in the Masturbate-A-Thon: 6 hours, 15 minutes
Total amount of money collected since 1998 through the Masturbate-A-Thon: $25,000
Number of television, print and radio interviews conducted regarding Masturbation Month: 375
Number of Masturbate-A-Thon winners who have conducted interviews about their experience: 3
Wanna know more? Follow this link.
Stupid mutt...
After the massive success of ‘Permission To Land’ The Darkness hope to make the joke last that bit longer by enlisting producer Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange to help knock out their second album.
‘Mr Shania’ has worked with the mighty AC/DC and Def Leppard as well as the shitey Bryan Adams and foreigner. The band and their fans hope that Mutt can make the Lowestoft rockers next long player even more successful than their debut.
Don’t be surprised if there is a Meatloaf/Cher-esque collaboration on the new album with miserable little fucker Avril Lavigne. Little Miss Moody has announced that she wants to record with the lycra clad beauts.
Lavigne said: "The Darkness are incredible. Their power is breathtaking and they are the one band in the world I now want to record with. I just can't stop singing their songs."
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