The Mighty Musical Observations Thread

[Dr. Medulla]

You have to have the will and the energy to be as big as Sabrina Carpenter and most rock bands have taken in the punkish indieish belief that working towards a stadium show is a sell out. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but it's an attitude that means that pop can ascend.

Which has always been one of the characteristics of rockism—mass success alone is problematic. It needs to be accompanied by something else to be authentic, to be better than pop. The punk/indie extreme of things goes the folk route and declares mass success as proof of inauthenticity (to succeed quantitatively is to fail qualitatively). Rock that still wants mass success uses all kinds of other criteria to prove it superior to pop, notably writing their own music. I obviously lean hard to the punk side of things, but think overall it's kinda silly.

[revbob]

It's the same thing with the Super Bowl halftime show every year. There is a vocal group who wants to know why they can't have a rock band do the show and my mental response is always what rock band could do it without it being a legacy act? I can't think of one big enough. I don't think rock is dead, but I think we've moved on from when rock was the unchallenged king of popular music.

I do want to clarify that I think there is plenty of good, original, inspired rock music still being made. But it's definitely more obscure.

Thank you because I could easily put together a lineup of established and up and coming or obscure acts, which is what it started out as. It like a lot of festivals was not for the normies. Janes Addiction was obviously the headliner the first year and they were big but I dont think they were as big outside of the "alternative scene".

[Flex]

A punkservation: Relistening to The Good, The Bad and the 4-Skins for the first time in a minute and goddamned that's gotta be a sneaky candidate for a top 10 punk record for me. Just a bit more melodic than the average oi record but still plenty of grit and gravel. A few real hooks to go along with the muscular street punk. And the half studio/half live format that this and a few other records (The Partisans!) were doing at the time is a great balance. And A.C.A.B. is one of the best hardcore songs ever written, which is why it's been covered by seemingly basically every hardcore band I enjoy listening to.

[revbob]

This is what Lolla would have had bacin the day, should have, and apparently does now, but more

[revbob]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... d-deported

Members of British punk rock band UK Subs denied entry into the US

[Dr. Medulla]

Part 1 of my buddy Will's interview with TMBG: https://www.avclub.com/they-might-be-gi ... lets-start

edit: And here's part 2: https://www.avclub.com/they-might-be-gi ... boss-of-me

[revbob]

[Dr. Medulla]

Yeah, whatever, Boomer, I let an algorithm pick my music for me, one song at a time.

[JennyB]

Part 1 of my buddy Will's interview with TMBG: https://www.avclub.com/they-might-be-gi ... lets-start

edit: And here's part 2: https://www.avclub.com/they-might-be-gi ... boss-of-me

I read this earlier today. Nice work!

[revbob]

[revbob]

Napster is still a thing?

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/03/25/nap ... lion-.html

[Dr. Medulla]

Napster is still a thing?

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/03/25/nap ... lion-.html

It hasn't been Napster Napster in about two decades. Bizarre that anyone thinks the name has any value anymore, let alone $200M. I do a lecture on digital/file sharing and I'd wager well over half the students have never heard of Napster until I explain its origins.

[Dr. Medulla]

On the DK logo:

However, the sharp-edged black being embossed with white shadowing, combined with the circular shape of the red background, is also reminiscent of a very different political symbol. It is clearly a nod to the Nazi swastika, a symbol the punk rock movement has consistently flirted with since it began.

You can’t get more controversial than Nazi iconography. Yet, in the case of the Dead Kennedys, it was in keeping with the frequent allusions to Nazism in their songs. They satirised the American establishment of the late 1970s and early 1980s by pushing the politics of the ruling elite to what they saw as its logical extreme – outright fascism. Their own political stance couldn’t have been further from such a position.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/meaning-de ... band-logo/

Am I really out to lunch that I've never seen the logo as Nazi satire?

[Flex]

On the DK logo:

However, the sharp-edged black being embossed with white shadowing, combined with the circular shape of the red background, is also reminiscent of a very different political symbol. It is clearly a nod to the Nazi swastika, a symbol the punk rock movement has consistently flirted with since it began.

You can’t get more controversial than Nazi iconography. Yet, in the case of the Dead Kennedys, it was in keeping with the frequent allusions to Nazism in their songs. They satirised the American establishment of the late 1970s and early 1980s by pushing the politics of the ruling elite to what they saw as its logical extreme – outright fascism. Their own political stance couldn’t have been further from such a position.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/meaning-de ... band-logo/

Am I really out to lunch that I've never seen the logo as Nazi satire?

It's got a sort of authoritarian type vibe to it but, no, I also never clocked it as specifically a swastika parody. Certainly not as clear and obvious as the article suggests, anyways.

[revbob]

On the DK logo:

However, the sharp-edged black being embossed with white shadowing, combined with the circular shape of the red background, is also reminiscent of a very different political symbol. It is clearly a nod to the Nazi swastika, a symbol the punk rock movement has consistently flirted with since it began.

You can’t get more controversial than Nazi iconography. Yet, in the case of the Dead Kennedys, it was in keeping with the frequent allusions to Nazism in their songs. They satirised the American establishment of the late 1970s and early 1980s by pushing the politics of the ruling elite to what they saw as its logical extreme – outright fascism. Their own political stance couldn’t have been further from such a position.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/meaning-de ... band-logo/

Am I really out to lunch that I've never seen the logo as Nazi satire?

No, not for this anyway