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i mean i wasn't totally ignorant, i definitely had the issue of select magazine or whatever where bret had a painted-on shirt, and enjoyed it at the time. but hey the music of that period aged very well and the look did not at all.
― bene_gesserit, Sunday, 1 January 2012 04:57 (twelve years ago) link
Wow, I'd never heard the FSA version before - it's pretty good although I don't like the vocals so much. Shoegaze was *slightly* before my time as far as getting into indie goes so I never realised the links between it and britpop until much later. 'To the Birds' sounds totally shoegaze to me, for example.
― Gavin, Leeds, Sunday, 1 January 2012 13:32 (twelve years ago) link
I dunno, I'm still very fond of these bands "aesthetic choices" - especially Suede (my THOTS on Pulp's visual style are v tainted by my dislike of the band.)
Maybe that's just my age, that I'm the right age to have worn those kinds of clothes, both in the late 80s/early 90s from charity shops and back in the 70s as a child.
But that is kind of part of the whole aesthetic - that it's not just a nostalgic harkening back to childhood fashions of the 70s, but also deeply tied in with the lifestyle - and a lifestyle born of need, rather than choice. Because that late 80s/early 90s jumble sale aesthetic was partly a conscious choice of rejection of the Thatcherite glitz that had gone before. But also *that* 70s clobber was what was in charity shops at the time, when thrifting was what you did because you had no money and you still wanted to dress stylishly, rather than a conscious aesthetic (which it became after these bands were successful and shops started selling new stuff based on a jumble sale aesthetic.)
That Suede/Pulp kind of clothing aesthetic was mirrored in what happened in the US with the whole "Grunge Chic" thing - that very very weird thing of, bands dressed that way (ripped jeans, flannel shirts) because they had no money, then suddenly "Grunge Chic" was on sale in Macy's. And "Thrifing" became something you did because you were hip, not because you were poor.
It's odd because it's kind of a disappearing option - the proliferation of ultra-cheap Primark type clothes means that if you only have £5 to spend on a shirt, the choice is something new at Primark rather than a second hand shop or jumble sale. But it's kind of disheartening to see the quality of clothes declining in charity shops, obviously partly because of the proliferation of "Vintage" merchants on eBay etc grab them first, but also because Primark/Peacock stuff falls to pieces after being worn twice, and doesn't really get passed on to charity shops. That, now, to look at a bunch of people prancing around in vintage clobber like that gets an "ugh, hipsters" reaction, while at the time that aesthetic choice had a very different meaning, about class/money and aspiration or rejection of aspirational lifestyles.
In that way, I find watching the aesthetic of Suede / Pulp videos really a bit like a window into a world that has vanished, when the reasons that it existed in the first place, and the reasons that it's vanishing, are really quite interesting.
― Kurun a Spern (Fotherington Thomas), Sunday, 1 January 2012 13:52 (twelve years ago) link
He can't be an architect, he doesn't have Interesting Glasses. Tho poor Suede, Justine's dad saddling them with architect jokes for life.
I'm gonna dig out Sci Fi Lullabies and play Suede b-side bingo
― Kurun a Spern (Fotherington Thomas), Sunday, 1 January 2012 14:58 (twelve years ago) link
two weeks pass...