Brainrot

Whew! All that thinking has tired me out.

A few weeks ago, I searched around for the names of some of the bands that were popular (and which, yes, I liked) bet. 1982 and 89, which was my little flash of teenaged hipness. I was cool for about three years. It was sort of fun, but a lot of work. Gave it up quite promptly at the end of 1989.

Though at the end of the 70's people were starting to cheer up a bit - the oil crisis was over, the Iran hostages were back, international scene was a titch less scary - things hadn't gone too well towards the end of the 80's if I recall. People were starting to think that the whole pop-culture, sexual revolution thing wasn't going to work out after all. AIDS had started and I think we were feeling a bit overstuffed with nonsense. There was a feeling that things were not working out, that the Old World had failed, (and even if it hadn't it was gone anyway) and the revolution that swept it away was failing too. The hippie thing hadn't gone well, and it was the time when the hippies were becoming the boomers and buying up all the properties on the Gulf Islands, getting BMW's and generaly selling out what they had said were their "ideals". The younger folk, their kids, were a bit disgusted with them.

What was left? Artificiality, synth-pop, embracing of fantasies and drugs. (Hooo boy! There were drugs! I think nearly everyone I knew tried cocaine at least once before the end of their first year in university.) It was the hop n' bop life to keep you as distracted as possible from the creeping fear that things are not what they seem to be, that things are not going the way our parents had told us they would. Dark rumours were being whispered, and we were nervous. It was still the Cold War and we were just kids whose parents had told us to "visualize world peace."

We knew it wasn't going to work.

I remember it was about then that the X-Files started too and I thought that it was popular because everyone more or less knew that something was going on behind everyone's backs.

Looking back on the favoured distractions of that time, I'm astonished by two things: how much I still like the music just as music, and how utterly risible the videos were. I think we thought there was something in the whole thing that meant something and that the videos were supposed to be about that. Turns out it was just the beat.

I am happy to report that I seem to recall thinking at the time that the videos were dumb. Does the music industry still do rock videos? Do they allow the musicians to act in them? 'Cause I think we learned that it isn't a very good idea.

Time for a little brazen nostalgia. (This is for you, Jeff.)



Peter Gabriel holds up pretty well I think:




Oh my goodness! The hair! Oh dear...