(Credits: Far Out / Matt Crockett)
As a child of the noughties, I perhaps grew up in the truly trashiest era of pop music.
Like a musical oligarch, Simon Cowell was hellbent on wheeling out whatever commercial product he could, as long as they looked like human versions of action figures that could cry on demand when singing a stripped-back version of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’.
X Factor and all of the off-chute talent shows that came from it were truly the plague of modern entertainment. There was truly nothing artistic about any of it, and it brainwashed large parts of the public into misunderstanding what the true greatness of music was. This show and all of its evil counterparts, missold the idea that music was solely about having a good voice.
History has proven otherwise, hasn’t it? Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Björk have all proven that vocal nuance is more compelling than vocal perfection, especially if it’s framed within the wider delivery of something deeply artistic.
And in the face of baseless bubblegum pop, these artists become more important than ever. During the Cowell years, we had Arctic Monkeys and the remaining depths of indie sleaze. But in the 1990s, when pre-X Factor demons like Westlife, N Sync and Boyzone ruled the roost, real music fans had the warm embrace of Oasis to run to: The ultimate anti-pop band.
Nevertheless, Oasis were subjected to sharing the same hallways as these pop behemoths. In the 1990s, the legendary TV show Top of the Pops was in its pomp and while its miming methodology was mostly adopted by chart toppers, who could seamlessly feign the sort of performance necessary for its stage, the Mancunian brothers were invited to play.
They famously ridiculed the entire premise of the show during one iconic performance, where Noel and Liam Gallagher swapped roles, to highlight the ridiculousness of the show’s fake performances. It was a veiled attack at commercial pop in general, an attack later backed up by Noel Gallagher, who provided a scathing take on two of the decade’s biggest boy bands.
The notoriously hard-to-please musician said, “The boy bands of the day, such as Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran, could all play their instruments. It’s so far removed from the bands of today, like Westlife and Boyzone, who are utter shit. I am not a fan of Duran Duran or Spandau Ballet, but now there is pop music and alternative music, and there is nothing in between the two.”
Thankfully modern music has shifted from that monochromatic state. Pop music and alternative music have been blended more seamlessly in the modern landscape, Bands like Tame Impala and The 1975 have spent the post-Cowell years blurring the lines between pop and indie sensibilities, exploring multiple genres in the process.
Rather ironically, the fact that Gallagher has publicly slammed the two aforementioned bands in recent years, simply labelling The 1975 as “fucking shit” and a band who are “certainly not rock”. Isn’t that the point, though, Noel, building a bridge between two, as you wished?
Related Topics
