Crusty RMI guy
2003-11-23 02:38:42 UTC
Hello all, haven't popped my head in these well-worn stomping grounds in years!
It's a virtual ghost town around here. I noticed Skinny Puppy exists again,
an event which would've occurred off my radar if I hadn't popped in on a whim!
So really, its all over then isn't it. Like the Rubettes, a onetime leading
light in glam rock, Skinny Puppy is picking up the nostalgia-rock-circuit
mantle to keep a paycheck around. The way in which a band slides from top form
to irrelevency differs widely. There are those who manage to pull off
'comebacks', usually a blip of popularity when a new product finds a brief
moment of relevence in pop culture. David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, and Cher
are examples of triumphs of marketing and image over relevency to acheive
staying power.
But what makes Skinny Puppy more like The Rubettes than say, the Red Hot
Chilipeppers? Both Skinny Puppy and the Red Hot Chilipeppers are bands that
are irrelevent in todays market, soldiering on anyway. But Skinny Puppy will
be relegated to the nostalgia circuit, while Red Hot Chilipeppers will still
pull in large crowds at skateboard or snowboarding events. It's not because
Skinny Puppy courted a less mainstream and therefore smaller audience, because
ultimately they courted the same audience as the Red Hot Chilipeppers. The
difference is the cultural relevency. The 'goth' fashion victims of the 80s
barely limped into the 90s and are all but obscure post-modern footnotes in the
00s. Meanwhile the hemp-gobbling Woody Harrelson fashion victims who tend to
enjoy Red Hot Chilipeppers concerts are still going stong. RCHP can tap into
an audience with tremendous staying power - the same sort of people who spent
decades following the Grateful Dead. Skinny Puppy were A-list purveyors of a
short-lived cultural movement, much like the Rubettes were.
So that's the difference, but isn't it fascinating to see a band who dropped
the ball in every way possible during their height of popularity (the period
between Last Rites and Thee Process), their 'prime earning years' as a
financial planner would put it , to kick along to end up so thoroughly
irrelevent only a few short years later. That's what makes Skinny Puppy like
the Rubettes. Its the quick change from pop culture to nostalgia culture.
Personally I like it better this way, and I hope Skinny Puppy have the good
sense not make any new albums and just prosper on the nostalgia circuit in
europe, playing Smothered Hope over and over again just as the Rubettes
perpetually tour Germany playing Sugar Baby Love. Kudos to Skinny Puppy if
they don't subject us to any 'comebacks', or insults to pop culture, like the
David Bowies and Elvis Costellos of the world. (Costello and Bowie should team
up for a tour and belt out Pump it Up and Ashes to Ashes until everyone's had
their fill.). And Michael Jackson might have a better chance of boosting sales
of his shitty albums with child molestation publicity stunts if he'd quit
pumping out 'new' crap nobody wants to hear and stick to doing what we WANT him
to do, jump around while lip syncing 'Beat It'. Oh yeah I know David Spade
covered this topic years ago in his Hollywood Minute when he took the piss out
of Men Without Hats for not delivering the Safety Dance fix he required - but
it needs to be repeated until bands wise up and fly right! Here's hoping
Skinny Puppy uncharactaristically has their head screwed on right for once!
PS: for those of you who listen to and talk about late 90s - early 00s
industrial bands nobody cares about, and songs that pull no cultural weight
whatsoever with any significant portion of the population, there is no need to
rag on this post. Assuming anyone reads it that is - this newsgroup is deader
than roadkill. Someday there will be a popular revival of industrial music,
and the people who are still sticking around this newsgroup are probably going
to be at the forefront of it - here's hoping you do something interesting. In
the meantime producers of industrial sounds who hope to acheive some measure of
success will continue to do so on the heels of still-relevent pop culture (for
example, a youngster like Cex gains more attention for similarities to Eminem
than Trent Reznor).
It's a virtual ghost town around here. I noticed Skinny Puppy exists again,
an event which would've occurred off my radar if I hadn't popped in on a whim!
So really, its all over then isn't it. Like the Rubettes, a onetime leading
light in glam rock, Skinny Puppy is picking up the nostalgia-rock-circuit
mantle to keep a paycheck around. The way in which a band slides from top form
to irrelevency differs widely. There are those who manage to pull off
'comebacks', usually a blip of popularity when a new product finds a brief
moment of relevence in pop culture. David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, and Cher
are examples of triumphs of marketing and image over relevency to acheive
staying power.
But what makes Skinny Puppy more like The Rubettes than say, the Red Hot
Chilipeppers? Both Skinny Puppy and the Red Hot Chilipeppers are bands that
are irrelevent in todays market, soldiering on anyway. But Skinny Puppy will
be relegated to the nostalgia circuit, while Red Hot Chilipeppers will still
pull in large crowds at skateboard or snowboarding events. It's not because
Skinny Puppy courted a less mainstream and therefore smaller audience, because
ultimately they courted the same audience as the Red Hot Chilipeppers. The
difference is the cultural relevency. The 'goth' fashion victims of the 80s
barely limped into the 90s and are all but obscure post-modern footnotes in the
00s. Meanwhile the hemp-gobbling Woody Harrelson fashion victims who tend to
enjoy Red Hot Chilipeppers concerts are still going stong. RCHP can tap into
an audience with tremendous staying power - the same sort of people who spent
decades following the Grateful Dead. Skinny Puppy were A-list purveyors of a
short-lived cultural movement, much like the Rubettes were.
So that's the difference, but isn't it fascinating to see a band who dropped
the ball in every way possible during their height of popularity (the period
between Last Rites and Thee Process), their 'prime earning years' as a
financial planner would put it , to kick along to end up so thoroughly
irrelevent only a few short years later. That's what makes Skinny Puppy like
the Rubettes. Its the quick change from pop culture to nostalgia culture.
Personally I like it better this way, and I hope Skinny Puppy have the good
sense not make any new albums and just prosper on the nostalgia circuit in
europe, playing Smothered Hope over and over again just as the Rubettes
perpetually tour Germany playing Sugar Baby Love. Kudos to Skinny Puppy if
they don't subject us to any 'comebacks', or insults to pop culture, like the
David Bowies and Elvis Costellos of the world. (Costello and Bowie should team
up for a tour and belt out Pump it Up and Ashes to Ashes until everyone's had
their fill.). And Michael Jackson might have a better chance of boosting sales
of his shitty albums with child molestation publicity stunts if he'd quit
pumping out 'new' crap nobody wants to hear and stick to doing what we WANT him
to do, jump around while lip syncing 'Beat It'. Oh yeah I know David Spade
covered this topic years ago in his Hollywood Minute when he took the piss out
of Men Without Hats for not delivering the Safety Dance fix he required - but
it needs to be repeated until bands wise up and fly right! Here's hoping
Skinny Puppy uncharactaristically has their head screwed on right for once!
PS: for those of you who listen to and talk about late 90s - early 00s
industrial bands nobody cares about, and songs that pull no cultural weight
whatsoever with any significant portion of the population, there is no need to
rag on this post. Assuming anyone reads it that is - this newsgroup is deader
than roadkill. Someday there will be a popular revival of industrial music,
and the people who are still sticking around this newsgroup are probably going
to be at the forefront of it - here's hoping you do something interesting. In
the meantime producers of industrial sounds who hope to acheive some measure of
success will continue to do so on the heels of still-relevent pop culture (for
example, a youngster like Cex gains more attention for similarities to Eminem
than Trent Reznor).