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The Forum > Article Comments > We’re so pretty, oh so pretty … vacant > Comments

We’re so pretty, oh so pretty … vacant : Comments

By Ross Buncle, published 3/8/2007

The 60's dream and Beatlemania was sold out virtually overnight by the baby boomers. Now marketing, packaging, branding are everything: where is the substance?

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A note to Goddess and Dealing With The Mob:

On the "Write New Post" page, which you see each time you write a new post, it clearly states, among other things, that posters are to "observe all Forum Rules".

Please note Forum Rule #1, which states: Keep responses on topic.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mr Buncle's article, and was keen to read the responses it elicited. I've been a bit surprised that no one seems to have taken up any of the main points of the article. It is clear that the writer is not an apologist for the Baby Boomer generation. Why is everyone seeing the article as some sort of nostalgic pining for the music of the 60s? It seems to me that the main focus is on marketing today and the changes it has wrought.

I was a pre-teen at the time the Beatles exploded on to the music scene in the UK. I can tell you, there was precious little merchandising and marketing in contrast to the situation these days. I saw the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and many more British bands on their first tours of the US. There were no fancy sets, no light shows, no coloured nitrogen smoke, no theatrical backdrops. In fact, the amplification was barely adequate.

My major gripe though is with those posters who seek to hijack a thread by bringing up issues which are completely off topic. Dealing With The Mob was the first to do this with his post, and, unfortunately, Goddess has fallen into his trap.

I suggest, DWTM, that you submit your own article for publication, then those who are interested in what you have to say can respond to your article. Bet you won't like it if someone then hijacks YOUR article, will you?
Posted by gardengnome, Saturday, 4 August 2007 9:33:15 PM
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Generation X, Generation Y, call it what you like.

What really counts is the torch that is passed on from one generation to another. If the student isn't wiser and better than her/his teacher, then the teacher was no good in the first place. If the next generation isn't wiser than the previous one, then what the hell are we doing here?

Look - all isn't lost. Check out this young feller (1hr 47min video):

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8545414779301935419&hl=en

Pay attention. Concentrate.

I'll be asking questions later....

(PS. Play it twice, you mouldy oldies)
Posted by Chris Shaw, Carisbrook 3464, Sunday, 5 August 2007 12:30:41 AM
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Garden Gnome.

My blog was made in response to the article writer's observation that -

"the 60s and early 70s was a time of social and cultural upheaval - a revolution, ... the music ... erupted spontaneously out of a confluence of circumstances originating in the 50s, and gathering the momentum of a wildfire swept through the 60s, feeding off itself like a firestorm.

... It was certainly not the product of a precisely orchestrated marketing campaign."

because I presumed that the writer had in mind the "precisely orchestrated marketing campaign" that is currently being waged on On Line Opinion, the Courier-Mail and many other Australian blogs.

The Labor party seem to have organised an army of bloggers to "spin" every blogging opportunity into an opportunity to "put down" anybody who is not sympathetic to their cause.

And I am fed up with the unions for using members' money to fund anti-Howard advertising rather than using members' money to help members.

Because so much union money is being directed to Labor party advertising, union members are very vulnerable to workplace abuse at the moment.

And this has nothing to do with workchoices, this has been "going on" for years.

It is a choice that has been made for members by their unions.

My blog was directly relevant to the article.

I agree with garden Gnome that Godess's attempts to silence me were "off topic" and I encourage her, Garden Gnome and all other Labor party supporters to participate in the blog to discuss Teacher Bullying in Queensland Schools that I have provided (and personally funded) -

http://teacherbullyingqueensland.typepad.com/
Posted by Dealing With The Mob, Sunday, 5 August 2007 12:47:13 AM
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JohnJ,

Of course pop has always fed on itself - all art is allusive! So? What's that got to do with anything in the article?

Ta for the basic rock history lesson, but I'm past the beginner's unit. As for "doing myself a favour" re “Dylan, Neil Young, kd lang, Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Nick Cave and Ed Kuepper”…oh, please! I’ve been an avid fan of rock for 35+ years, from the 60s to now. I really don't need your “adult music” guidance.

Re your Johnny Rotten quotes: I know more than a little about Mr Rotten. I was a founder member of one of the first punk bands in Australia. I mention that not in boast, but because I am a little taken aback that you and others appear to be assuming that I am some old hippie on a nostalgia kick who sits around with a bong listening to the Grateful Dead. I’m not, and never was! And I don’t publish articles without being reasonably informed about my topics!

There appears to be a general assumption that I need educating about today’s quality rock/pop music.

I am aware, folks, that discussion on Beck’s influence does not necessarily refer to the decline in Leyton Hewitt’s WTA rankings. I understand that the Arctic Monkeys are not necessarily primates featured on the Discovery channel.

Perhaps a list of the CDs that I have played recently and have yet to put away might be instructive: Interpol, Ron Sexsmith, Love, The Stooges, Lucinda Williams, Missy Higgins, Portishead, Gomez, Franz Ferdinand, Elliott Smith, Television, Nick Drake, Tim Hardin, The Velvet Underground, Tom Waits, The Homicides and Eskimo Joe.

I am well aware that there is quality around today outside the mainstream pap. Awright?

As to your point about marketing and management always being around…well, yes. But the article is looking at DIFFERENCES between today and the more naïve 60s/70s. I find it difficult to take seriously those who deny that there are any.

DWTM, clearly your blog has no relevance to the article. I endorse GardenGnome's comments. Pls don't spam the thread.
Posted by Ross Buncle, Sunday, 5 August 2007 1:12:46 PM
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Ross Bunkle,

I was not spamming.

Just because I did not parrot your own ideas back to you exactly, it does not mean that I was spamming.

You said -

... There was a tremendous energy during that period, a sense that the times really were a-changin’, that we were heading somewhere as a united force, and though we knew not where, we were in the driving seat.

... the 60s and early 70s was a time of social and cultural upheaval - a revolution, no less. ... It erupted spontaneously out of a confluence of circumstances originating in the 50s, and gathering the momentum of a wildfire swept through the 60s, feeding off itself like a firestorm.

It was certainly not the product of a precisely orchestrated marketing campaign. ...

... Marketing, packaging, branding is everything. Where is the substance? ...

Can't you see the relevance of your own words to the political situation today?

Don't you remember the expection we had that the world was going to be a better place?

Can't you see how democracy has been degraded into an advertising campaign?

Please don't dismiss my post as spam.

My post is 100% relevant to the ideas expressed in your article, even if you struggle to understand the point that I am making.
Posted by Dealing With The Mob, Sunday, 5 August 2007 3:12:59 PM
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Twenty five years ago they spoke out and they broke out
Of depression and oppression and together they toked
And they folked out with guitars around a bon fire
Just singin' and clappin' man what the hell happened
Some were spell bound some were hell bound
Some they fell down and some got back up and
Fought back 'gainst the melt down
And their kids are hippie chicks and hypocrites
Because fashion is smashin' the true meaning of it

(Smashmouth)

Kind of says it all. And I'm a hypocrite because I fell for it too.

- until now. Despite everything, it's late - but not TOO late.
Posted by Chris Shaw, Carisbrook 3464, Sunday, 5 August 2007 7:30:37 PM
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