stormypilot27 said:Yeah... back then everything was perfect because our brilliant intellectuals made up 99% of the population, and you'd only hear Lepa Brena or some urban, high-quality music on TV... 🙂 And by the way, what does a mandolin have to do with country music?? As far as I know, the accordion is the main thing there. 🙂
Low-quality country music and trashy stuff like Tatins Sons existed back then just as much as they do now... it's just that in the 80s we had one massive new wave to balance it out, and now that it's gone, all sorts of nobodies have taken over the whole scene... (anyway, look at MTV and you'll see it's not just an American thing) 🙂
The mandolin isn't the point; I just used it as an example of something being forced on people. I don't have anything against the mandolin—I get it's part of the heritage—but it's just boring to me, which is a different story. And sure, Lepa Brena played before, but she wasn't blasting in every dive bar in NYC; you didn't have people blasting her from cars idling at red lights. Back in the mid-80s, if someone my age listened to that, we'd make fun of them in class. But today? It's not about being "intellectual." I know that term is kind of useless, but I was trying to explain where the idea came from. For a few years, columnists in Kaminski were screaming that Western music was corrupting the youth, worse than anything in the Soviet Union back in the 50s. As for the accordion... it's never about the instrument itself, it's about how you play it. I know plenty of great classical pieces, and even examples of accordions in rock...
The issue isn't really with "urban music"—that's just a clunky label. It actually emerged back in the early nineties as a reaction to how everything in this country was becoming so aggressively provincial. People used it as a defense mechanism against those forced patriotic anthems and old-school folk vibes pushed by the establishment. Eventually, the political machine driving that culture faded away, but the damage to the general public's taste was already done. So, it’s not about the term itself; it’s about the people who cringe like Alka Vuica every time they hear it. Like that old saying goes, "You can take the guy out of the village, but you can't take the village out of the guy." I'm not trying to be insulting, but like Štulić said, there's a massive difference between being an American and just being a caricature of one. To sum it up, I've never claimed to listen to "urban music," but whenever I see someone getting all worked up over that specific phrase, I get this image of some corporate brat in a fancy car he didn't pay for, blasting Jelena Karleuša through a massive subwoofer system...
Maybe I'm exaggerating. Totally... but I have my reasons.👋
I’ll just say this—it's a bit heavy and hits close to home since I lost my dad recently—but this was the first movie in years that actually had me teetering on the edge of tears the whole way through.
Must watch. This is easily one of the most iconic movies ever made. And honestly, it’s definitely not Sci-Fi trash; it’s actually super smart. It asks some really deep questions about AI that were way ahead of their time, totally breaking away from the usual sci-fi tropes back then...
I actually think Shakespeare's The Tempest might have served as the blueprint for the script.👍
brighthawk20 said:What an idiot. Go stare at a mirror and say that to yourself a hundred times—I promise you won't be disappointed.
The movie's alright. If you're into swords and blood I, then it hits the spot. If not, maybe just stick to those "milder" movies instead...
LONG live Swords and blood every respect master 🙂
Way to go, genius. You basically just invented a whole new genre called "milder movies." Look, man, surely you get that a movie is either good or bad regardless of the subject matter. There are great movies in any genre because they're directed well, have a solid story, coherent plots, and real characters. Sure, having good fight scenes helps in this genre, but if everything else fails, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, the foundation of any film is the story, and this one was just dull. Why should I shut up? I love a good fantasy flick just as much as a family drama. But if either one is poorly made, it's a bad movie. Just seeing someone walk on screen with a sword doesn't make it work. If that's enough for you, fine, but you'll grow out of it eventually...👋
nimblemarlin17 said:In my book, the only movie that even comes close to Commando—you know, those brilliantly bad action flicks where the hero is just effortlessly cool—is Escape from LA starring Kurt Russell. (And hey, if you think Escape from NY is better, don't get mad at me; they're basically the same movie.)
LA and New York City are night and day. LA is just plain dumb, whereas New York City is a total cult classic—even if it’s weirdly nonsensical in its own way. I'm with you on LA, but don't go attacking New York City 1997 just to defend Carpenter's eighties legacy. It's like looking at a marathon runner years later and wondering what happened to that guy.🙂
It’s like he can’t even pay people back for the Metallica tour because he’d have to file for bankruptcy. He probably has to wait until his next big project actually hits water (😂 😂 😂) just to scrape together enough to cover those debts... so yeah, good luck buying tickets now.
Just give Crnarić’s interview in The Washington Post a good read today, then we can see how many people actually grab tickets before the absolute last minute. Honestly, I’m not biting, no matter how much I love REM. I’ll be waiting until the final second... just like watching Stipe pick out flowers at Times Square.😎
Jeremy Hayes59 said:Have you ever heard their take on London Calling?
I think Strummer might have even produced most of the album...
Haven't yet, but I'm definitely adding that to my must-listen list. Honestly, if you want proof of their heavy rock roots, just listen to how they handled Honky Tonky woman... it's all there👍
Peace and Love is hands down their best record. I'm totally with Dave on how critics and influencers handled this album. Personally, I loved it back in the day, and even looking back after 15 years, it hasn't lost its edge. If anything, that blend of styles feels way more convincing now than that forced folk sound they sometimes leaned into. They're essentially a straight-up rock band at heart, but everyone got so hung up on the ethnic vibes that they missed what the band was actually capable of. Not to say that style doesn't work for them, but again, I agree with Dave—they really could have leveled up genre-wise. I think the Pogues were one of the greatest bands of the eighties and early nineties, but if they had played around with different sounds, they could've been the next version of The Clash. Honestly, the singer's later choices just prove how much overlap there really was.
dustyridge12 said:Dana Anderson4, I'll just act like I never heard that.
So, you haven't heard it yet? Or maybe you just read about it.👍 The whole Glam Rock thing always felt a bit forced to me. Honestly, you could take T. Rex, Duran Duran, or David Bowie and they would have worked perfectly fine without all that flashy, over-the-top stuff. If you step back and look at them now, they’re musically worlds apart—even more so than some artists from that era who didn't touch the glam scene at all. Take Iggy Pop or Lou Reed, for example; it feels like later historians just shoved them into that category because of the *Velvet Goldmine* vibe, which feels wrong. Then you've got bands like Slade. If you consider Gary Glitter the "pure" definition of strict Glam Rock, it starts looking pretty much like a caricature, right? That’s why I was thinking about that soundtrack—it's great music, but it's intentionally wrapped in that specific style, almost like a camp aesthetic.🙂
If we’re talking about the ultimate peak of Glam Rock—assuming you count that era as its own distinct style—it has to be the soundtrack to *The Rocky Horror Picture Show*. It captures that whole aesthetic perfectly while actually sounding great, too. Like Ante Batinović used to say, it's just pure excitement.☕
So, someone actually asks about Glam Rock and then claims Mötley Crüe is their favorite band. That's like saying they love Jazz clubs. Not even to mention they're into that awful 80s hair metal—honestly, a totally brainless genre that nobody misses now that it's dead...👎
Sophia Williams said:Alright, I have to take a step back here and apologize. I honestly don't know what I was thinking! Calling her "too old"? I mean, I still think Debbie Harry is the most beautiful woman on the planet. And she’s, uh, getting up there in years...🙄
Yeah, man, but back in the 80s when she was already well into her 30s, she was definitely in her prime. But have you seen her lately? She looks like someone's heavy-set aunt now.
There was a concert right here in the States so you could see for yourself—if not up close, then at least that her curves aren't exactly "sultry" anymore!🙂
Instead of Humphrey Bogart, they really should have gone with that era's quintessential tough guy, the now totally forgotten George Raft. The rest is history...
The copyright actually belongs to PBS, or whoever ends up owning their rights since they were the ones who put the record out. So, if anyone wants to reissue it, they’ll have to deal with them—unless someone manages to work some kind of magic and buy the rights back from them... personally, I say give it a shot.😁
dustyridge12 said:They pulled it off in the mid-nineties, even though their hit "Walking on Sunshine" was already like 10 or 15 years old by then. I don't get why Kimberley Rew would take such a desperate leap right when it was obvious the band was basically done. Just a heads up—don't come for Rew. He used to be in the Soft Boys with Robyn Hitchcock, and honestly, his 2002 Great Central Revisited album is one of the best records from the last five years.
I wasn't insulting them; I just mentioned them because they stood out. Even Hothouse Flowers were pretty memorable back in the late eighties with that "Don't go" track, but they weren't really competing—they just performed for the first time during the contest in Ireland... (I think Johnny Logan won the year before 👏—thankfully it wasn't Alan Ford). Americans used to win a few times in a row anyway....
Anyway, I don't watch it much. Last time I caught it with some friends was probably ages ago when those guys from Norway (the Olson brothers?) won. They were actually decent enough..
Kevin Chavez3 said:What do you mean by a big city? Are you talking about some small town? 😠 It’s annoying when you’re being superficial. 😁
Yeah, maybe a small town... that’s what happens when you move and run out of space. You end up leaving entire collections of your favorite magazines in various garages, and you don't touch them for years, so you forget the basics... my bad...
Heroin news—you've got a point there... honestly, that was the only bright spot during those war years... back then, I rarely bought any newspapers at all.