If there's anyone besides me who believes today's music is mostly uncreative swill, you're not alone. Reuters reports that the current Billboard 200 survey of album sales compiling last week's purchases reflected a total of 4.5 million units sold, the lowest since the publication modernized its album sales tracking methods in 1991. Reuters writer Piya Sinha-Ray blamed this on "listeners finding new digital platforms to consume music, often for free." In other words, people don't like it enough to buy it. If you care, the top-selling album was Katy Perry's Prism, which sold 286,000 copies and second place went to Miley Cyrus' Bangerz, which sold 270,000. I can't say either artist is a favorite of mine, although I'll give Perry credit for still performing songs that have verses and choruses. As for Miley, I don't even care enough about current music anymore to check out her VMA performance that all the hoo-hah was about. Giving credit where it's due, I did enjoy her "See You Again" a few years back. And before I go on about current music, 1991 was also one of the most dreadful years in pop that included Crystal Waters' monotonous "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)," Marc Cohn's cliched "Walking in Memphis," Chris Isaak's breathlessly vapid "Wicked Game," Natalie Cole's unnecessary exhumation of her father's legacy that certainly wasn't "Unforgettable," and the Muzak-ready "More Than Words" by Extreme. And I'm not even mentioning the repeated inflictions of Michael Bolton on our eardrums back then.
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Here's some more from 1001 Video Games:
I'm sorry I missed 1990's Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe (seeing it was only for the Commodore Amiga, a lot of other people probably missed it, too). The book describes it as a violent winner-takes-all blend of pinball and Rollerball (one of my favorite 1970s sci-fi movies) with a nine-member team. Here's the original print ad: http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/advert.php?id=984 I like how the main guy looks like a cross between Captain America, Satan, and Bud Man from the 1970s Budweiser commercials. I have learned all sorts of new terms from the 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die book. Donkey Kong is considered a "platform" game, and any enemy you must defeat before you progress to the next level is called a "boss." These terms strike me as really idiotic and unnecessary, as back in the day we only had "text" games and everything else, with maybe an additional subcategory within those for athletic exercises. Maybe it's just my anti-authoritarian slant, but the book's constant usage of "boss" really gets on my nerves with couplings like "boss battle" and "boss enemy." It's like people who have to punctuate every positive moment of their lives with the airheaded "Epic!" and "Sweet!" (At one point, one of the book's contributors even uses the phrase "seriously epic boss battle" which made me roll my eyes and gag.) "Boss" is just such a general term, it's like whatever idiot came up with "alternative music." It can mean anything. Plus, it just sounds clunky as an adjective. What's wrong with "adversarial" or "villainous," or, best of all, just writing "battle" without the adjective?
Not all of the book has gotten on my nerves. It's nice to know that I didn't hallucinate Demolition Derby, and has brought back fond memories of my Commodore 64 knockoff of Arkanoid (I didn't even know it by this name) where the tokens you had to catch resembled office supply staples. I'm happy to see my old faves Spy vs. Spy and Sid Meier's Pirates! included, although the book could use a little more respect for the 1980s games as about 80% of the writers apologize for what they see as the games' "limited" functions and graphics. Contributor Richard Stanton writes poetically in his piece about Prince of Persia that the game has "The barest of narrative outlines but a simplicity of purpose that speaks to the most jaded heart." I never played Persia, but I believe Stanton's eloquent statement serves as my defense of the "old-school" games in the face of their detractors. Keep checking back for my further discussion of 1001 Video Games. Happy birthday to Go-Go's guitarist Charlotte Caffey, who turns 60 today! Caffey wrote or co-wrote many of the band's biggest hits, including "We Got the Beat" (which she claims to have penned in 5 minutes, inspired by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles' "Going To a Go-Go") and "Turn To You."
Here's a clip of the band performing another of her compositions "Head Over Heels," where she takes a turn at keyboards. This clip came from the 1985 Rock In Rio festival, where, according to Rod Stewart's autobiography, the band outsnorted Stewart and his crew in a cocaine-shoveling competition. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V-Q5MpmNp4 Here's the original 1976 teaser trailer for Star Wars, a film would not be released until May 1977:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-vsILeJ8_8&list=TLQtiWRtd1ZuyYtzoPHM432fCOse8qeJdT It's really sad to see your favorite film of all time reduced to such cheesiness. What's with the scarily lifeless voiceover? Couldn't they have just gotten James Earl Jones to do it? And the way that Star Wars logo just keeps...slowly...creeping...toward...you....And it's not even the finished trademark one that's so well known. Judging from the run-of the-mill font, it looks like they threw it together they day they made the trailer. "Hey, we've almost finished the trailer! You guys got the film logo done yet? We need to splice it in!" "Uhhhhhhhh....." I just started the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die last night, and I must say, it makes me feel old. Not only are the games I grew up with in the 1980s derided by game designer Peter Molyneux in the preface, the games in the era I grew up with - I quit playing regularly somewhere aound the early 1990s - only take up roughly 150 pages up the 950-ish page book. I keep thinking: what else is there? Molyneux snipes that "Age hasn't been kind to some of the older entries within these pages" but I still find Pong and Galaxian damn playable. Yes, some of the graphics were awful - future generations were wonder just how we were entertained by an Atari game with a blocky dragon that resembled an uppercase Q - but they still work for me. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on how the book progresses.
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Walburgh's BlogMostly retro, mainly music, but generally whatever's on my mind. Archives
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