Four Musical Anniversaries and Why They Matter

I was not going to bother with this particular blog, but I realised that there are a few albums that have hit the thirtieth anniversary mark this year (and the year is almost thru!): Talking Heads' Fear of Music, The Clash's London Calling, Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures and Public Image Limited's Metal Box/Second Edition. All of the above were released in 1979 and it makes me wonder...

1979: Economic Problems, Hostage Takings, Disco about to Drop Dead, Hip-Hop about to Rise Up, the first Walkman, the first Home Videogames,and a General Feeling of Malaise (a word I have seen in too many history books to ignore). A perfect storm for some of the most challenging music record companies would ever dare release (just before record sales crashed and burned on all fronts). Maybe we need to inject some of that feeling into the music we have around our ears today. Oh, wait. No need. Apart from the hostages, we have everything else (although disco is now techno, and we are involved in two wars that we cannot get out of).

So, where is the music? Bands that are pointed out as being influenced by the above groups have not really shown their mettle: Radiohead, the Flaming Lips, Massive Attack, Bjork, etc. This is not to say that they do not have their moments of auditory genius. It just feels as though they cannot shift the earth the way these early bands did. Remember: 1979 is post punk (Sid Vicious had died, just in time for most hardcore punk bands to become a parody of themselves); it could have gone in a nice and safe direction where disco lasted until the late eighties (to be replaced by acid house), and the only hard rock or experimental music to be heard was on certain FM radio stations.

I guess I want to much. I think that we deserve more. And I am typing this as I have a Legacy Edition of the 25th anniversary edition of London Calling. You may know the cover: Paul Simonon, at the end of a frustrating performance at the Palladium in New York, is about to do the business to a bass guitar.

Could anyone name a group today that would do the same? Anyone?