Blink-182 are a punk dividing line. Green Day’s Dookie and The Offspring’s Smash proved that a punk rock band could, with the correct pop inflection, sell several million records. But Enema of the State showed that songs about girls, partying and prank phone calls were not only lucrative but also […]
The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: https://skl.sh/trashtheory12211 By 1997 Britpop was winding down. But Brit Rock had a new wave of bands that preferred heaviness to cribbing from the Beatles. Amongst this lot were Feeder, framed as the plucky […]
Few genres have had the lasting impact of punk. 1976 is one of those seismic dividing lines in popular music. A history destroying year zero. The point after which everything changed. It was the year that The Ramones debut was released, the year that the first singles from the UK […]
Van Halen’s David Lee Roth once said: “Rock critics love Elvis Costello because rock critics look like Elvis Costello.” When he first appeared on Top of the Pops in September 1977, beyond Buddy Holly and Hank Marvin, there had been few rock stars with the nerd aesthetics of Elvis Costello. […]
In the 70s, there was metal – Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple. And then there was punk, Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned. Two separate entities that rarely if ever mixed. However a band both subcultures could agree on was Motörhead. Led by the hoarse rumble of Lemmy, with […]
Get Surfshark VPN at https://Surfshark.deals/TRASHTHEORY and enter promo code TRASHTHEORY for 83% off and 3 extra months for FREE! Mainstream Radio in 2001 was a weird time to listen in. There was loud abrasive anger: Linkin Park, Staind and Eminem. Hyperactive teenaged immaturity: blink-182, Sum 41 and American Hi-Fi. Plus […]
The mid-80s was make-or-break time for Kate Bush. Since her breakthrough in 1978, she’d been gradually alienating her fans with successive ambitious but non-commercial left turns. As such, her label EMI was seriously concerned for her future as a pop artist. However, that all changed in 1985. She returned after […]
Get Surfshark VPN at https://Surfshark.deals/TRASHTHEORY and enter promo code TRASHTHEORY for 83% off and 3 extra months for FREE! The Beatles broke up in 1970. Emerging two years later, Power Pop was an attempt to resurrect the Fab Four’s early days. What did it sound like? Impossibly catchy tunes with […]
Even amongst the ragamuffins and likely lads of the UK Punk scene, Ian Dury stood out. In his late 30s, with his left arm and leg withered from Polio, and in love with Stax, Motown and free jazz – But that is also what made him transcend. Aided by the […]
Björk never wanted the spotlight. Fame was never the goal, she just wanted to be able to defy the boundaries of pop on her own terms. Debut was where she would burst her way onto MTV and Radio, but with her 1995 album Post she became the innovative and unflinchingly […]
