In 1989, the year that the Berlin Wall fell and tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square, popular music also experienced striking changes. Today, find out how music lost its social bearings as the eighties came to a close, in everything from British rave and gangsta rap to the emergence of grunge. Our guest is Joshua Clover, author of the new book 1989: Bob Dylan Didn't Have This to Sing About.
- 1989: Bob Dylan Didn't Have This to Sing About on Amazon
- Blog: John Schaefer on pop culture as historical artifact
Comments [7]
In the summer of 1991 I was living in Krakow, doing research on moving ahead with environmental concerns for Eastern Europe. We made friends with the DJ for the English language radio station. He played "Right Here" a lot-- but it so perfectly spoke to what we felt we were seeing, and what I think the other 20 somethings we met were seeing too. The Polish young people we met were so looking forward to being part of the world and getting out there. I can't imagine what I'd think of that song if I had only heard it in the US.
That inter-group antagonism that Mr. Clover mentions certainly seems to turn internal in the late-'80s/early-'90s and heighten individualism and consumerism (or anti-consumerism), especially for the U.S. and global West.
This trend towards hyper-individualism and disconnection to others except through affinity groups seems to continue as an evolving process today.
Actually Bob Dylan's "Oh Mercy" was released in 1989--an important record as an example of an iconic performer reinventing himself. I find that more important than the small-scale "genres" that this self serving academic wanna-be wants to put on a pedestal (his pedestal). Also in 1989 was Lou Reed "New York" and Neil Young "Freedom"--all these records will be listened to in 100 years long after this guy's thesis is long forgotten. You could have even made more interesting/more important trends to come in 1989--like the Stones "Steel Wheels" which was the first of the mega-band's Nostalgia ride (huge, corporate tours of a band long past it's importance pushing a pretty tired record)--a trend that has continued for the 20 years since! Who is writing about real music these days?
Uh, Bob Dylan was still around in 1989, and writing songs. Still is. And still has plenty to say about the world we live in.
Didn't Jesus Jones' Doubt come out in 1991?
oh wait that was later sorry
All I remember from 1989 is Clear Pepsi and that awful Van Halen song accompanying it.
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