Morrissey- New or Next Wave ?

[SonicBoom]

Would it be incorrect to call him or the Smiths BritPop?

[Bitter Almonds]

<p align="justify">I dunno. I just never placed The Smiths and Morrissey into the "New Wave" category. I usually placed The Damned into Punk and Post-Punk, The Cure into Post-Punk and Goth, and The Psychedelic Furs and Talking Heads into New Wave. The Smiths sounded like a Pop Rock band, but, with the lyrics and vocals, they were a little left field of the regular stuff on the radio. If Cheap Trick and The Cars do it, it's called "Power Pop," but if The Smiths do it, it's "Alternative/Alterno-Rock/College Rock". I also saw that their influences were a bit different than, say, Glam Rock and Electronic music from the late 60s and early 70s. In spite of Moz being the president of a New York Dolls fan club, I don't think I've ever read or heard of them citing The Velvet Underground, David Bowie, or Roxy Music as being influential to their material (which is something common with a lot of New Wave bands and artists); theirs was that 60s Pop stuff, right? Whenever I think of the term "New Wave," I think of that early stuff between Punk from the 70s and mid-80s SynthPop: Suicide, Sparks, Devo, The Buzzcocks, The Normal, Gary Numan And The Tubeway Army, Pere Ubu, Joy Division, Ultravox!... and I think it originated from the United States. Then, there's the synthesiser stuff, which came a little later and broke off into New Romantic (i.e., Japan, Visage, Ultravox, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Classix Noveaux, The Human League), SynthPop (Section 25, Dif Juz, NewOrder, Erasure, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Pet Shop Boys), and ItaloDisco. It's really the same shit, but with some variations[}:)]


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[q89747]

[quote][i]Originally posted by SonicBoom[/i]
<br>Would it be incorrect to call him or the Smiths BritPop?


[/quote]

Take any decent Britpop band-- eg Blur (worked with Stephen Street, who called Graham Coxon the best guitarist he'd worked with since Johnny Marr), Suede (who cited the Smiths as an influence, particularly the celibate-monk-vs-rocknroll-nutter relationhship between Moz and Marr), and Oasis (whom Marr himself got signed with a management company)-- and there's a strong case to be made that the Smiths set the template in the 80s for the Britpop of the 90s.

[calfskinSMK]

When I was listening to the Smiths in the 80s, me and my handful of musically-shared-tastes friends called it music no one else got or listened to. I think Morrissey himself calls his music "pop" music, but I would never lump him in with Michael Jackson. The Smiths' peer bands are easier to label as they used the synths that defined the New Wave sound but the Smiths were a guitar band. Maybe "Indie" fits?

On a side note, while I still love Morrissey and buy his albums, he hasn't had a decent guitarist to work with since Vini Reilly on Viva Hate.

[basstone]

[quote][i]Originally posted by calfskinSMK[/i]
<br>
On a side note, while I still love Morrissey and buy his albums, he hasn't had a decent guitarist to work with since Vini Reilly on Viva Hate.
[/quote]

Boz and Alain Whyte are very good guitarist.

[q89747]

[quote][i]Originally posted by basstone[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by calfskinSMK[/i]
<br>
On a side note, while I still love Morrissey and buy his albums, he hasn't had a decent guitarist to work with since Vini Reilly on Viva Hate.
[/quote]

Boz and Alain Whyte are very good guitarist.
[/quote]
Never mind his guitarists-- he needs a good drummer. Get Spencer Cobrin back in! To quote Mark E Smith: 'Get a good drummer in, you can do anything.'

[calfskinSMK]

ha, I don't think he wants to spend the money on a good one. A mediocre one will do.

[basstone]

[quote][i]Originally posted by SallyLightfoot[/i]
<br>Also, I'll mention that Morrissey is over 50 and has had highly publicized health problems. Just a theory, but maybe his age and questionable health create an image problem with the record labels. I think the release of 'Years of Refusal' was delayed because Morrissey lacked a US/Global distributor. (By the way, I thought 'Years of Refusal' was one of the best albums of 2009).
[/quote]

I just read the lyrics for "Something is Squeezing my SKULL"

Maybe he has more issues than I knew about.