"History Of Rock" DVD slams New Wave

[ghosty]

I recently watched a friend's DVD set of the "The History Of Rock" and thoroughly enjoyed just about every bit of it until it got to the 1980's. According to the folks at Time/Life and the critic Legs McNeil (who?), New Wave was just the watered-down sanitised version of punk and was more or less bubblegum music. The documentary spent a sizeable amount of time covering the punk movement and then showed a brief montage of Adam Ant, Duran Duran, etc. while "Every Breath You Take" was being played over the footage. The suggestion being that New wave was a bad joke. No mention of even The Cure or The Smiths!! The rest of the 80's segment was taken up with MTV and Michael Jackson. Since this Documentary was made in the early 90's they, understandably, spent more time talking about Nirvana and the Alternative movement.
I will say that they talked about Devo's "Whip It" video but only in regard to how it was almost banned from MTV at first.

This Legs McNeil guy made me want to throw my bag of Doritos at the television. In praising Iggy Pop he took a shot at Jim Morrison saying "Jim Morrison may have been waving his penis around but Iggy pop was going to take the audience with him". FOR THE LAST TIME: Jim Morrison NEVER exposed himself onstage in Miami, he joked that he was going to and he DID try to incite a riot (not a smart move, I grant you) but there was never a shred of evidence he whipped it out. If you're going to slam one musician to compare him with another, get your facts straight.

[ghosty]

I should mention that if you do want an exceptional look at the Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, X, Iggy Pop and Patti Smith then you should try to rent that DVD alone. The punk (and roots of punk) overview gets 60 minutes.

....New Wave gets less t

[pikeprof]

I haven't seen it-I don't know what to say about Legs-he's always been a provacateur and likes saying outrageous thinsgs-obviously no one who posts at this site thinks that-even thoughj I don't like a lot of the 80s synth and goth that a lot of posters he

[ghosty]

I know that PBS ran a competing "History Of Rock" series around the same time that the Time/Life version aired (1995?). Anyone see that?

[devildog]

No, I have not seen either documentary. However, since the Time Life documentary was made in the early 90's, that fact alone indicates they were just going along with the zeitgeist of that time. The 90's was all about trashing the 80's. Whether it was t

[dead_irony@yahoo.com]

We've been watching the DVD set with our kid as part of the Summer School of Rock. We haven't gotten to punk/new wave yet, but obviously I'll be needing to explain to my kid the whole idea of teachers often talking out their asses.

[cubby]

I have not seen the DVD yet. I do remember the PBS series though. I remember there was an episode called "Walk on the Wild Side" that dealt with the Velvets, Lou Reed, Iggy, Bowie, the Dolls and some of the early glam stuff from the 70's. There was an

[EchoBeachBunnyBoy]

I really don't give a flying fig what Time-Life, Mr. Legs or any other suit & tie has to say about the whole New Wave genre.
Their opinions do not make it fact.
I was there. I lived it. I draw from my own life experiences.
Their vapid ignorance do not

[Quite Life]

I totally sypathies with your sentament Ghosty. My sugestion is to do something about it. Make your own "New Wave" Documentery and take a big shit on the mainstream f****** pop rock artists like Britny what ever that Ho's name is and all those other los

[rewind]

[quote]Originally posted by ghosty
[br]I know that PBS ran a competing "History Of Rock" series around the same time that the Time/L