Coming Clean

Iggy Pop or The Archies? Deacon Blue or Talking Heads? Joy Division or The Carpenters? The Cranberries or Laura Veirs?
Another question, apart from the sometimes implied 'do you have taste or don't you?' by the self appointed cool dudes/dictators of musical fashion could be 'are you submissive enough to (Nick) cave in to our choice or brave enough to think for yourself and do your own thing?" out in the cold, all on your own.. Except that we're not! The mostly wonderful web has allowed us to form 'clubs', interest groups and links of our own determining and b****cks to the would be dictators of fashion!
Well, I have some serious confessions to make.
Howard Jones.. I like some of his tunes. Deacon Blue.. some brilliant, gorgeous pop tracks. Phil Collins.. I'm sorry but he's done, in my view, some beautiful tunes. Plus he's an excellent drummer. Oh My God you're aligning S&PJ with these artists? No not especially. But they have all influenced me musically. (I'll tell you later who are our biggest influences.)
I'm telling you this not because I want to particularly blow the trumpet for these artists or mark myself out as having questionable taste but rather because I believe there's too much hipocrisy regarding who's pushed out as 'cool' and 'uncool' by the self appointed arbiters of taste.
There's a book I've just read called 'Faking It' by Hugh Barker & Yuval Taylor which blows out of the water most music afficianados preconceptions of what constitutes 'authentic' 'real' music.
"It's roughly recorded, slightly out of tune, relates to the delta blues or some obscure artist of old, is musically basic and displays no aspirations to greatness" - .. hey must be cool
"Ooops. What are these weird harmonies and time signatures? Where's the down beat? Do these guys display some kind of musical proficiency? Hang on this sounds suspiciously poppy" - Yikes, it's crap
There's a lot more to the book than that would imply but one thing I enjoyed about it was I felt it vindicated my hotchpotch/cross genre tastes in music.
"How can you like Slowdive & Sting? Rilo Kiley & Robin Trower? Husker Du & Howard Jones? Elliot Smith & Enya? The Comsat Angels & Coldplay?" Easy, cos I love music and love has no bounds. Also if I'm honest I hate being dictated to as to what I can & can't like and maybe react against it!
Biggest musical influences? Cop out time, too many to mention.
Here are a few though (past & current) that maybe I've not mentioned before: Talk Talk, China Crisis, OMD, Landscape, Art Of Noise, Focus, Genesis, John Martyn, Joni Mitchell, My Bloody Valentine, The Who, Tears for Fears, Thompson Twins, Sigur Ros, Simple Minds, Rush, Peter Gabriel, Pet Shop Boys, Jimi Hendrix, Durutti Column, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Everything But the Girl, The Proclaimers, Coldplay, The Blue Nile, Chicane, Aphex Twin, Orbital, ..

"Sugar Sugar" by the Archies was the first single I bought (with pocket money).
With the music Sophie and I produced, I never felt it was affiliated particularly with The Fall, Smiths, Wedding Present,etc. type genre (although I have bought albums by the first two of these) but maybe more so with Aztec Camera, Strawberry Switchblade, and even dare I say Japan and Tears for Fears and the like. I also relate to Captain Beefheart's unorthodox music and his brave and crazy outsiderness.
Whatever. I'm totoally new to this blog game and have probably given too much away already.
Take care people & talk more soon.
Pete