When did you realize it had become mainstream?

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I was thinking about Siouxsie and the Banshees lately, and how one day I was walking through the Gallery in Philadelphia (a mall, with a very un-suburban feel to it) and heard "Kiss Them for Me" playing over the PA system. Ten years earlier, they were a band I only heard on college radio and would have been laughed at in school for liking, if anyone even knew who they were, and I can only think of one person who would have. (Granted, I haven't heard them on a commercial radio station since that time. I'm not sure if it even was a radio station that was playing.)

― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 15:05 (twenty-three years ago)

forget your question, I want to hear more about this "very un-suburban" feeling mall. Like, did it have rats? Or maybe it was all redbrick? Were there people not speaking english? Open fire hydrants in the food court?
Seriously, I'm curious.

― Horace Mann, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 15:11 (twenty-three years ago)

A couple of days ago in the mall (v. middle-america mall) I heard over the main PA: White Stripes/We're Going To Be Friends, then Jay Farrar's Voodoo Candle. Then I went in an Eddie Bauer store (yuppie outdoorsy stuff) and they had a different music mix on, but when I walked in, Voodoo Candle was just beginning.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 15:15 (twenty-three years ago)

did we not just have this conversation in 1991?

― Horace Mann, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 15:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Easy answer: when micheal Azzerad writes a book on how it was better before it was big.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 15:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, it's in center city, for starters, rather than, say, quasi-suburban Northeast Philadelphia. There are usually lots of black people there, something which wasn't the case in the suburban malls where grew up. Also, it's right near our Chinatown, so there are also usually lots of Asians there. It's often crowded to an extent which would be uncommon in the suburban malls I was familiar with. (Actually, I'm speaking somewhat anachronistically here: I visited the Gallery long before I had the dubious experience of visiting suburban malls, as far as I can remember.) To some extent the street spills over into the mall, whereas the suburban malls I am familiar with are not easily accessible unless you have a car.

This is probably an old question--sorry if so.

― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 15:24 (twenty-three years ago)

I hadn't even thought about S&tB for years when Kiss them for Me became a hit. I was a big fan in the 80's and all, but that was a long time ago. They deserved a hit anyway.

― Sean (Sean), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 16:10 (twenty-three years ago)

They sure did, and that hit should have been "Peek-A-Boo".

(Heh, sorry. It just burns me that that song wasn't a massive commercial success.)

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Let's define what makes a band mainstream?
Having one radio hit over the course of a lengthy career? Appearing on the MTV Awards? Having a burger named after you at the Hard Rock Cafe? Performing fellatio on Dick Clark on PPV?

― Horace Mann, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 16:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Mall PA music is fucntioning as background music, and in case you never noticed, a lot of soemwhat obscure stuff gets played as background music in tv, radio, and I guess now Mall PA. Things like Third Eye Foundation, Aphex Twin and so forth. Being played as background music != mainstream acceptance.

― fletrejet, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 16:42 (twenty-three years ago)

that can often have more to do with canny licensing jackjills than widespread acceptance. for eg. the Mtl Canadiens play very cool music between periods, because one dude in the organisation is cool, not cuz Doug Gilmour likes indie rock.

― Horace Mann, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 16:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Okay, when did you realize it hadn't really become mainstream after all?

― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 17:13 (twenty-three years ago)

1-hit crossovers 4 college radio bands do not count o love and rockets would own this thread. it took me a while 2 get used 2 dandy warhols' uk success. seeing get off on giant screen knocked me 4 a loop, the gap ad gave me a turn, but the vodaphone ad with the giant tube billboards with the fake dw's made me realise they weren't just a cute one hit wonder indie spacepop band from oregon any more...

― masonicboom, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 17:22 (twenty-three years ago)

giant screen at oxford street topshop that should b...

― masonicboom, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 17:24 (twenty-three years ago)

2000: Casey Spooner is this guy I bump into in, for instance, the L Cafe on Beford Avenue. I tape an interview with him, and ask a few other scenesters 'the $64,000 question' -- can Fischerspooner break out of the downtown / art scene into the world of entertainment they're parodying? Can they be more than just 'an in joke for an in crowd'?

2002: I'm sitting in the Duty Free section of Heathrow Departures and the HMV store is playing Fischerspooner -- the same record I had a CD-R of two years ago. There's the answer. Not the whole answer, but the beginnings of an answer.

― Momus (Momus), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 19:02 (twenty-three years ago)

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