Does 'Attitude' Age Well?

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And does it matter?

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not talking about Johnny Rotten on I'm A Celebrity as it happens. (Though you might).

I'm talking about records where the attitude is part of why they're exciting when they come out - can you still pick that up years later? Is it just a nostalgic pleasure? Is it something detectable by someone who wasn't 'there' and doesn't know the history?

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:09 (twenty-two years ago)

You mean as in the Stone Roses thread?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, that's what got me thinking about the question.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I can still detect Debbie Harry's 'attitude' and I wasn't there originally. I'm not sure that it's ever really lost... just transmitted in different ways (which can be a good or a bad thing) - I mean, I think that Madonna still has a great deal of chutzpah and ego, but that still doesn't make "Hollywood" any more bearable.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, in the case of the Stone Roses, the answer is no - the music isn't good enough.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

(xpost - you could argue that the Stone Roses or Oasis or people like that have lost their attitude but I never thought they had a particularly interesting attitude to begin with anyway.)

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:14 (twenty-two years ago)

The Stooges: Attitude still there.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:15 (twenty-two years ago)

The arrogance of "I Wanna Be Adored" and "I Am the Resurrection" seems pretty easy to relate to anytime, worked on me when I heard them in 94 or whenever, I'm sure it wouldn't if I'd been around to associate it too strongly w/general Mancs rule type stuff in 89 etc

― Silly Sailor (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:15 (twenty-two years ago)

But what if you're not a big fan of misplaced arrogance?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:20 (twenty-two years ago)

NWA has become the Frankfurt School of rap, so I'd have to say yes.

― dave q, Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Presumably your sense of the Roses' arrogance being misplaced hasn't changed though Dada? Or has it? If so, how? (I think that's what this thread is getting at).

QOTM, again.

― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:24 (twenty-two years ago)

The other thing that prompted this is doing Popular which is dealing with stuff waaaay before my time and context - I can actually hear something in Elvis singles that matches the excitement I can read about; I can't with Buddy Holly.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:27 (twenty-two years ago)

What about 'Well... alright'? That song kicks ass!

― Silly Sailor (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not saying the Buddy Holly songs aren't good pop songs cos of course some of them are but it's the thing that sets them apart from good non-rock-n-roll pop songs of the time that hasn't 'transmitted' to me in the way that Elvis' smoulder has.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh Ok, I absolutely agree. I can't even really imagine being shocked etc by BH, really.

― Silly Sailor (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Not even by those stories about him and Little Richard having dick-measuring contests and sharing groupies?

― dave q, Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Not even that, it's unfair really cos Little Richard records still 'have it'.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Does 'Attitude' Age Well?

Oh yes, just watch Lydon in that jungle program. *snigger*

― nathalie (nathalie), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think "I Wanna Be Adored" is arrogant; in fact far from it. For me the important thing about The Stone Roses isn't the attitude at all; it's the songs and the words. Certainly they're about the only band I've ever given a fuck for lyrically. Maybe when I was 16 the attitude mattered to me, but nowhere near as much as the sound and the feel of the tunes, as Ian singing (?!) about "brigantine sails" or oral sex or wanting to burn the town you come from because it limits you or whatever. I think they were a lot more positive, attitude wise, than people give them credit for.

But no, attitude doesn't age well; the people carrying the attitude can, if they allow it to develop (see Mr Lydon), but if one attempts to arrest it then it goes stagnant, like anything else (see Messrs Gallagher & Gallagher).

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Thursday, 29 January 2004 13:25 (twenty-two years ago)

If I think about it really hard, I can distill the difference between the overall set of music I like and the the set of music i dislike to the former having attitude. So an emphatic "yes" to the original question.

With that said, my first reaction on hearing "I Want To Be Adored" was that it was one of the most limp, bloodless songs I'd ever heard that wasn't perpetrated by Wayne Hussey.

― anode (anode), Thursday, 29 January 2004 13:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Judging by Motorhead, the Ramones and AC/DC, yes.

― Siegbran (eofor), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:19 (twenty-two years ago)

The song "Attitude" by the Misfits has itself aged pretty well, IMO.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 29 January 2004 23:59 (twenty-two years ago)

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