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Uncommon
 
 

Uncommon [Kindle Edition]

Owen Hatherley
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Review

This book is a small marvel. Even within the most ambiguous cultural flowering, something transcendent is cached. Owen Hatherley knows this. Possessed of an architect's clarity and a modernist's astringent vision, he draws forth the the paradoxical and brilliant core of Britpop, and restores Pulp's contradictory genius to its proper place in history. Behind the Blairite swagger of Cool Britannia and the spackle of commercial spectacle, Hatherley finds the truth of pop culture and social antagonism, entangled with the glory and oddity of Pulp's musical career and evanescent fame. Elegant about the songs, lucid about the band's warped trajectory, and incisive about the politics of daily life coiled within the sound and lyrics and moment, Hatherley chronicles the adventures of the Sheffield gang and their "class war casanova" who came forth as the truth of a deeply false moment, bad faith you could dance to, a dialectical verdict on a singular passage in time. (Joshua Clover)

Product Description

If we remember them at all, the Sheffield pop group Pulp are remembered for jolly class warfare ditty 'Common People', for the celebrity of their interestingly-named frontman, for the latter waving his arse at Michael Jackson at the Brit awards, for being part of a non-movement called 'Britpop', and for disappearing almost without trace shortly after. They made a few good tunes, they did some funny videos, and while they might be National Treasures, they're nothing serious. Are they? This book argues that they should be taken seriously —very seriously indeed. Attempting to wrest Pulp away from the grim jingoistic spectacle of Britpop and the revivals-of-a-revival circuit, this book charts the very strange things that occur in their records, taking us deep into a strange exotic land; a land of acrylics, adultery, architecture, analogue synthesisers and burning class anger. This is book about pop music, but it is mainly a book about sex, the city and class via the 1990s finest British pop group.


Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 965 KB
  • Print Length: 135 pages
  • Publisher: O-Books (16 Jun 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B0056A1HS8
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #171,211 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Owen Hatherley
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Uncommon... 1 Aug 2011
Format:Paperback
Uncommon by Owen Hatherley is a strange little book. It reminds me of a dissertation, written very much in an analytic style by someone who clearly loves the music and lyrics of the band Pulp, but is fair and appraising of their work. It isn't a gushing fan book, it is far better than that, an intelligent account of the musical and lyrical progress of the band from their earliest days through to their last album. There is much food for thought in this slim volume, and much of interest to the average Pulp fan, but is let down by at least three mis-quotes of the lyrics.
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in October 2010, 60% of British artists in the UK top 10 had been to public school, compared with 1% in October 1990. &quote;
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post-Communist nations who have been most comprehensively evacuated of any non-monetary ethics or any remaining vestiges of solidarity  Russia, Ukraine, Hungary - have gigantic, lucrative and hyper-exploitative hardcore industries partly replacing the old world of heavy industry. &quote;
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indie ethos and the by-todays-standards-generous state benefits gave groups a certain freedom not just to experiment, but also to be crap, to make their juvenilia, make mistakes and learn from them, Pulp grew towards greatness. &quote;
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