singemonkey wrote
Also, I think that western teenage culture had been fragmenting since the '50s. The branches kept spreading out and the twigs got more numerous. I think this became really obvious in the '80s. In the '70s I think the major differences were between rock and punk. Rockers listened to Sabbath and Motorhead too - so even rock and metal hadn't really split. The little variations began to become distinct species that could no longer inter-breed in the '80s.
I grew up in the 70's and went the rock route, most of the people at school actually did not really listen to music that much, I think the 70's "Radio Music" wasn't that inspiring. Remember all we had in those days was David Gresham on Springbok Radio and Popshop on TV. The more adventurous ones like me used to tune into LM radio, which eventually became Radio 5 and finally 5FM.
There was a very small group of us that discovered 'Music' (at least at the schools I went to) and we were considered very strange by teachers and pupils alike. The little exposure we had in the RSA media meant that the Early 70's Glam Rock and the later 70's punk kind of missed most. I was lucky enough to have family in the UK who sent me Melody Maker, New Musical Express etc which put me in touch with what was happening in the rest of the world.
Hillbrow Record Centre was another huge resource.
The Media in RSA was completely different in the late 70's and 80's, and there was a whole lot more exposure to music and fashion etc. I think that is why
so many think that the 80's was "The Decade".
You must also remember that the SABC had such stringent measures in place, and that's why you couldn't really hear the Beatles or The Stones on Radio. I work at the SABC and the Record Library(which is hugely impressive) had nearly every single record you can think of, I even found van der Graaf Generator LP's in the archives, BUT there was huge markings on most tracks - "Not suitable, do not play" on most of them.
Bands like the Sex Pistols, The Damned, Generation X, The Clash and many
MANY more were not played on SABC airwaves at all, because of these policies. But were hugely relaxed in the 80's.
The thing that gets me is that some panel of experts would be listening to eg. Uriah Heep "The Magicians Birthday" and would be making judegment calls determined on religious, political and to a large extent Sex censorship policies that were in place. You can understand completely why The Ramones "now I want to sniff some glue" didn't make the cut ?
