{"id":2624,"date":"2010-03-19T10:41:51","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T14:41:51","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-03-19T10:41:51","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T10:41:51","slug":"why-is-big-star-the-power-pop-band-for-rock-nerds-who-don-t-like-power-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/why-is-big-star-the-power-pop-band-for-rock-nerds-who-don-t-like-power-pop\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Was Big Star the Power Pop Band for Rock Nerds Who Didn’t Like Power Pop?"},"content":{"rendered":"

LnBliyHGn6A]
\nNo disrespect whatsoever meant to Alex Chilton<\/a><\/strong> and Big Star<\/strong>, but this may be a good time to poke you and set myself up for ridicule. Why Big Star was the power pop band for rock nerds who didn’t like power pop?<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t know what it’s like today, but I’m pretty sure the rock nerd world has changed a lot since the early 1980s, when Big Star and Chilton’s legacies were making up for lost time in the critical and underground\/”college rock” realm. People like myself, who grew up with a Beatles-based pop basis, easily dug those Big Star albums that were surfacing from years of obscurity. What at first seemed promising, though, was that rock nerds who were into heavier, noisier, or more cock rock-based stuff – and who wouldn’t be caught dead listening to Badfinger<\/strong> let alone any Beatles album except the experimental stuff on The White Album<\/em> were also digging Big Star. “Hey,” I remember thinking as a college freshman, “this slightly menacing hipster guy may now think I’m cool too for liking [insert power pop band of your choice<\/em>]!” Yep, the Steve Albini<\/strong> characters of the world who were as excited about Big Star as I was would no longer scoff at my love for Stands for Decibels<\/em>.
\n
\nakTMC_jtGh8]
\nNo dice!<\/strong><\/em> I was still a pop-loving pussy and they were still cooler than I’d ever be. Come to think of it, beside these hipsters savoring the novelty of Chilton transitioning from a band like The Box Tops<\/strong>, I don’t recall much love for The Box Tops, no high fives were directed toward me from these types for my childhoold love for “The Letter,” “Cry Like a Baby,” and a lot of other bubblegum Memphis soul tunes from that era.<\/p>\n

Who knows, though. Maybe I read the whole situation wrong and I simply needed to pay my dues. I mean, I have come around on a lot of stuff I didn’t like when these guys I used to know were taking the time to try to show me the way.<\/p>\n

Big Star’s not the only band I’ve felt this way about – and again, I really like Big Star. It took me years to warm up to Funkadelic<\/strong>, for instance, because I harbored my own reverse snobbism that they were a “check-box band” (ie, checking off a box to preserve some rock nerd cred: “Sure I like soul music – I love Funkadelic!”) for white rock fans who didn’t bother to appreciate music by black pop musicians other than Jimi Hendrix<\/strong> while growing up. Certainly it’s offensive and distasteful to admit that I still harbor some of these feelings regarding rock snobs who dig Funkadelic, but who would we be if we couldn’t come clean about our own prejudices now and then?<\/p>\n

So what do you think? Did you notice Big Star getting a “pass” among a certain generation of rock hipsters who otherwise don’t have the time of day for a jangly pop band singing about unrequited love? Have you ever felt there’s a band that seem to be the sole representative of their genre for people who don’t otherwise like that genre?<\/em><\/p>\n

I look forward to your thoughts, and I trust that we will be understanding about the candid admissions that may follow from this thread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LnBliyHGn6A] No disrespect whatsoever meant to Alex Chilton and Big Star, but this may be a good time to poke you and set myself up for ridicule. Why Big Star was the power pop band for rock nerds who didn’t like power pop? I don’t know what it’s like today, but I’m pretty sure the […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}