Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] favorite websites / 15 bands / "pop"

Tom Davies tdav@wam.umd.edu
Fri, 15 Mar 2002 20:39:51 -0500


dear workers,

here's an idea: what are your favorite websites? I ask because it's interesting 
to see what else is liked by those who share my taste for Oil, whether it's 
stuff having to do with politics, humor, fandom, good conversations, or whatever 
else one can put on the Web...

I'll throw out a list to start:

znet <www.zmag.org>: voluminous left-radical political site with many writings 
on many US and world issues by various people, the best known of whom are 
probably Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn.

ozy and millie <www.ozyandmillie.org>: a cute, intelligent webcomic. If you 
liked Calvin and Hobbes, check it out.

sinfest <www.sinfest.net>: another webcomic. Hard to describe but widely liked.

the council of watchers <www.protej.com/buffy>: a well-made site for criticism 
and discussion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (my favorite piece of contemporary 
culture other than the Oils).

spinsanity <www.spinsanity.org>: fair-minded, specific, rational taking-apart of 
the excesses, manipulative tactics, and outright falsehoods of much US political 
rhetoric.


...there's five good ones. Hope to get some interesting recommendations from 
y'all. Now to throw in a list of fifteen bands/artists that I really like:

Midnight Oil
U2
Tori Amos
Bjork
Sarah McLachlan
Smashing Pumpkins
Rage Against the Machine
Rancid
Tom Petty (with or without the Heartbreakers)
Delerium
Beastie Boys
Eurythmics
Indigo Girls
The Clash
John Mellencamp

...and one last thought:

3/15/02 7:12:52 PM, Felipe Castillo <escrutador@language.proz.com> wrote:

>Music is pop if your purpose is just to sell a lot of stuff to consumers but 
>not for listeners nor good music tastes.

I know some people see it that way, but to me it makes more sense to define 
"pop" as a style than as just bad, commercial music. You could call the 
Eurythmics a pop group, for instance; or Sarah McLachlan; or early Cranberries 
(especially songs like "Linger"). Not everyone's going to agree with me that 
these artists are good, but it would be unfair to automatically consider them 
pure commercial sellouts.

To put it another way: good pop songs do exist, and there are many bad, highly 
commercial musicians whose music isn't really pop, but rather country or rap or 
rap-metal or "alternative" rock or what-have-you.

Should Capricornia be considered pop? Well, it's interesting that some on this 
list have described the album as having a lot of commercial/radio potential 
while others have worried that it doesn't have any. I'm closer to the latter 
camp -- the only song I hear as being really radio-friendly is Golden Age, and 
even it sounds nothing like what gets played on the commercial radio stations I 
listen to.

'nother long message... thx for reading!

tom