Posts
Dizzee does it for himself
Who knew that Dizzee Rascal is more C86 than underground grime? He's genuninely indie:
"Dance Wiv Me was the first fully independent song to go to No.1 in 14 years."
He's proud of his achievement - understandably so. The main difference between Rascal and most indie acts, though, is that he's quite keen to remain indie.
And, he tells the Daily Record, he's keen to return to Scotland:
He added: "I think Scotland is very urban in the sense of rough council estates.
"You've got black people in Scotland and always had a good history of black music.
You had Average White Band so there's always been relations to urban.
"You're not that far away from England, know what I mean?"
Dizzee played at Glasgow University during last year's Freshers' Week.
He said: "I went to their ball. It's good to rave with the students.
"It was my 23rd birthday and they mademe feel really welcome."
"You've got black people in Scotland and always had a good history of black music.
You had Average White Band so there's always been relations to urban.
"You're not that far away from England, know what I mean?"
Dizzee played at Glasgow University during last year's Freshers' Week.
He said: "I went to their ball. It's good to rave with the students.
"It was my 23rd birthday and they mademe feel really welcome."
Ah, yes. You'll generally find the Freshers' ball at Glasgow consists almost entirely of kids from the rough council estates.
5 comments:
Do the arctic monkeys not count as an independent.
Not by the rather specific definition he's using here: Arctic Monkeys (and Fedde Le Grande and Katie Melua and Basshunter) were all signed to independent labels, as was Mr Rascal until now. His current single was released by a label that he owns, and nobody's managed that since 1994.
Since you ask, that 1994 chart-topper was, er. 'Inside' by Stiltskin. Great company to be in there, then.
Actually, the fact that the last single to manage this was the Stiltskin one makes Dizzee's achievement all the more impressive. Remember, the Stiltskin song was the soundtrack to a Levi's commercial at the time: every Levi's song got to number one. The fact that neither they nor Babylon Zoo were ever heard from again kind of speaks volumes. Dizzee Rascal isn't really in that category...
"Inside" is an interesting song without remotely threatening to be any good: it was clearly the moment when it became blatantly obvious that grunge was dead, and it was number one when John Smith died. So it defined the void that Britpop would fill, and thus alter the relationship between pop and the ruling elite forever.
By that definition of "indie", weren't the biggest indie acts in the UK the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync, back before BMG bought Zomba?
Post a Comment
As a general rule, posts will only be deleted if they reek of spam.