I received an e-mail from an old friend the other day, who had written to tell me that he had just spotted a troubling Kenneth Cole billboard in his hometown of Boston. Apparently, the sign read, “Gold jewelry, big hair, President Bush.” Better hone your running man techniques in your basement,” he advised. The news confirmed my nightmares: the Eighties are back, and there’s not much that I can do about it.
Scary as it may be, the Eighties revivalism movement has been growing for a while now. Any party-going college kid can testify that the most popular songs at any two-kegger were all recorded while we were still watching Thundercats. A curious phenomenon, this Eighties nostalgia. Luckily, it’s been contained so far to the realm of music; but if Kenneth Cole is right, ripped denim and glitter can’t be too far around the corner. And that, more than the rebirth of the Phoenix-like Bush clan, gives me the fear.
The Eighties was the decade when instruments were shamelessly trashed and replaced by synthesizers. We saw hair metal, boy bands and the birth of adult contemporary, all within a couple of years. Didn’t we kill off all of those nasty demons of the Eighties with Nirvana? Where have you gone, Kurt Cobain? We need you now more than ever.
But maybe this shameless appropriation of Eighties culture isn’t all bad. Submitted for your consideration: I’m out at the Dan the Automator/Jeru show last weekend at the Black Cat. As Taekwon from the Illcon/Soul Camp crew took his turn on the decks, a giant circle forms and the b-boys start setting it off.
Breakdancing had been written off as a lost art circa 1995, when hip hop was right in the middle of taking itself too seriously. As good as the music may have been, the G-funk of Dr. Dre and Snoop didn’t really lend itself to breaking. And anyways, how could we have time to dance when we had to worry about who the next prominent rapper to get assassinated would be? But with the end of the decade, a neo-traditionalist movement began in hip hop, with a re-emphasis on clever lyrics and music that you could dance to. Not coincidentally, breaking, which had gone subterranean in the early Nineties, broke out of its underground confines and reappeared in a big way.
So when I turned around to check out the b-boys at the Black Cat, I was reminded how much fun a hip hop show can be. For all the macho posturing and bravado that goes on on stage, the democracy of the circle is a welcome antidote. Now that hip hop music has gone commercial, with DMX and Jay-Z filling the MCI Center, part of the romance of the hip hop show has been lost. But in small nightclubs from here to Tokyo, there are still kids on the floor going for theirs; and that’s what this music was supposed to be about in the first place. Next time you are out at a party and somebody’s playing Eighties hip hop notice the song. The music was made for dancing and partying. Somewhere along the line, that changed. But big hair and President Bush are back in. So it might be time to go pick up a pair of Adidas shell-toes while you’re out.
This Saturday, Infinite Loop will be playing the 9:30 Club, with Po-emcees and Team Demolition. While the on-stage performances promise to highlight the best of the local hip hop scene, it’s the kids who come to dance that will really put on the show. So give up the Cyndi Lauper and the Whitesnake for the night and go check out a part of the Eighties that’s actually worth remembering.
