If they weren't a bunch of pretty boys who really understood the importance of visuals, they wouldn't have separated themselves from the pack. Whatever their virtues musically, it was being pretty boys that made them.
I'm not convinced by that argument. OMD ploughed the same furrow with much success and they were ugly as sin.
OMD were way different throughout their first several albums. Dour, synth minimalism. They weren't playing to 13-year-old girls; OMD was for the Joy Division crowd.
I've just listened to the first DD album and it is downright weird in places. Yes, there's three poppy singles there but the rest of it seems anything but teeny bopper music. And let's face it, the first few OMD singles were anything but dour.
And yet, how did the fan base shake out? How come DD got screaming girls and OMD got mopey guys in long coats?
Only to the degree that DD was a band that marketed itself and cultivated a fanbase of primarily teenage girls. OMD's music and how they were marketed (and so their ideal fan) was notably different, at least in their early period.
“That, I say, that dog’s busier than a centipede at a toe countin’ contest.” - Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson on Gen. William Westmoreland, 18 June 1966
Only to the degree that DD was a band that marketed itself and cultivated a fanbase of primarily teenage girls. OMD's music and how they were marketed (and so their ideal fan) was notably different, at least in their early period.
DD's first tour was in support of Hazel O'Connor, hardly the obvious teeny bop route.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board
Only to the degree that DD was a band that marketed itself and cultivated a fanbase of primarily teenage girls. OMD's music and how they were marketed (and so their ideal fan) was notably different, at least in their early period.
DD's first tour was in support of Hazel O'Connor, hardly the obvious teeny bop route.
Only to the degree that DD was a band that marketed itself and cultivated a fanbase of primarily teenage girls. OMD's music and how they were marketed (and so their ideal fan) was notably different, at least in their early period.
DD's first tour was in support of Hazel O'Connor, hardly the obvious teeny bop route.
And when that didn't work...
I've read a couple of the DD autobiographies and I think they were actually quite shocked when they took off in that way. They genuinely never saw it coming. Maybe their management did though.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board
This is an OMD concert in 1985. Pause on any crowd shot and it is a total top 40 crowd, many of them girls.
1985 is key. They were in full Top 40 mode by then—Crush, "If You Leave," all that.
Hang on, you mentioned Dazzle Ships which was just 2 years before this. They were only 5 years into their chart career at this point, I can hear the sound of goalposts being moved.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board
This is an OMD concert in 1985. Pause on any crowd shot and it is a total top 40 crowd, many of them girls.
1985 is key. They were in full Top 40 mode by then—Crush, "If You Leave," all that.
Hang on, you mentioned Dazzle Ships which was just 2 years before this. They were only 5 years into their chart career at this point, I can hear the sound of goalposts being moved.
I'm not following. I'm saying that it wasn't until Crush, maybe Junk Culture, that they started gaining a more mainstream pop audience. Dazzle Ships was no way, no how meant for mass popularity.
“That, I say, that dog’s busier than a centipede at a toe countin’ contest.” - Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson on Gen. William Westmoreland, 18 June 1966
Only to the degree that DD was a band that marketed itself and cultivated a fanbase of primarily teenage girls. OMD's music and how they were marketed (and so their ideal fan) was notably different, at least in their early period.
DD's first tour was in support of Hazel O'Connor, hardly the obvious teeny bop route.
And when that didn't work...
I've read a couple of the DD autobiographies and I think they were actually quite shocked when they took off in that way. They genuinely never saw it coming. Maybe their management did though.
They certainly didn't rebel against being packaged as pretty boys. I think it was Alex Cox who said that DD and NuRo bands were perfect for MTV because they spent most of their time looking at themselves in the mirror, fixing their hair, anyway.
“That, I say, that dog’s busier than a centipede at a toe countin’ contest.” - Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson on Gen. William Westmoreland, 18 June 1966
I’m watching the Magazine reunion show right now and am sad they’ve been cut already. Definitely my favorite post-punk band.
Mine too. Probably my third favorite musical artist overall after the Clash and Bowie.
We have the exact same top 2. Magazine is in my top 5, but I'm too deep into the Smiths to let them drop from position #3.
I was glad that Magazine did the No Thyself album during the reunion. I thought it was a worthy addition to the canon, although I wish Barry Adamson had taken part in the recording process. Makes it a little harder to call it "Magazine" at that point.
I’m watching the Magazine reunion show right now and am sad they’ve been cut already. Definitely my favorite post-punk band.
Mine too. Probably my third favorite musical artist overall after the Clash and Bowie.
We have the exact same top 2. Magazine is in my top 5, but I'm too deep into the Smiths to let them drop from position #3.
I was glad that Magazine did the No Thyself album during the reunion. I thought it was a worthy addition to the canon, although I wish Barry Adamson had taken part in the recording process. Makes it a little harder to call it "Magazine" at that point.
I liked that record far more than I thought I would.
“That, I say, that dog’s busier than a centipede at a toe countin’ contest.” - Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson on Gen. William Westmoreland, 18 June 1966
