... disturbs me. It would be OK if they continued to make the quality music they made in the 60s (or even the 70s for some), but I'm afraid for many, the 80s permanently damaged their perception of what constitutes listenable music.
P2P is great for nabbing really hard-to-find stuff, since lots of brilliant anonymous people rip their rare vinyl or out-of-print CDs and shuttle them out into cyberspace. But often, not having found a discography on some 60s artist I'm curious about, I take a stab in the dark and download anything their name is attached to.
All too often, this leads to a traumatising experience. Poised for hip-shakin' grooves and exciting, raw vocals, I'm instead greeted with a cheesy synth line, pre-programmed beats, and then comes (shudder)...the overwrought vibrato. Often it's a terrible ballad with synths mimicking 'real' instruments or a Eurovision-esque disco trash number, minus any kitsch appeal.
Turkish, Italian, French... whatever the nationality, it seems a given that the pop star has made as many or more recordings in recent years than early in their career, and that these will be excruciating forays into either MOR pop/rock or Eurotrash dance/pop. Some recent examples of artists I was hoping to discover more great stuff by, only to have my ears assaulted:
Ajda Pekkan, a Turkish singer who has some fantastic 60s recordings,
Bobby Solo, an Italian pop star whose cover of 'Mrs Robinson' I found enjoyable enough to seek out more stuff by and
Cristina Hansen, by whom I found an interesting looking 60s EP on Ebay that included an Italian Bob Dylan cover.
Leading the charge of French artists to take disappointing turns in their careers is
France Gall. As admirable a person as she is, it saddens me that she traded in all that was naturally great about her approach to singing for a cookie-cutter voice. And it probably serves me right for being a cheapskate, but bargain copies I've picked up of best-ofs by
Sylvie Vartan and
Petula Clark (French recordings only) have included a CD of recent (or recent and 80s, in the case of Sylvie) recordings that require a strong stomach to get through. Many of the more obscure French 60s female singers have also made excursions into all that could be wrong about 'modern' music.
There are, of course, exceptions.
Francoise Hardy and
Jane Birkin have at least, for the most part, continued to keep up a spirit of exploration and artistry. And the little I've heard of
Stella's recent music was quite tastefully done. Still, I can't pretend everything these artists do is still to my taste - much of it often has a strong adult contemporary feel.
For every Euro pop star with a decade-spanning career that has now settled into blandness and/or tackiness, there are a multitude of fans that only like their recent work and have a reverse sense of aesthetics to those of us who are retrophiles. They find their favourite artist's 60s music silly and archaic, and the fashion horrifying. Take the YouTube user that commented, under the clip I posted of France Gall performing 'Computer Nr 3' on German TV in 1968, that she looks much better in the clip for 'Ella, Elle L'a' and that 60s hairdos are terrible. Her hair is a slightly unnatural yellow shade, but still darn groovy and it's straight, simple and long... not that far removed from what is still considered stylish. Her teased mess of hair in the 'Ella..' clip gives me nightmares.
So, in conclusion to this cutting-edge anthropological investigation, let's remember that while many often applaud continental Europe for not being as ageist as other parts of the world, there can be a dark side to this.*
*Disclaimer: Please save your rants and abuse until you take some time to consider whether this may tongue-in-cheek.
Ye-Ye Girls
