Irish Music Changes Nothing
A bunch of music journos in the British Observer have compiled a list of 50 albums that changed pop music. No albums by Irish performers make the list, and in truth it’s hard to argue with that.
Irish music is poisoned as well as strengthened by traditional forms, so making pop albums that cause a revolution is never very likely. Listen to Irish radio from 1993 if you don’t believe me.
And of course I’ll make the usual claims about The Smiths, if only because it makes me laugh. Every time.
Brian Eno makes the list, and we’re told without him we wouldn’t have the Edge’s guitar. Well we certainly wouldn’t have had the happy dropping of fist-pumping U2 for the reinvention that was The Unforgettable Fire, and all that followed, so that seems fair.
Perhaps most relevant for Irish music is the inclusion of Fairport Convention and the birth of English Folk rock, which the Observer says without whom we would have had no Pogues and no Waterboys. Although the Pogues and Waterboys took different routes to their forms of updated folk music, it was certainly Fairport Convention that prepared the way for the more general pop audience. But it does ignore Ireland’s own living tradition of the passing on of its music to its diaspora and its visitors alike.
Beyond that I’d dump The Strokes and Primal Scream from the list, and replace them with The New York Dolls and The Sex Pistols, or somebody English or American, but I’d be very tempted to throw in Horslips. Because they cursed us with Celtic Rock that never reaches the heights of Dearg Doom, and because I like a laugh.
See Also:
• If 9 Irish Wishes Came True
• Top 50 Conservative Rock’n’Roll Songs
• Encore: 50 More Conservative Songs
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