Generations from now, they won't call it the Internet anymore. Is an ongoing conversation about media of all kinds. The space of the city in this dynamic is really cool and important, and the idea of the urban as a space that all these forms could come together with some kind of social and political figure that focuses and melds some of these forms. This sense of the urban space in both these videos “The Message” and “Beat Box” (at least the first one) is really provocative. As for the two different versions of “Beat Box” makes me think about the video of “The Message” from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Wow, what readings, did I ever tell you how happy I am that you all are here to make these off-handed bits of nostalgia What a reading of Newcleus’s video, I wouldn’t even know what instruments were what, so seeing this reading makes me pretty excited that there may be far more at work with the moment of transition a song like this represents into a moment of what would soon after be widely represented by Run DMC, who almost immediately cross rap over with rock with the “Walk this Way” remake with Aerosmith.Īnd this goes with some of what is talking about with the kind of musical borderzone during the early 80s, wherein punk, jazz, rock, and rap were not as clearly distinguishable as we might think in Your reading of Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” is amazing, it takes one of my favorite videos of the 80s, and maps it on a fascinating political, social, and specifically historical reading of this moment. One seems to mix the boom box sound with a spin on urban scenes, late capitalism and late empire (hello 1970s and early 80s…) in the British context while the other seems oddly toned down or constrained, by comparison… Looking back now, it’s interesting to find two different video versions floating on YouTube. …and then, a tune I heard from a stranger who was using his own tape to test boom-boxes on sale at a Lechmere department store back in ’83 or ‘84 – it was the Art of Noise’s “Beat Box” (1983). The video offered a great satire of domestic frames and corporate wardrobes, all with an existential edge (along with the figure of HH, jamming from the screen within the screen…) just perfect for the culture of the early 80s… Herbie Hancock, “Rockit” (1983) – A song that seemed both smooth and funky at the same time, grabbed a new edge in the synthesized sound (while, unlike much other synthesized sound of the 80s, maintaining that edge). Tunes that your Newcleus post has brought me back to.

The early 80s were quite a moment – funk melding with punk (I won’t get started on this again) together with European electronica of the 70s and some of the jazz masters hopping in with their own stuff.

to Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock” from ’82). Wow! I remember this tune well and it’s inspired some serious flashbacks this morning (esp.

Newcleus jam on it wiki