Madonna Was So Flamboyant In Terms Of

When I Started Out As A Music Journalist, At The End Of The 1980s, It Was Generally Assumed That We Were Living Through The Lamest Music Era The World Would Ever See. But Those Were Also The Years When Hip-hop Exploded, Beatbox Disco Soared, Indie Rock Took Off, And New Wave Invented A Language Of Teen Angst.

Big Star Invented A Vision Of Bohemian Rock & Roll Cool That Had Nothing To Do With New York, Los Angeles Or London, Which Made Them Completely Out Of Style In The 1970s, But Also Made Them An Inspiration To Generations Of Weird Southern Kids.

In Their Heyday, The Pet Shop Boys Were The Interpol Of The Eighties, Dressing Up To Sing Really Weird Pop Songs About Lust And Loneliness In The Big City. They're Low-pro Now, Not Retro-worshipped In The Manner Of Depeche Mode, New Order, Or The Cure, But You Can Hear The Reason Why - These Guys Are Too Sad.

Like Many Other Touchstones Of Twenty-first-century Pop Culture, 'the Sopranos' Was Hatched In The Late Nineties, Predicting A Future That Never Arrived. It Was Designed For A Decade That Would Be Just Like The Nineties, Except More So, In An America That Enjoyed Seeing Itself As Smarter And Braver And Freer Than Ever Before.

Our Amour Fou With 'the Sopranos' Is Headed For Long-term Parking, Like So Many Of Its Most Memorable Characters. We'll Never See A Show Like This Again.