I’ve recently finished reading Nick Hornby’s delightful novel. High Fidelity, but one question lingers in my mind. Why do Rob, Barry and Dick hate the Simple Minds so much?
It’s stated more than once, I believe, most promintently when Dick introduces his new girlfriend as “a Simple Minds fan” and then explains that he’s “showing her why she shouldn’t be one.” Rob’s narration then goes on to explain that the Championship Vinyl crew “hates Simple Minds” and that they’d make their top five list of bands to shoot (alongside Genesis).
As yet, my search for Cliffs notes has proven fruitless, and so I turn to the Dopers. Why so much hate towards the 'Minds?
Because (in terms of 80s bands) the Championship Vinyl crew would have looked down on people who liked something as mainstream as the Cure, let alone Simple Minds. Being a Simple Minds fan is just one step away from being a Duran Duran fan, for heaven’s sake!
(The guys in the store would have been Joy Divsion fans, I should think.)
Simple Minds are the perfect example of ‘selling out’ from the viewpoint of the elitist music fan that most of the characters are in High Fidelity.
They started off very electro-alternative left field. Adored by the early 80s “proper” music fan and New Musical Express reader. If you’ve heard any of their early stuff you’ll appreciate that it was mostly dull dirges not a 100 miles from Joy Division and the like (with a few worthy exceptions I must add).
But by mid to late 80s they had gone stadium, mainstream rock of the most over-blown type. “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” epitimises this. This was guaranteed to make them pots of money and earn them the unending loathing of the characters in in High Fidelity. Nothing upsets an elitist music fan more than one of ‘their’ bands becoming popular with the undemanding, taste-free public.
Nick Hornby obviously either knows the type or was/is one.
I kind of liked Simple Minds, but I can appreciate where they’re coming from about what Simple Minds became.
Yep, I’d say the general thrust is spot on. As to whether Hornby is himself a member of the NME/anal/elitist crowd, I’m actually not sure. Despite his footie allegiance, I still want to think he’s bigger than that. However, does seem instinctively inclined to a ‘tribal’ type mindset. This book probably presents some clues, though.
A few years back, he wrote an article for New Yorker on the sad state of modern pop music. It’s been quite a while since I read it, but my impression was that, firstly, yes, he is part of that anal/elitist crowd, and secondly, he’s knowledgable enough about music and a talented enough writer that it’s hard not to agree with his conclusions, even if you really like the bands he’s slagging.
Have you read his 31 Songs? For those who don’t know, it’s a book in which he discusses 31 songs (he claims he picked them for no particular reason, but it seems to me that he uses each song to discuss different features of pop music (indie song that no one will hear, well written pop, lyrics, solos, etc.).
I ask, because this is exactly the feeling I got when reading the book. I didn’t always like the same artists as him, but I almost always agreed with his conclusios to some extent, although I didn’t feel the way he did about some of the songs (e.g for those who’ve read the book, I think Randy Newman is a great example of humour working in pop music, and that they are truly great songs, regardless (and at times because of) the politicking; I don’t see the problems with the themes of Aimee Mann’s You Had Time and I see the artistic worth in Erik B and Rakim’s sampling).
The big difference is he’s aware of it and aware that it can seem ridiculous to others. You can’t successfully create a character in fiction unless you can recognise what it is that makes them tick. What makes these characters tick is that they are elitist fanatics, music fanatics and like all fanatics they know that their tastes and opinions on music are correct, and everyone else is wrong.
Record shops the world over are full of such people.
I can’t disagree with any of the last three posters. Fwiw, I’ve known and lived for years with characters like those in the book. Indeed, I remember the old NME when the extent of your masculinity wholly depended on how far you got with the crosssword.