Lock Stock Barrel and Waterman

Yes, I know the late 80's were a pretty deserted output for good music.
Yes, I know that the vast majority of the music put out by Stock Aitkin and Waterman was complete throwaway rubbish.

But i'd like to offer two things:

1. A defense of some of their better work.
2. A comparison with what is going on right this very second in music.

So here goes.

1. Stock Aitkin and Waterman DID produce some great music. They had a knack for catchy tunes and especially, they were masters of the pop bassline.

Listen to Spin me Round by Dead or Alive, Venus by Bananarama, they are funky and memorable; much more so than much of the music around in the mid 80s.

The thing to remember about SAW was that they came out of the discos and clubs. A lot of their output was designed for nightclubs and for people to dance to. Which brings us to point2.

2. Has anybody actually noticed the completely shocking state of popular dance music. Im not talking about the resurgence of indie dance and the terribly named "new rave" scenes. But your average club dance music.

Every single fucking dance song on music tv has 10 girls (usually ugly girls with bit tits pulled from a total pool of about 15) running about in as skimpy clothing as possible. Not just some videos... they ALL have it. Im fucking sick of it. Even decent dance tracks like Freddie le Grand have it.

Yet even then it gets worse. Cascada. Casbloodycada. The most inane shockingly bland and mind numbing dance music ever. It has no soul, no passion, no talent whatsoever. It makes 2Unlimited look like Pink Floyd. Fuck, at least 2 Unlimited had a grasp of making decent tunes.

Oh yeah, most of these dance tracks with identikit videos are just samples or edits of 80s/90s tunes. I mean there are HUNDREDS of them. For fucks sake, what is the world coming to when people want to sample ROXETTE?!

Were SAW worse than any of this? Not really. They got blander and worse over the years, but they just gave people what they wanted. And as the state of dance music right now shows. People want shit.

This is exactly why I get so angry about music.