33 1⁄3 years of pop journalism
The German pop culture magazine "Spex" looks back on three decades of pop criticism with a collection of articles that it has played a key role in shaping.
"There were only two camps: ourselves and the doofuses." For German author Clara Drechsler, the world was still a simple place in 1980. There were those who were familiar with current pop culture, with bands like Throbbing Gristle, the Fehlfarben or Simple Minds. And there were those who had no idea. Drechsler herself belonged to the first, dedicated group. Together with other initiates, she founded the magazine for pop culture in Cologne in 1980 Spexwhich would go on to have a significant impact on German pop journalism. The others included not least the feuilletons, for whom pop was more a foreign body than a mass phenomenon to be taken seriously.
Today, 34 years later, everything is different. Pop is everywhere. Newspapers are no longer afraid of contact - instead of "culture" and "feature pages", the sections are called "entertainment" and "lifestyle". New media such as the Internet and free newspapers have penetrated the sphere of Spex. The time has come for former editor-in-chief Max Dax and author Anne Waak to look back. In the almost 500-page volume Spex - The book. 33 1/3 years of pop they gather over seventy, in Spex published "key lyrics" from Joy Division to Northern Soul and the Pet Shop Boys.
The collection describes the development of a small and independent music editorial team with freelancers into an established pop magazine and provides an insight into the new language that Spex for pop criticism; a mix of slang with an affinity for the scene and intellectual feature writing. The focus on seemingly trivial matters and the rapid alternation between interview and continuous text - to pick out just two stylistic elements - makes for refreshing, new and stimulating reading at the best of times. At its worst, however, it is also detached, bizarre and incomprehensible.
The strengths of Spex lie in the analysis of pop as an interdisciplinary phenomenon that is not limited to music in connection with social and political aspects. A dimension that the book pays attention to in interviews with fashion designers such as Raymond Pettibon and Penny Martin. Also worth mentioning in this respect is an extensive interview with filmmaker Claude Lanzmann about his radical film epic Shoah and a socio-cultural analysis of the trip-hop band Massive Attack.
What the collection of articles can by no means achieve is an overview of three decades of pop culture. Rather, the book provides exemplary insights that are always surprising - especially from a historical perspective. For example, when it becomes apparent that contemporary references and references are no longer to be taken for granted today, or when bands such as Daft Punk are reported on, who were still on the verge of their big breakthrough at the time. Other bands like Cpt. Kirk &. or 39 Clocks are only (or still only) known to insiders today.
Much is addressed and just as much falls by the wayside. The texts are neither commented on nor embedded in their respective contemporary context. On the one hand, this is a loss, but on the other it also counteracts the reader's own comfort and encourages them to take on this critical work themselves. However, the lack of illustrations, pictures and record covers reduces the examination of the pop phenomenon to a purely textual one. This is just as unfortunate as the lack of female protagonists. Really missed Spex However, the historiography of pop has long since migrated to other parts of the world. Globalization is being Spex - The book only marginally noticeable, the focus remains on the German and English-speaking regions. As a result, the magazine misses out on a whole series of new, central issues. It is quite possible that, with this focus, we have long since rejoined the group of "doofuses".
Spex - The book. 33 1/3 Years of Pop, ed. by Max Dax and Anne Waak, 480 p., CHF 38.50, Metrolit-Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-8493-0033-3
