Word: musicalization
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...music that backs all this up is energetic, hypnotic, metallic, and impressive. It's also very reminiscent of the sound of Talking Heads. Not surprisingly, Devo's album was produced by Brian Eno, the same artist who produced that groups' most recent album. Eno has almost single-handedly brought innovation and creative excitement back into '70s rock; for Devo he's created a tight, technological sound that perfectly complements the band's ideas...
...Music like this won't seem all that hard to swallow for New York audiences accustomed to the freakish, but will Devo play in Peoria? Actually, Devo comes from Peoria--or, to be more precise, from Akron, which is probably worse. At least the band thinks so. Life in places like Akron--the factory routine, the Big Macs, the repression of natural instincts--may not literally "de-evolve" people, but it probably induces the social equivalent. The scientific basis for de-evolution seems pretty slim, but if you ignore the theory's crackpot side and think...
...whole thing would be laughable if Devo didn't sound so sincere. In their psychotic way, they do, unlike so many of the already-stereotyped razor-and-chain punks. But the system that governs the way popular music gets distributed in America has already latched onto the most unpleasant, alienated side of Devo in a futile and self-defeating shot at record sales through novelty. The band's appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live only gave the folks in Peoria a superficial look at Devo, and probably left them shaking their heads at the decadence of today's wasted...
Even the most knowledgeable American pop-music fan would be hard pressed to identify Dean Reed. But in the Soviet Union, the Denver-born country-and-western singer is more popular than Frank Sinatra. His frequent concert tours of Communist countries draw S.R.O. crowds; his songs, which frequently blend Marxist-inspired lyrics with twanging strains of the Nashville sound (one big hit: War Goes On), sell in the millions. Last week the 40-year-old singer gained a new notoriety in his homeland; he turned up as the focus of the Kremlin's latest effort to get back...
...fairly quaint line for use in getting rid of a pest on the phone: "My staff informs me an emergency call is waiting for me on the other line. Please forgive me, and put in writing the rest of your thoughts." She is less than enthusiastic about recorded music being piped in to entertain a caller who is put on hold...