(no subject)

It being the weekend, the blogs I read don't update as much so I'm left scrounging around the Internet, which is how I ended up on cracked on a Sunday morning. Like you do. I came across their article Upbeat Songs You Didn't Realize Were Depressing and the first song is... Electric Avenue.

I stop, my brain going briefly dim with static. Who in their right mind thinks Electric Avenue is upbeat? Even ignoring the lyrics it's overflowing with bitterness, a call to action that knows that it's doomed from the start. It's right there in the music! It doesn't even sound happy! It starts out with Now in the street, there is violence, and lots of work to be done.

But, whatever, I continue reading.

And then I find out it's about the Brixton Riots of 1981, which I have never heard of thanks to my dismal American-centric education.

Which is a bizarre coincidence: I put Electric Avenue on my Space Noir mix.

I also have Nouvelle Vague's cover of The Guns of Brixton.

Which in retrospect means I probably should have at least googled given that it's right there in the title, but I mostly picked it for the mood and lyrics.

Apparently a lot of the class-based discontent in the story is inspired by Brixton, which I had never even really heard of before today.