Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 11:01:46 -0700
From: <cpeel@killertracks.com>
To: <audities@smoe.org>
Subject: Re: That which has no answer (long post, with apologies)
Message-ID:
<F1C17BF34EC5EA4595041F4543357C8F036655B0@bvhbmlexs0002.bagmail.net>


<<And I don't think the whole Poptopia movement,
which sort of led to the IPO and Audities movements would exist without
that album,>>


Carl, that was generally a great post about influences and artistic
reference points. Thanks for posting it, since it really crystallized a
lot of my inchoate musings about the subject of power pop. However, I do
think that you went a little overboard with the above snippet about the
first Jellyfish album.

Did it inspire the Poptopia festival? Perhaps ... only Tony Perkins
really knows for sure, right? But *movements* as opposed to festivals?
Yes, lots of power pop aficionados loved (and love) *Bellybutton*, but I
hardly think it spearheaded the entire pop underground of the nineties
and oughts. I don't think *any* one album loomed that large. In fact,
I'd argue that two albums that were roughly contemporary with it,
Matthew Sweet's *Girlfriend* and Teenage Fanclub's *Bandwagonesque*,
were just as influential in the formation of the latter-day pop
underground, if not more so. Both those albums got more exposure (in the
States, at least) than did *Bellybutton*; the title track from
*Girlfriend* reached #5 on the U.S. Modern Rock charts, while
*Bandwagonesque* was named #1 album of 1991 by *Spin* and TFC played
*Saturday Night Live* and toured as Nirvana's opening act at the height
of Cobainmania.

I realize that I'm speaking anecdotally, which means that any larger
conclusion drawn from this observation is immediately suspect, but while
I know a bunch of power pop fans who have never listened to Jellyfish I
can't name one who is unfamiliar with "Girlfriend" and "I've Been
Waiting".



Greg Sager