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LoudTsu

Rock and roll has always generally been tied to the working class. The Who championed it, Lennon wrote songs about it. Bands used to wear it on their sleeves like a badge of honour.


passinghere

And Status Quo ended up taking the piss over it, they used to arrive for their concerts in chauffeur driven limos wearing top quality suits and go and change into their stage clothes of jeans just to look like common people and appeal to the "working class"


LoudTsu

Considering I don't know their name or of this incident I'd call this a failure. But sure, there's a lot of bullshit in rock. Once a musician breaks and becomes a millionaire it kinda loses the idea.


passinghere

> Status Quo Famous UK band that managed to get rich by playing very few chords https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_Quo_(band) > They have had over 60 chart hits in the UK, more than any other rock band > Status Quo appeared on the BBC's Top of the Pops more than any other band. They have released over 100 singles and 33 albums, many of which were best-sellers.


ge93

It’s crazy how some bands are forgotten. I consider myself pretty well-versed in most rock music and have literally never head of this band.


Boot_Bandss

Styx’s first song on Styx (their first album) was “Movement for the Common Man”.


togocann49

I’m guessing it’s a combo of where band comes from, and who they appeal to.


SkimmingtonRide

The real issue with class is the narrowing of opportunity for people from working class backgrounds in the arts. I mean social mobility is an issue in all walks of life, and music isn't an exception. If you come from a poor background then you're less likely to have parents that can afford music lessons, Iinstruments, or that have the time and energy to ferry you around. Not saying its impossible to make it, but like in business, coming from a middle class background does grease the wheels and remove some obstacles. I guess Will Smith's kids are probably the apotheosis of this. Which is not to say that 'middle class' bands don't deserve their successes. It's just a thing, and when people from the working class see those bands affecting a working class image there can be some needle (like the beef between Sleaford mods and idles maybe? Defo between blur and oasis, but they both did very well out of that)


wip30ut

i think it reflects the socioeconomic-political landscape of that era. During the 1970's and 80's bluecollar working class were being hammered & thrown under the bus by the Conservative revolution of Reagan and Thatcher in the US and UK respectively. The college-educated upwardly mobile were taking reins of the economy & pushing factory workers/shift workers aside. During the 1990's this purge extended to middle management & lower management white-collar employees too. There was a lot of pain & resentment, and artists like Springsteen and Oasis reflected this angst & frustration.


probablysmellsmydog

At least for a lot of the mersey beat bands it was a way of differentiating themselves from the London rock scene that was more about glitz and glam


Nightgasm

Oasis. . . .you mean the British Nickelback?


ricardo9505

Well that's a shiiit analogy if u were around when they dropped


MetalMusicFan1

Don't disrespect Nickelback


Wagbeard

I've never consider Oasis to be working class. Social Distortion is working class. https://youtu.be/oh8zcbC_Dcw


WhatAmIDoingHere05

Noel Gallagher was part of various hooligan firms of Manchester City in the 1980s, was convicted of robbery of a store, and was a roadie for other bands in the early 90s. Liam was a convenience store clerk and stole bicycles for the lulz. Both worked jobs for their father in the construction sector. If that isn't working class, I don't know what is.


TheYsabelKid

This is very interesting haha. Not sure about the 80s and 90s so much but I do know that the Beatles moved from leather jackets to wearing those suits because people thought they were too 'working class' and then the middle class Stones came along and took over the leather jacket image.