MusicTank

Joe absconded during an Easter Egg hunt; missing, presumably admidst a chocoholic haze of over-indulgence! Meanwhile, Hugh Nerd to the rescue:

Hugh Nerd Demands to Be Heard - Klaxon

So the Klaxons-led backlash against the burgeoning and (allegedly) Klaxons-led 'New Rave' scene continues apace, with lead singer Jamie Reynolds re-iterating the band's distaste for the terminology.  In an interview with Popworld magazine, Reynolds said "We kept getting asked to explain it, and it's like, look, the whole idea of new rave was to take the piss out of the media by making them talk about something that didn't exist, just for our own amusement.  And they'd say, 'I appreciate that, but can you tell me more about new rave?'"

I can kind of understand his point: these guys are, after all, at the very start of their careers and could certainly do without being cajoled into fronting an imaginary, media-friendly youth movement.  That said, I don't think there's anyone above the age of 16 who thinks 'New Rave' is anything other than a completely vacuous term, more suited to the Departmental Marketing meeting than a real-world conversation.  And if no-one takes these terms seriously then where's the harm?

But though they're meaningless, such labels are very tough to shake.  What starts off as a 'tongue-in-cheek in-joke between mates' is all of a sudden the central cultural reference point for the entire Topman Spring/Summer 07 collection. I kid you not - the term's barely six months old and the Oxford St fashion warehouse is already stacked to the rafters with day-glo splash print tees, rave whistles and Bootsy Collins-style sunglasses. What is this, like, the fourth summer of love we're on now?

That said, pigeon-holing doesn't only help those looking to cash in on youth culture - it's just as useful for the nervous teen looking for a way into 'the scene', the one that permeates the myspace pages of all the kids they're not cool enough to hang around with.  And given the average age of the hot pink scenesters I've seen hanging around outside Café 1001 recently, this could be the ultimate blessing.  While the band have to pay disapproving lip-service to the music press, the reality is that these kids can make them (and the marketers) very rich indeed. And where's the harm in that?