How the mainstream press has changed their minds about Morrissey and The Smiths

[butley]

The recent interview with Johnny Marr in The Sun set me thinking how times have changed. Firstly Johnny Marr would have had nothing to do with The Sun newspaper when the Smiths were still together and they wouldn't have really wanted anything to do with him.Tthe Smiths are now regarded as a British institution yet while they were together they were viewed with suspicion by The Sun,The Star and The Mirror and were ridiculed on a regular basis.
The Smiths were so anti-establishment in their day their status now is unfathomable yet really pleasing. Anyone remember some DJ presenting Top of the Pops putting their fingers in their ears before they introduced The Smiths? I'd love to see that clip now because people think I'm making it up.

 

[Bluebirds]

Re: HHow the mainstream press has changed their minds about Morrissey and The Smiths

Too late and too young to really appreciate coverage of The Smiths in the tabloid press but always remember The Daily Star urging readers of the paper to throw stuff at Morrissey before Madstock cos he's crap... How prescient.

Another mention of Morrissey in The Scum was about the time he released Piccadilly Palare and Neil Tennant was in the Bizarre showbiz column saying the only person he knew who was more interested in his own chart positions than himself was dear ol' Moz. To which the editor of Bizarre made some humourous comment, "No wonder he's miserable then." That editor... none other than Piers Morgan.

Even readers of The Scum like the Smiths now and Morrissey has reached the unenviable position of National Treasure, despite his best efforts to distance himself from it (Any number of outrageous comments over recent years....)

But yes its remarkable how the alternative/ anti-establishment, over the years, has become accepted by the mainstream.

 

[mozmal]

Re: HHow the mainstream press has changed their minds about Morrissey and The Smiths

I remember all too well the way The Smiths were despised by the tabloid press in the 80's, they were indeed ridiculed at every opportunity. I still have a cutting from the time about Suffer Little Children, the 'journalism' always referred to Morrissey as being miserable, etc. Give it time and there will be people walking around wearing Smiths T-shirts, just like you see Ramones T-shirts being worn by people who couldn't name one of their songs.

 

[Peterb]

Re: HHow the mainstream press has changed their minds about Morrissey and The Smiths

I remember all too well the way The Smiths were despised by the tabloid press in the 80's, they were indeed ridiculed at every opportunity. I still have a cutting from the time about Suffer Little Children, the 'journalism' always referred to Morrissey as being miserable, etc. Give it time and there will be people walking around wearing Smiths T-shirts, just like you see Ramones T-shirts being worn by people who couldn't name one of their songs.

It was always a given that Morrissey's music made you miserable. I (and I guess all of us) never got this, his voice and music has always been joyous for me. What the The Scum and others could not get is that The Moz would write about many things, even those subjects we would feel more comfortable avoiding.
The Scum and others always fall in line. This is one of their evils, they cannot champion the new, the brave, iconoclasts. Now, they'll praise Moz and interview Johnny Marr (he should have turned the f***ers down) as they are now part of the established music scene.

 

[goinghome]

Re: HHow the mainstream press has changed their minds about Morrissey and The Smiths

I have a feeling also that just as happened with The Smiths, Morrissey's solo cannon will receive a similar re-evaluation when the dust has settled and Morrissey has sequestered himself away in a crumbling farmyard in the Cheshire green belt, broadcasting his dj set from his living room with turn-table hooked up to computer and dashing off letters to raise the ire of reigning politicians with cats pitter-pattering under his feet and his thespian associates dropping by regularly as guest interviewees!!

 

[The Seeker of Good Songs]

Re: HHow the mainstream press has changed their minds about Morrissey and The Smiths

A reason of this change may be that the people in the press now, are the ones who grew up (matured) on The Smiths/Morrissey. Similarly, I notice in TV adverts etc where they use 80's/90's music now because that is the music of the generation now working in the ad business.

 

[malvachat]

Re: HHow the mainstream press has changed their minds about Morrissey and The Smiths

I'm a little surprised nobody had quoted our friend.

"The critics who
can't break you
they somehow help to make you"

"the critics who
can't break you
unwittingly, they make you"

I won't reference the song,because if you don't know it,you are beyond help

 

[Raphael Lambach]

The recent interview with Johnny Marr in The Sun set me thinking how times have changed. Firstly Johnny Marr would have had nothing to do with The Sun newspaper when the Smiths were still together and they wouldn't have really wanted anything to do with him.Tthe Smiths are now regarded as a British institution yet while they were together they were viewed with suspicion by The Sun,The Star and The Mirror and were ridiculed on a regular basis.
The Smiths were so anti-establishment in their day their status now is unfathomable yet really pleasing. Anyone remember some DJ presenting Top of the Pops putting their fingers in their ears before they introduced The Smiths? I'd love to see that clip now because people think I'm making it up.

It's notg hard to explain. Nowadays The Smiths and Morrissey become mythic and they are part of the most important group of British musician, then the press needs to talk about. I'm able to say that sometimes the press doesn't want to do that but there's a phenomenum in mass commnunication called agenda setting which makes necessary to cover some subjects or to write & talk about it as senso communis, I mean, you'll never see anybody speaking badly of Elvis. Almost the same thing happens to The Smiths. After 90'a Morrissey became an icon and this thing changes everything.