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On the Real Side

LinksGeneral interest Culture Wars The online review of the Institute of Ideas. It covers books, films, theatre, art and talk events, with a view to understanding how political and other ideas filter through the culture, and how the arts in turn influence politics and society more generally. Institute of Ideas Soul music In the Basement magazine Opera Midland Opera Company
About meMy name is Niall and I am a freelance designer, writer and sub-editor based in London. I am a former bar owner and restauranteur and I am a founder member of the Birmingham Salon and an associate of the Institute of Ideas. My hobbies and interests include a love of soul music and opera, singing in an amateur opera chorus, DJing (soul music), skiing, long-distance running and photography.
My other writing
What’s the ‘big idea’?I’ve been thinking about writing a music blog for a while; something that would allow me to talk about popular music, its history, traditions, its future, and tackle a few questions that have been bugging me for a long time. What it is that makes music good or bad? Does it have an objective quality? Is some music better than other music simply because it’s technically superior or are lyrics and/or content what’s most important? Are great songs on a par with great poetry or should our enjoyment of music be purely about the sound or sensory experience? And what about how we listen to and appreciate popular music? Fashions, movements – the so-called tribalism of street-based youth movements for much of the postwar period and why that gave way to a more ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ approach we have to music today and epitomised by the music show ‘Later, with Jools Holland’. Should today’s musicians be borrowing from or reviving the past (covering/copying, pastiche, sampling), or rediscovering old techniques, methods and technology? Should young musicians have a better sense of their history and heritage or would that simply block young, creative minds? Are glitzy TV shows like American Idol and…
Home

My personal store for ideas, articles, photos and more. It started out as a place to write about my love of soul and popular music, and I named it after one of my favourite 70s tunes – On the Realside by Larry Sanders.

Now it’s a bit of everything…

Birmingham Gothic

Art and Creativity · photography · Society
If there ain’t no beauty, you gotta make some beauty!

Soul music
Babies, Big History & Bowie (again)

popular music
David Bowie: the Man Who Fell to Earth?

popular music
Twenty Feet From Stardom: the decline of the pop professional

Soul music
Dancehall and ‘blues’: from outlaws to mainstream

Soul music
Living on plastic credit cards

Soul music
Opera for the masses, by the masses?

Opera
Where’s the ‘In’ Crowd today?

Society · Soul music
Message to MOBOs: ditch the victim act

Contemporary music

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