I’ve been thinking lately about what constitutes the “canon” of the TNOCS community.
Here, I’m using the term with the following definition:
So maybe it’s an imperfect word for what I’m trying to describe.
I’m talking about our shared universe – the ideas, albums, movies, songs, books, quotes, etc. – any cultural artifact or reference that we collectively know and understand. It’s part of the language we speak with each other. It’s kind of foundational or important to our collective identity as members of the TNOCS community.
Obviously, I can mention the following things – and we’re all instantly on the same page:
(That is, if you come from Stereogum’s The Number Ones Comment Section, which was the origin of this little utopia):
• #JusticeforMagic
• “Backstabbers” is a 10
• Weird Al Yankovic’s biggest chart hit “White and Nerdy” peaked at #9
• Homework assignments from irishbearaz
• Tom Breihan’s references to cocaine or the Muppet Babies…
.. and the list goes on.
We have a pretty healthy shared reality here already.
But can it (should it?) expand beyond things mentioned just in the comments section?
Are there albums, songs, movies, books, television shows, or any other cultural artifacts that should be in our collective TNOCS canon? Things we all agree are great, or we at least have shared knowledge of the work in question?
I’d like to suggest a recurring column wherein people propose what should be in our shared TNOCS canon. The idea here is NOT to come up with something obscure or highly personal to you, but to share something you think everybody in TNOCS should love and appreciate.
It may be something which many of us already love and appreciate, but which we decree should part of our canon. That way, people who haven’t watched / listened / read are recommended to do so, and we can all use references from this work and it’s an understood point of reference.
Anybody can write a Canon column – it’s not a Pauly thing, it’s a TNOCS thing.
Think of a work you feel like should be in our shared TNOCS canon, explain why you think it deserves to be there (particularly why it should be relevant to TNOCS – to us) and submit it to mt58. We can debate pros and cons in the comments. People who don’t know the work are encouraged to find and experience it. It will be fun and hopefully enlightening as well.
Most importantly, we can build our lexicon of cultural reference that we bandy about. After all, what’s more fun that inside jokes among friends?
I’ll say: if you’re going to get into television, an entire series (unless it’s a limited one) may be hard to consume and process for anyone who isn’t already familiar with it. I could say Seinfeld would make great canon fodder, but with nine seasons at over 20 episodes a season, it would require a fairly gargantuan effort to consume the entire series. Maybe instead, one episode or a few choice episodes would be a better choice for a Canon column.
I really look forward to everybody’s Canon suggestions. As dutchg8r would say, “Nom-nom-nom!”
When writing about my mixtapes, I included a reference to the movie High Fidelity, which I feel like is something everyone in TNOCS should have seen.
So that will be my inaugural recommendation for TNOCS canon:
I’m recommending the movie High Fidelity (2000) directed by Stephen Frears, starring John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso and Jack Black.
I’m certainly not trying to dissuade anybody from the book “High Fidelity” by Nick Hornby, on which the movie is based, and which I’ve heard is excellent.
But I haven’t read the book, and the movie is perma-lodged in my brain.
Why am I recommending the movie?
Let’s see… A bunch of music-obsessed ne’er-do-wells? Working in a record store and talking about music? With live music featured? And several hilarious arguments about music?
Does this remotely sound like TNOCS territory?
And yes, it’s got some relevant themes about commitment and maturity – it is a real movie after all, not just a bunch of funny music-based non-sequiturs.
It’s got the music aficionado archetypes:
• Dick: soft-spoken, intensely into a few genres, knowledgeable to the point of pedantry.
• Barry: frustrated musician, overly exuberant, always looking to one-up his compadres in musical arguments.
• Rob: stuck in life, omnivorous musical tastes, taste-maker (now what you’d call an “influencer”).
Are you a Dick, a Barry or a Rob? Or maybe a Laura or a Charlie or (holding back the puke) an Ian? Not that we’re limited to these options in life, but I love a movie that categorizes people like it categorizes music, with limitless subgenres and quirks.
Ok, don’t want to get into the archetypes? Well how about the music featured in the movie… the needle drops?
Stevie Wonder. Stereolab. The Kinks. Bob Dylan. The Jam. Velvet Underground. Aretha Franklin. Barry White. Elvis Costello.
And yes… The Beta Band!
Check, check, check, across the board, check!
You could ignore the movie and have a great music lesson just with the needle drops.
Ok, if none of that works for you, how about some of the snappiest dialogue this side of Grosse Pointe Blank (another legendary Cusack adventure).
Some snippets below:
Barry’s Customer: Hi, do you have the song “I Just Called To Say I Love You?” It’s for my daughter’s birthday.
Barry: Yeah, we have it.
Barry’s Customer: Great, Great, can I have it?
Barry: No. No, you can’t…
Or this exchange:
Barry: Top 5 songs about death. A Laura’s Dad tribute list, okay…
Or…
Laura: [reading] “Top Five Dream Jobs…”
Rob: Hey! That’s private!
Laura: “Number One: Journalist for Rolling Stone magazine…”
If you are familiar with this movie, I hope this brings back some fond memories.
And if you haven’t seen it yet, I hope you feel inspired to do so. It’s a real classic, and I think a strong contender for TNOCS canon.
What do you think of High Fidelity as a contender for TNOCS Canon? I look forward to the debate!
And I definitely look forward to more recommendations for TNOCS Canon.
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I’m honored to get the Friday sidebar slot — thank you mt!!!
And as always — great job with the images and movie clips — they really make the article POP!
Good on you brother!
This is a great idea Pauly. Gonna have to get thinking for a recommendation. Personally I’d be happy to see Seinfeld in there (it had a small but devoted following here) but agree that consuming the entire series may be a bit much.
I haven’t seen High Fidelity since it came out but it seems a perfect choice for the canon. I’d read the book first and Nick Hornby’s passion for music shone through in a way that resonated with me. It doesn’t always work transplanting a book from Britain to a film set in the US but it in this case it worked. Maybe cos the characters as varying types of music nerds are recognisable wherever you are. Plus: The Beta Band – at a distance of 20+ years that scene is my main memory of the film.
Across the building from me is a total music nerd. He dives heavy into prog and Christian music and a bit into heavy metal. He knows his stuff and plays keyboards like a ringin’ a bell. But one time I brought up the Beatles with him and he flatly said, “I don’t even like the Beatles”.
I thought about that and in the end it isn’t really a problem. The Beatles are important, because they were so influential. They are also important because they are a shared reference for music lovers. Whether you love them or not, it’s still valuable to know their material, so you can make comparisons and references to their music. It’s like quoting Shakespeare or famous Biblical stories or referencing Bob Dylan. It’s useful because it’s a shared knowledge.
Trouble is, even the best of canon material isn’t known by everyone. Case in point: Seinfeld. I have seen zero episodes. Now, I have seen many-a-meme and heard many references over the years so many times that I actually understand some of them. But mostly I’m ignorant to a new Seinfeld reference you may come up with.
So while I absolutely agree that building up a library of canonical reference material is useful, it’ll be rare that any of it will be known by everyone. (Maybe I’m just being lazy and saying I don’t want to listen to those influential Smiths records or Dylan records) And I’m not sure if I’ll find it easy to make suggestions, just because I might feel like I’m pushing my favorite music/movie into canon, when it maybe just for selfish reasons.
Like I think everyone should watch the movie “Babe” and listen to big band music.
Link,
1. I don’t care much for the Beatles myself. If someone suggested any Beatles album, I’d have to listen to it and learn about it for the first time.
2. What I was hoping was that if someone proposes an idea for something to add to the Canon, and if there is general agreement in the comments that it belongs, that would be an encouragement for people who hadn’t seen / heard / read / consumed it yet to do so. Thus the recommendation NOT to write a Canon column about an entire TV series but maybe an episode or two… So someone with passing or no familiarity could conceivably give it a try. Of course it’s always optional. I don’t fault anyone who hates the Smiths.
3. I think there’s a certain element of judgment involved as to what work may be either widely beloved or particularly relevant to our TNOCS community. It’s not picking your favorite, it’s picking something you think we would mostly all enjoy or appreciate.
I read the book before I saw the film. The film is more faithful than most adaptations. Relocating from London to Chicago and cutting a subplot about a woman trying to sell Rob her cheating husband’s record collection are the only major differences.
That’s in the deleted scenes of the DVD / Bluray:
https://youtu.be/-uYKLe2lP6Q
And I think that story is a persistent urban legend in any collecting community. I heard it about a comics collection before I saw or read High Fidelity.
Great idea!
As a Dick with touches of Rob, I do maybe go on overkill with the niche topics and musical selections. 🤓 I will start thinking of my Top 5 TNOCS Canon Entries.
But first:
Top 5 Track One Side Ones:
5 Walking In The Rain – The Ronettes
4 Pray You Catch Me – Beyonce
3 I Feel The Earth Move – Carole King
2 Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution – Tracy Chapman
1 Lost Ones – Lauryn Hill
Mine are mostly pretty obvious, but they’re classics for a reason:
Barry:
Oh, that’s not obvious enough [Pauly]. How about the Beatles? Or f***ing… f***ing Beethoven? Side one, Track one of the Fifth Symphony… How can someone with no interest in music [pretend to write an article for a music-focused website]?
5: Hocus Pocus – Focus: Moving Waves (US) / Focus II (international)
4: Charleston Alley – Lambert, Hendricks, And Ross: The Hottest New Group in Jazz
3: Hoedown – Emerson Lake and Palmer: Trilogy
2: Come Together – The Beatles: Abbey Road
1: Mr. Blobby – Mr. Blobby: Mr. Blobby
Flag on the play!!!
Track One Side One of the Mr Blobby album was Old MacBlobby Had A Farm.
Really.
Having verified this on Discogs.com I note that for Genre they have this as ‘Non-music’. Touché.
Disturbingly though someone has recently paid £25 for a 2nd hand copy of the album. I imagine the seller was so thrilled they spent the £25 and much more besides getting utterly bungalowed with the joy of being rid of it.
If you need further verification
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm8Epcq1aRU
A masterful attempt to get me to click on that video…
Top 5 Favorite Genre Names in My iTunes Library:
OK. Fine, then.
I’ll see your Blobby, and raise you a Womble:
The Wombling Song – The Wombles: Wombling Songs
MR. BLOBBY SPOTTING!!!!
In no particular order and off the top of my head so subject to change as I spend the rest of the weekend thinking about it damn you!!!
7 Nation Army – White Stripes
Gloria – Patti Smith
Shine On You Crazy Diamond – Pink Floyd
I Wanna Be Adored – Stone Roses
One Step Beyond – Madness
1) The New World- X
2) Radio Free Europe- R.E.M.
3) Crucify- Tori Amos
4) Fisherman Blues- The Waterboys
5) Bring the Noise- Public Enemy
I have a shameful secret as a John Cusack fan to admit to y’all.
[Deep breath]
I have yet to watch High Fidelity.
😳
I know, I know. (Not sure if I shared this before, but my second car was named John-John, as in Taylor and Cusack) I may as well just hand in my tnocs.com card now and take the Walk of Shame…..
Can’t watch it this weekend though, it’s Superb Owl time! (What We Do in the Shadows reference, which would totally be my suggestion for a show for folks to get caught up on)
“it’s Superb Owl time! (What We Do in the Shadows reference, which would totally be my suggestion for a show for folks to get caught up on)”
Sounds like the seeds for a future Canon column have been planted. I have not seen WWDITS, so I’d welcome a rousing endorsement.
And yes, do enjoy High Fidelity — it’s a fun movie, especially for wannabe music snobs like us.
“High Fidelity” is awesome (book & movie) – it’s where I finally “got” Jack Black.
Wholeheartedly second What We Do In The Shadows. Consistently mad and funny. Colin Robinson is a fantastic addition to vampire lore.
In a linked note, just finished watching first season of Our Flag Means Death which is another great addition to the Taika Waititi back catalogue.
Ah, but have you listened to the entirety of Hi Infidelity? Also, has anybody read Micheal Chabon’s Telegraph Avenue? It’s a different take on music aficionados while also touching on a bunch of other related topics. Admittedly, Chabon’s one of my favorite authors, so I’m biased as the the book’s greatness, as well as to the awesomeness of his other works.
In closing: I’ve seen High Fidelity and heard all of Hi Infidelity. They are both very fine.
I wonder if Lore is more appropriate than Canon – Canon is “set in stone”; Lore is more pliable, and more reflects how, as people come in and out of TNOCS, commonalities shift (remember when acronyms were a thing? No one really trots those out any more).
Semantics aside, I fully endorse this idea, and will submit the movie “24-hour Party People” as something I believe many TNOC-ers will glom to (if they haven’t seen it already).
I’d be ok with calling it Lore rather than Canon. And I’m definitely looking forward to your impassioned plug for 24-Hour Party People in a future Lore column.
Thats the Lore I was looking for…
Also…
It’s quite possible that Jack Black changed the trajectory of Belle and Sebastian’s career. Barry isn’t wrong about Dick listening to “sad bastard music”. Let’s disregard Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Pilgrim, since its recording was ran concurrent with the filming of High Fidelity. With the exception of “Me and the Major”, and perhaps, “She’s Losing It”, all the songs from their first three albums(Tigermilk, If You’re Feeling Sinister, and The Boy With the Arab Strap) lean on the right side of melancholia. I say right side because Stuart Murdoch knew how to write a hook. A dirge, and there is nothing wrong with dirges, is being on the other side of melancholia. I’m looking at you Grouper. You out-sad Lisa Germano.
“Women’s Realm” and “There’s Too Much Love” are, for Belle and Sebastian, happy-sounding songs; happy-ish. Murdoch realized, I can’t keep rewriting “Fox in the Snow”. (Highly recommended: “Fox in the Snow” covered by the Coastal Sound Children’s Choir.) In preparation for Dear Catastrophe Waitress, it’s quite possible he saw the film. I imagine Murdoch being taken aback, but having a sense of humor, about how people like Barry perceive his songs. So, in response, Murdoch writes and performs “I’m a Cuckoo”, which remains their most unabashedly happy song in the band’s discography.
As a huge B&S fan this is an intriguing theory that I had never considered. If someone could put it to Stuart I’d love to hear his response.
I’m gratified by the fact that because we’ve been around for almost a year, we’re now getting to the point where we can make relevant callbacks to some of the previous articles written by our excellent Contributing Authors.
Here’s one from JJ that the above comment reminded me of:
https://tnocs.com/in-a-special-relationship/
What other movies could be canon/lore? This Is Spinal Tap? Almost Famous? Hustle & Flow? Cadillac Records? Sparkle? Are documentaries to be considered or are they separate? Should Woodstock and Live Aid be included?
This Is Spinal Tap, Almost Famous, Hustle & Flow for sure. Maybe a Beatles movie (not sure which), Saturday Night Fever, probably. Pink Floyd: The Wall? Tommy? American Graffiti?
If we discuss Pink Floyd: The Wall, we can explain to Roger Waters, song-by-song, what message he was trying to get across.
Beatles movie: Yellow Submarine
A Hard Days Night is a close second place, but is too early in their career.
Help is the right era, but kind of racist.
Magical Mystery Tour is a boring mess.
Let It Be is kind of slight.
Yellow Submarine was my initial thought as well, even if the Beatles didn’t bother to voice themselves in it.
I like “Only a Northern Song” a lot. But who am I to say that it’s better than “Within or Without You”? George Harrison must’ve asked: “Can’t we use both?”
Yes, yes, yes, across the board yes! (OK Sparkle may be more of an “ironic enjoyment factor,” but we’ll allow it.)
All great ideas for columns. Something doesn’t join the Canon just by mentioning it in a comment. 😁
I love Sparkle (the 1976 original) with no reservations. There’s no Dreamgirls without Sparkle.
Dreamgirls would be a good lore choice also.
Whoops! I think I got Sparkle mixed up with Glitter, the Mariah Carey 2001 bomb. My bad!
I became a Dolly Parton fan the night Three 6 Mafia won Best Original Song for Hustle and Flow. Roll the tape. That’s real joy on her face. You can tell.
What a wonderful idea, Pauly. I just came back from a football coaches convention in Las Vegas and I bought tickets fro the staff for the Kool and the Gang concert as they were in residence in LV.
It was totally awesome as all live concerts are.
So my question is “What group that you hadn’t seen live and you finally got to see them did not or did disappoint?”
Hint (Mrs Dance ) and I saw the Rolling Stones.
Excellent idea Pauly. I’ve been absent from this page in the last weeks, I have a lot of work and I often filling duties for a sick coworker and obviously I have to catch up.
I’m actually out of ideas but, isn’t Mt’s “and good on you all” part of the canon?