can someone help me understand and contextualize Elvis Costello?

>>75120335
The Police im listening to now.

Queen.

England really has the best music 70's and 80's and well 90's too desu

The Jam?

Buzzcocks

>>75120335
it is straight forward rock music with some elements of new wave, it got popular because that was a relatively popular style at the time with other artists like Joe Jackson - his later albums without The Attractions are a little bit more typical singer/songwriter. Costello also has a great ear for hooks and his lyrics aren't always that deep but his wordplay is pretty impressive and fun to sing along to. That and The Attractions were a fantastic band for him to work with is mostly why his first three albums are so big.
he did come out of the punk scene to an extent, a lot of punks still dig that album and This Year's Model, as far as I know he never really thought of himself as a punk musician but the sound is there. the production on this is partly due to that punk sensibility and partly due to him not being an established artist, My Aim is True was recorded on a very low budget. basically everything after this has pretty slick pop/new wave production
if you want to get into him further, check out the two albums after this, then Get Happy!! and Blood and Chocolate (same backing band) as well as Imperial Bedroom (one of his most critically acclaimed, not really my thing but there are a few great songs)

he was perceived as much more punk than he actually sounds. the look and the attitude had a lot to do with it. he was always described as "sneering".

also the 50s roots and rockabilly feel had a counter-cultural feeling in late 70s England as compared to stadium rock (you could think of it as a quasi-hipster vibe compared to the Spinal Tap-like music industry)

also, he had some naughty bits ("take off your party dress", Mystery Dance)

This Year's Model is better.

>>75120684
true

>>75120495
>The Attractions were a fantastic band for him to work with
obviously not on "My Aim Is True"...

>>75120676
yeah, he was about as punk as Billy Idol (solo career, not Generation X)

I've never met a single person that has listened to elvis costello he's very much a critics artist aka music for fucking nerds

the guy from van halen was right about what he said

>>75120684
>>75120729
Armed Forces is better than either

>>75120803
yeah same I always thought this but thn I heard this and really liked it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyH9xPDDy80
wha did the ugy from van halen say

>>75120749
why is this obvious what happened

>>75120803
only one I've ever known off the internet was an english professor teaching poetry classes at a private liberal arts college so that pretty much tells you all you need to know about costello

>>75120804
Armed Forces is GOAT, but I think This Year's Model is slightly better.

>>75120922
the Attractions didn't exist as a band at the time, he recorded My Aim is True with the members of Clover and then got The Attractions together for recording and playing shows

>>75120803
I thought it was Gene Simmons from KISS who made that statement.

File: huey lewis.jpg (43KB, 614x336px) Image search: [Google]

43KB, 614x336px

>>75120968
fun trivia: Huey Lewis was a member of Clover too, didn't appear on the album because he was only their vocalist but that still puts him only one step away from Elvis Costello. maybe he really does have a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor.

>>75120335
>Why did this music get popular alongside the other stuff that was getting radio play in 1977? Is this just kind of straight forward rock music with some elements of new wave like I think it is?
probably because it's incredibly catchy straight forward rock music with some elements of new wave
>how punk influenced are his first couple albums
mostly in attitude. it's intense music but he never sacrificed songcraft for sheer abrasiveness

costello being lumped in with the punk movement has pretty much all to do with the north american rock press who mistook him for another angry/cynical englishman playing fast music, and he went in for that role (as heard on early live albums such as el mocambo) since both parties clearly gained from it – elvis playing the rude snappy limey who they in turn could hype up as "intellectual punk" or whatever

this act turned out to be the capital misfire of his career (the ray charles thing) and he had to rethink his entire approach. there's a clear line between early costello and that incident evident not only in his music but most clearly in his public persona: all along he was just a pretty humble guy who loves music