The Great 'News & Notes' 5 Star Conspiracy

In my capacity as News & Notes web-jockey, I am often asked to post things to the blog written by other staffers, a task I try to complete from a place of zen-like equanimity and and editorial agnosticism. It takes all kinds, and who am I to cast stones? Sometimes, though, a web-producer can only take so much before he breaks. For example: this blog isn't two months old and we've already had two 5 Star references, first by Christabel here, and then by Christopher here. Of all the billions of embarrassingly coiffed 80s bands to namecheck, why this one? Why not, say, The Time or Debarge or Timex Social Club. People talk about the hidden agenda of "the media," but who could have imagined it was to bring back the bad-old days of R&B!

Thanks to the magic of the internet tubes, this covert assault on our senses and reason doesn't have to go unanswered. They say that the best answer to speech you don't like is more speech (or in this case, more music), so with that in mind I went to YouTube and found a few videos in hopes that exposure to as much 5 Star as possible would put a stop to the madness. Don't look away, friends, because what you are seeing is the reflected image of you own fashion mistakes, your own "I want to be a Jackson" hysteria.

Of course, one man's 80s nightmare is another's beloved treasure, so looking forward to June - a.k.a. Black Music Month - we'd love to get a look at your long-lost music favorites. Do you have the guts to unearth your favorite song from junior high school? Send it along, because those who don't know their (R&B) history are doomed to repeat it.

Gary Dauphin

7:18 PM ET | 06- 1-2007 | permalink

comments | | e-mail