The Observer
Comment & Analysis 25.08.19 49PEOPLE
Rebecca Nicholson
I
n his new book Perfect
Sound Whatever , comedian
James Acaster makes a
claim that may horrify the
paternal gatekeepers of music
history as much as it will delight
dissenters: he argues that 2016
was the greatest ever year for
music. Take that, dad rock.
Following a breakdown, he set
himself the task of listening only
to music from 2016 (“the year
before everything went wrong”)
and bought more than 500
albums , including Beyoncé’s
Lemonade and David Bowie’s
Blackstar.
The 2016 argument, which
is about far more than just
Acaster’s record collection, is
deliberately provocative. “I’m
trying to convince people to
fi nd their own greatest year for
music,” he told the BBC. In a
fl ash poll of my own opinions,
I suspect I land somewhere
between 1993 and 1994, because
of Debut, Live Through This,
Rid of Me and In Utero. Really,
though, my choice can only ever
be vaguely nostalgic nonsense.
It’s fi xed there because it’s
easiest to pin down; you’d be a
fool to argue that music peaked
in the early 1990s. In choosing
2016, Acaster makes a crucial
point: that innovation still
happens and at a pace.
Already, 2019 has been a
fantastic year. Every week,
there’s a new album to get
excited about. To recognise
that is a welcome relief from
the chokehold of prizing the
past, that something recorded
in a shed on a guitar that Jimi
Hendrix once looked at will have
instant superiority to, say, Ariana
Grande’s Into You. I have listened
to that roughly several hundred
times and never tired of it, and it
came out in 2016, thus proving
Acaster entirely right.B
illie Eilish, whose
minimal goth-pop is
surely the oddest sound
to break big in quite
some time, has become the fi rst
artist born this millennium to
have a US Billboard Top 100
number one. The brilliant creeping
loop of Bad Guy has knocked
Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road off the
top spot, where it had been sitting
for an astonishing 19 weeks.
Finally, that horse can have a well-
earned rest.
It’s been quite the week for
Eilish, who, at 17, seems to be
made up entirely of long shorts,
neon and world-weary wisdom.
In a conversation with Pharrell
Williams, for V magazine ,
Williams asked Eilish if there
were any big misconceptions
about her.
She talked about being praised
for her baggy clothes, for her “notnecessarily feminine, or girly ”
style and how that comes with an
element of shaming other young
women who choose not to dress
as she does.
“I have always supported and
fucked with and just loved when
a woman or a man or anyone in
the world feels comfortable in
their skin, their body, to show
just whatever they want,” she
said. To quote the inimitable
Bad Guy: “ Duh.”T
he fi rst trailer for
The L Word sequel,
Generation Q , was released
last week, teasing its return
to TV screens in December. Ten
years after The L Word’s run ended, I
expected to be cynical about its 2019
incarnation. Right now, in the world
of entertainment, there are more
planned comebacks than Fleetwood
Mac have managed in their entire
career. With mooted revivals of
everything from The Matrix to
Home Alone to Beverly Hills, 90210 ,
you could read an issue of Empire
magazine from the 1990s and
assume it had come out last week.
Generation Q (I’m trying to get on
board, but it still sounds breathlessly
perky, like a kids’ cartoon or a
supermarket clothing line) is all
about the young people, as the title
suggests, and appears to be far less
glossy and polished than its elite
older sibling. Of the three original
characters returning to LA’s lesbian
scene, every fan will have their
favourite. Shane is back, as is her
haircut, and Alice, too, but Jennifer
Beals’s Bette promises to make the
biggest splash.
Beals is an executive producer,
but vitally will also reprise her
role as alpha female Bette Porter,
California’s answer to Swiss art
curator and critic Hans Ulrich
Obrist , who couldn’t resist bootingthe impressionists out of her gallery
in favour of something modern,
shocking and blasphemous,
particularly if that enabled a
fl ashback to a sexy, art-based
hook-up from the past. In the new
world, Bette is going straight to the
top and is running to be mayor of
Los Angeles.
The original L Word was campy
and crass, as over the top as it was
revolutionary. But I loved it for
everything it was. It gave viewers
six seasons that put mostly queer
women front and centre. For the
fi rst time, th ose characters were
not the subplot, but the main
event. Even so, at fi rst I wondered
if Generation Q was necessary.
Times have changed beyond
comprehension in a decade; some
of the storylines that seemed less
worthy of remark then, such as
Alice’s out-of-character transphobia,
or Lisa the Lesbian Man, would
incite an opinion mob in an instant.
The growth of streaming
television has opened up a world
of queer storylines on all sorts of
shows. If there isn’t a same-sex
kiss on a Netfl ix series you start
to wonder if you’ve accidentally
skipped an episode. And then the
Generation Q trailer brought it all
back, gave me butterfl ies and of
course, as if it was ever in doubt, I
will be glued to the whole thing.James Acaster
2016 was the
best year for
music. Discuss
Billie Eilish
Millennial girl
hits the heights
Jennifer Beals
The L Word’s alpha female
is going straight to the top
Jennifer Beals:
her character is
running to be
mayor of LA.
Photograph by
Jon Kopaloff/
GettyThe stories behind the
names in the newsout of her gallery
ing modern,
hemous,
nabled a
art-based
ast. In the new
g straight to the
o be mayor ofrdd was campy
e top as it was
loved it for
gave viewers
mostly queer
ntre. For the
racters were
the main
st I wondered
necessary.
d beyond
decade; some
t seemed less
hen, such as
cter transphobia,
Man, would
ob in an instant.
eaming
ed up a world
on all sorts of
a same-sex
ies you start
accidentally
And then the
brought it all
rfl ies and of
ver in doubt, I
whole thing.Jennifer Beals
her character
running to be
mayor of LA.
Photograph by
Jon Kopaloff/
Getty