alt-pop culture WI: #1 no grunge rock

Straha

Banned
A cultural kick to this post. What if the Grunge movement had been
stillborn as a result of the phenomenol success of the Flying Nun label
in the US in the late eighties/early nineties?
Flying Nun was an independent label established in the lovely university
town of Dunedin, primarily to help struggling bands get their vinyl (yes
that long ago:) ) or tapes into the local shops. Classic bands such as
Look Blue Go Purple, the 3D's or even the legendary Straitjacket Fits
passed through Flying Nuns recording studios.
Anyhow, the USA is the worlds biggest market, and I assume that foreign
bands/sounds can reach some level of market penetration - look at Bjork
or the Beatles forex.
POD is some big hit of a teen movie in the late eighties (anyone think
of a candidate?) that uses a soundtrack full of 'the Dunedin Sound'
simply because the executive producer likes the music...
As a result, MTV starts showing the embarassingly low production value
videos made by the bands, and evil shark-like A&R men start circling in
the South Pacific.
Fashion is influenced by the 'Scarfie Look' worn by most of the
Bandsbelonging to Flying Nun . A look generally acquired by ransacking
second hand clothing stores in Dunedin. Thats really scary, because you
end up wearing what NZ'ers wore in the 50's, 60's and 70's - eeek!
Nirvana, Pearl Jam etc are all seen as wannabes. Kurt Cobain ends up as
a MTV VJ and Coutney Love emphasises her NZ connections in an attempt to
be cool. Her chances of hooking up with any of the band members from SJ
fits however are about zero as she has one too many X chromosomes :).
CL is a lot less famous and has no chance of displaying her various
talents in the various medias.
Because of its weirdness and obvious attraction for those wanting to
rebel, Kate Moss ends up in Scarfie chic on the cover of Vogue. This is
recognised as a desperate attempt to cash in and begins the end of
scarfie chic.
NZ's contribution to world drug culture, homebake(1) is popularised and
Janet Reno rails against its spread through america. The Mayor of
Washington is caught with a prostitute and a kilo of homebake in the
biggest drug scandel of the nineties.
Gangsta Rap, is in this TL, stronger and more popular as it is seen as a
homegrown 'American' music as opposed to the foreign weirdos from NZ.

1. Homebake - the process of converting paracetamol and codeine tablets
into opiates of useful quantity, apparantly first done in NZ. Not
commonly mentioned in tourist brochures.
 
Whoa! messed AH!! Great idea man!
its so original I bet alot of the old timers couldnt come up with anything this wacked! ;) :D
 
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