Secret Handshakes
  • derek
    December 9, 2008

    I like the Monkees :(

    Harry Nilsson wrote songs for them and George Harrison was a fan

  • Dorothy
    December 9, 2008

    I like the Monkees, the Spice Girls and Judas Priest. So I guess ten years from now I’ll find myself liking Kate Perry.

  • Shawna
    December 9, 2008

    Wow – what’s with the Judas Priest rip? The criticism of the Monkees is fairly off base too, as Derek commented, but Judas Priest is an awesome and important band. Rob Halford came out as the first openly gay man in a legendary heavy metal band. I can understand that maybe you just don’t like metal, but JP is the kind of band progressive people of all stripes should rally around. At the very least, they don’t belong on a list with the Spice Girls and Katy Perry.

  • David Thomsen
    December 9, 2008

    So glad I’m not the only person who keeps referring to Katy Perry as ‘Kate Perry’.

    I haven’t actually bothered listening to her hit music yet because it doesn’t seem right that someone should appear on the cover of Rolling Stone for only writing one hit song. It doesn’t make me feel confident in either artist or magazine.

  • Amichai
    December 9, 2008

    It’s funny even if you like the bands. In fact argument of said bands only makes the strip’s point even stronger (and to me even funnier).

  • Dorothy
    December 9, 2008

    Bubblegum, metal and dance pop were not taken seriously by the (oh let’s pretend there’s a) critical establishment when they appeared (the latter two among fairly gendered lines, but that’s something else entirely).

    And now I have to go and learn to spell Katy Perry’s name.

  • alecho
    December 9, 2008

    i miss the spice girls ;) oh, btw, I just had peanut butter sandwich, and I’m behind with this month’s rent. Hmmm… what a coincidence.

  • Ben
    December 9, 2008

    And yet Judas Priest struggled for recognition first under the shadow of Black Sabbath and then later under the shadow of Iron Maiden. In the latter case, metal had already become known to the “critical establishment” to the point of calling Iron Maiden part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.

  • Karl
    December 9, 2008

    I understand the point you are making about Judas Priest and critical success. It’s just that it looks weird placing them alongside Spice Girls and Monkees, who are so completely manufactured and phony, while Priest are working class lads playing stupid metal for a white trash audience. And they are really really good. Just read the lyrics and see how many overtly gay references you can find. Turn it into a drinking game and notice how you slip into a coma after three songs.
    Priest is a Trojan horse of gayness, placed inside the heteronormative walls of heavy metal.
    Also, they rock. As do you.

  • michaeljpatrick
    December 11, 2008

    I think that the people on my twitter feed are the true cultural elite.

  • Theo
    December 11, 2008

    Jill Sobule kissed a girl years before Katy Perry did, and where did that get her?

  • Ari
    January 8, 2009

    Did Katy Perry write her hit song? I just assumed it was a cover of Jill Sobule’s.

  • Ari
    January 8, 2009

    Hey, look at me opening my mouth before reading to the end. And a month too late, no less.

  • Treon Verdery
    March 15, 2009

    A secret society had the author of dilbert appear to see if we were part of a secret cabal I only recognized him from the video on his online site

  • tubejay
    May 24, 2009

    how can you possibly hate the author of “pleasant valley sunday” for anything but hypocrisy? (happy memorial day weekend…)

  • wow
    July 2, 2009

    katy perry’s hot, though

  • haven
    September 10, 2009

    . . . what meeting are they at?

  • Geoff
    October 24, 2009

    Here’s how it works: Jane’s Addiction’s “Ritual de lo Habitual” comes out in August 1990. Rolling Stone gives a negative two star review in October. The album manages to reach #19 in the Billboard top 200 regardless. Two songs manage to become #1 hits on the Modern Rock charts and they chart quite high up elsewhere as well. The band headlines the first Lollapalooza, which was conceived as their farewell tour, and their songs get strong airplay on MTV.

    In 2003 Rolling Stone rank the album as the 453rd greatest of all time.

  • Buretsu
    June 20, 2010

    Even as a staunch supporter of gay and lesbian rights, I have to look at “I kissed a girl” and wonder if a male artist could achieve the same heights with a song titled “I kissed a dude”…

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