• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • blog
  • About
  • Book Publications
  • Other Reading
  • Social Wall
  • Back Pages
  • Contact Me

Popular Culture

Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Blair and Keir Starmer and when was Britain’s Golden Age?

April 9, 2020
Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Blair and Keir Starmer and when was Britain’s Golden Age? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 8th 2020 Every society has a golden age – often mythical, but with some relationship to events and reality. In Britain, this is often continually referenced as World War Two, ‘the Blitz spirit’ and Dunkirk – all much in evidence in recent weeks in the face of coronavirus. Other stories are available but get less coverage and mileage. One is that of ‘the swinging sixties’ and the Beatles; another is the idea (floated by the New Economics Foundation) that 1976 was the

Continue Reading Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Blair and Keir Starmer and when was Britain’s Golden Age?

The Beatles, the Sixties and what happens to music after the virus?

April 6, 2020
The Beatles, the Sixties and what happens to music after the virus? Gerry Hassan Sunday National, April 5th 2020 Next Thursday one of the landmark anniversaries of popular music and culture occurs: the 50th anniversary of the public break-up of the Beatles when Paul McCartney broke the unexpected news. The dreams and hopes of a huge swathe of young people and generation who had grown up with the Beatles as the world around them dramatically changed would never be the same again. Leaving aside that the Beatles had to all intents already broken up before McCartney’s announcement, but not made

Continue Reading The Beatles, the Sixties and what happens to music after the virus?

Gerry’s Favourite Music of the Decade

January 3, 2020
Gerry’s Favourite Music of the Decade Gerry Hassan January 3rd 2020 My countdown of the grooves I was listening to over the past decade. First, this is my chart so the criterion is mine alone! It is dominated by new things from the last ten years, but includes compilations, reissues and even a few albums from previous decades. Second, nearly as important as what is in a looking back exercise such as this is what is missing. Thus, even though this is a fairly eclectic list it consciously has no Beyonce, Kayne West (his early promise degenerating into celebrity Trump

Continue Reading Gerry’s Favourite Music of the Decade

Cultural Highlights of the Decade

December 30, 2019
Cultural Highlights of the Decade Gerry Hassan Sunday National, December 29th 2019 MUSIC Elza Soares, The Woman at the End of the World/A Mulher do Fim do Mundo, Mais Um Discos 2016. Brazilian music - from bossa nova to Tropicalia and present sounds – has always been a passion of mine. Elza Soares is a Brazilian national treasure and inspiration who was born in poverty in one of Rio’s favelas. She has had huge commercial success and now in her 80s a couple of years ago decided to make a contemporary album. This is no nostalgic act or even Rick

Continue Reading Cultural Highlights of the Decade

My Favourite Books of 2019

December 22, 2019
My Favourite Books of 2019 Gerry Hassan December 22nd 2019 This is a list of my favourite books of the year. It is the fifth year in a row I have done this – and undertaken separate book and music lists – the latter coming in the next day. It is a totally subjective and idiosyncratic list: made up things I have read, come across, been involved in or inspired by and which have stopped me and made me think. The biggest reason I do these lists is for my own enjoyment: looking back and reflecting on reading and listening,

Continue Reading My Favourite Books of 2019

Who postponed the future? Why the power of nostalgia can hurt us all

May 1, 2019
Who postponed the future? Why the power of nostalgia can hurt us all Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, April 30th 2019 Last week I attended a talk about one of the seminal bands of late 1970s Britain - Joy Division - where the author and cultural commentator Jon Savage discussed at an event run by Monorail, a wonderful independent record shop in the centre of Glasgow, the band, their music, originality and enduring influence. It was a mesmerising talk about the power of music, importance of place and of Britain - both in the late 1970s and now. In one observation,

Continue Reading Who postponed the future? Why the power of nostalgia can hurt us all

The Future has been Postponed: Making Sense of the Age of Nostalgia

May 10, 2018
The Future has been Postponed: Making Sense of the Age of Nostalgia Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 9th 2018 Nostalgia is everywhere. The past seems all around us – alive, noisy, ever-present, and more relevant and dynamic than the voices of today and the concerns of tomorrow. Take a couple of examples. The British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn seems to define its moral compass through a host of reference points from its past - from Keir Hardie to 1945. Then there is the regressive radicalism and conservatism of Brexit. And less seriously, there is how popular culture increasingly re-presents

Continue Reading The Future has been Postponed: Making Sense of the Age of Nostalgia

Ideals for Living: The need for guides on how to live a better life

May 2, 2018
Ideals for Living: The need for guides on how to live a better life Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, May 2nd 2018 How many times do you hear people say that these are ‘grim times’? It has become commonplace – but a bit of perspective and history is needed. These aren’t after all as grim times in the UK, or the West, as they were in the 1980s in terms of economic dislocation and the Cold War, and nor are they anywhere as dark and foreboding times as the 1930s and the march of fascism and world war. They are

Continue Reading Ideals for Living: The need for guides on how to live a better life

My Favourite Books of 2016

December 19, 2016
MY FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2016 December 19th 2016 The political upheavals of 2016 will be captured for many years to come through books and publishing. I enjoyed my wide reading over the year, while still feeling that events and crises were racing ahead of publishers and writers. I revelled in researching and writing my own book - Scotland the Bold – on the country, its politics, culture and ideas and prospects for change. Writing at book length always gives you permission and discipline to read widely – and beyond narrow subject categorisation – which is a joy. Anyway, without further

Continue Reading My Favourite Books of 2016

My Year in Music 2016

December 16, 2016
MY YEAR IN MUSIC 2016 December 16th 2016 2016 will be certainly be remembered as a year and for more important things than music. But it was also a year of musical genius and of great losses – which words are not adequate to describe. Without further to do my musical highs: MY BEST ALBUMS
  1. David Bowie – Black Star
A magnificent goodbye. Bowie’s best album since the early 1980s. Not easy listening and with added pathos.
  1. Nino Katamadze and Insight – Yellow
A Georgian Goldfrapp – only more melodic without losing the experimental

Continue Reading My Year in Music 2016

< Older Entries

Primary Sidebar

categories

  • Blog
  • Events
  • Futures Thinking
  • International Conversations
  • Longer Essays
  • Short Essays
  • What Gerry's groovin' to
  • What Gerry's reading
FacebookTwitter

featured publication

Scotland after the Virus

Click here to buy Gerry’s latest book containing fiction, poetry and non-fiction from over 40 contributors

what Gerry’s groovin’ to

My Favourite Music of 2020

December 20, 2020

what Gerry’s reading

My Favourite Books of 2020

December 19, 2020

tags

Scottish politics | Scottish Independence | Scottish Review | British politics | The Scotsman | Scottish Nationalists | Open Democracy | Scottish Nationalism | Scottish Labour Party | Nicola Sturgeon | Scottish society | The British State | Sunday Mail | Brexit | Sunday National | Social Democracy | Conservative Party | Boris Johnson | British Labour Party | Jeremy Corbyn | Alex Salmond | David Cameron | Popular Culture | British Nationalism | Scottish National Party | Scottish Media | The Future of the Left | Social Justice | Bella Caledonia | Scottish Men | Scottish Parliament | Scottish Culture | Scottish Unionism | British Society | Football | CoronaVirus | 2016 Scottish Parliament Elections | Labour Party | Scottish Independence Referendum | The Guardian

Categories

Footer

about Gerry

Gerry Hassan is a writer, commentator and thinker about Scotland, the UK, politics and ideas.

More >

recent

  • Trump and the Problem with Sexist Men and Masculinity
  • Scottish Labour is the problem, not the leader. And the solution is a genuine Scottish Labour Party
  • I am a European and want to live in a country which calls itself European

search

FacebookTwitter

Terms of Use | Privacy Statement
Copyright © Gerry Hassan - writing, research, policy and ideas. All Rights Reserved.
Illustration and website design by Infinite Eye