i hate to have one of these at all but my big "WE DRANK FROM THE HOSE" opinion is that people younger than millennials really can't imagine what coming of age in a time of media scarcity meant - like, I would read about records and movies and not actually be able to see them for YEARS
like, at one point I heard of "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" by the Pogues, and I went to my local independent record store - ALREADY more than most people had - but there was some problem with their distributor so it took me six months and cost me $25 to listen to one relatively well known album
When I worked at an indie record shop in the early 90s I was an import buyer, and that album was only in print outside the US—I could not keep it in stock at $25++ a pop.
In the 80s, just seeing something was on Slash records was enough to shell out a considerable sum of money. Odds were you never heard anything about the record at all. It could be Pogues, or Wreckless Eric, or Rachel Sweet or Lena Lovich. You had no idea what it would sound like or what genre.
