"How The Smiths Pioneered Normcore" - GQ

Link from Mike:

How The Smiths Pioneered Normcore - GQ

They were the original normcores—a band of outsiders who took pains to dress as though they’d found their clothes at a rummage sale. But of course, nothing’s harder than looking effortlessly stylish. And as Chris Heath reveals, the band put more thought into what they were wearing than they ever let on

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

great for them to get any page. But 'norm-al'? Anyways seems Manchester/Northern England not being London.. well, the RIGHT bands paid no lip,limb,or foot to London's glad rags of the moment. Look at the Fall,Joy Division and the like. Ahead of their time... in music and style.

Luv the pool table shot,even though Mike looks a bit of the City Hobgoblin! ...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJhEePZh7jY

 

[Anonymous]

They were a pretty stylized band image wise. All around really

 

[Mrs. Phyllis Torgo]

I think the article has a fundamental misunderstanding of what "normcore" means. I don't think any of the Smiths ever wore running shoes, dad jeans and a tucked-in buttoned-up shirt.

 

[g23]

I think the article has a fundamental misunderstanding of what "normcore" means. I don't think any of the Smiths ever wore running shoes, dad jeans and a tucked-in buttoned-up shirt.

As a native Oregonian who has witnessed "this core" and "that core" out of the various wieners who live in (or rather, move to) Portland and try too hard to be quirky, I just laugh that hipsters have come around to fetishizing normality of all things.

 

[itsmorrisseyyy]

This is an incredibly annoying article - because, really, 'normcore'? shut the f*** up - however I do like this paragraph.

"What the Smiths achieved in a little over five years is incredible: Their catalog is crammed with astonishing songs (and very, very few duds) and while their records cleverly cherry-picked from the past, they were like no records that had ever been made before. The music was terrifically concise, but somehow simultaneously fierce and delicate, and Johnny Marr's guitar lines threw off melodies in every direction, as though he had so many at his fingertips that he could never run short. And as for those lyrics—thoughtful, poetic, brusque, funny, oblique, and heartfelt—each delivered with a kind of swooning, delirious over-committal…it was as though someone had just discovered a higher standard for what a pop song should be, and only the Smiths had been told. Theirs was a rare magic, and they clearly knew it."

 

[Anonymous]

If we must accept the concept of a band pioneering "normcore" that band would be Talking Heads.

Johnny's hair and Morrissey's shirts were never "suburban dad."

 

[Anonymous]

normcore is a reactionary movement so it didnt really exist before the promt to react to. at that point they would just be normal for the time period

 

[Anonymous]

normcore is a reactionary movement so it didnt really exist before the promt to react to. at that point they would just be normal for the time period

The 'prompt to react to' is what I would call the context. I think the idea is to compare them to other bands at the time. But however they theorize this it doesn't hold up.

 

[Chip]

An article about how the Smiths wore unique clothes because the clothes they wore were not particularly unique? I have never read this before!

I mean I sort of got "Smiths were the original hipsters" articles, because I can kinda see it, but norm core? Is that like wearing sweatpants or something like that? I hardly thinking gladiolus popping out of your back pocket constitutes norm core.