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decreasing clarity. We exist in a kind of shopping
Arcady in which Bracewell consigns the 90s as “an
age of cultural sampling”, the victory of the past
over the future: “there is a sense in our archival
condition, as nostalgic consumers scavenging for
bargain rarities of the past, that a car boot sale can
double as a faculty of Cultural Studies.” This is a
mistake; the future is created from the ruins of the
past and every music that Bracewell celebrates has
hastened that destruction. It is not nostalgia but the
reverse, a hatred of the past that attempts to confine
us. We want to break it into little pieces and build
anew. This is as true for our decade as any other.
BUY Michael Bracewell books online from and
From The Who’s reworking of the Union Jack to
The Chemical Brothers’ smash-and-grab approach
to sonic material this has been pop’s prime attraction.
At its best, pop (and Pop) has no reverence for
the past and is hell-bent on the future. In this sense,
pop will always be intrinsically Modernist.
Michael Bracewell’s book reminds us that England
really is ours for the taking and, for that, it is a stimulating
read which does ample justice to its subject. It
is possible for a book to fail utterly in its designs yet
still be a thorough success. I found England Is Mine
an inspiration. To demand anything more would just
be greed. �
111
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