On a lovely summer late afternoon in 1988, I was accosted on the street by two people. They were a man and a woman about my own age, 24. They’d stopped to mock me about three albums I had with me—Notorious by Duran Duran, Scoundrel Days by A-ha, and Black Celebration by Depeche Mode.
The encounter was pleasant at first. I was friends with the two, who worked in a bar in Georgetown and were walking to work. I’d just gotten off work at Kemp Mill Records at Dupont Circle and had purchased three “cut-out” records. I’d plucked them out of the remainder bin, where albums that didn’t sell were left for customers to toss in their other purchases almost as an afterthought. They had a red $3.99 sticker on them and a hole punched through the sleeve to indicate their lack of value. These were “cut-outs,” records they had printed too many of and didn’t sell. So they dumped them in a black bin at the front of the store.
One of my interrogators, the man, asked me what was in the bag. I produced the three records. The reaction was intense and immediate. What was this? Duran Duran? Depeche Mode? A-ha? Those guys are fags! The cool bands were the American punk and alternative bands, R.E.M. the Minutemen, the Replacements, Bad Brains, Husker Du. One of my tormentors produced a camera, to take a shot of me in my 1980s sweater, cut-off Levis and New Wave haircut holding up a copy of Duran Duran’s Notorious. The mirthful a-hole across from me couldn’t contain himself—I even looked like one of the assholes in the band!
Forty years later, those albums have grown in stature, while the punk and grunge my friends championed is a memory. At the time of their release, bands like Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and A-ha were considered lame by a lot of heavy metal and “alternative” and “indie” rock snobs.
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