The Pet Shop Boys' "Ten Commandments of Pop"
An absolutely delightful interview with Chris and Neil by Miranda Sawyer appeared in the Sunday, October 19, 2003, edition of The Observer of London. The centerpiece of the article was the Pet Shop Boys' "Ten Commandments of Pop." It's not entirely clear from the article, however, whether the Boys themselves came up with the idea of pop music's "ten commandments" or whether this was simply an extremely clever journalistic conceit devised by Ms. Sawyer, built around the Boys' comments.
Whichever the case, copyright considerations prevent me from restating Chris and Neil's witty and pointed explanations for these "commandments." (The full text, however, is available online at The Observer website.) But here, in a nutshell, are the commandments themselves:
- Thou shalt find thy niche.
- Thou shalt write a hit.
- Thou must be prepared to be misunderstood.
- Thou must be a bit crap for a while.
- Thou shalt make sure they know who thou art.
- Thou shalt be stupid.
- Thou shalt become a brand.
- Thou shalt understand the VIP area.
- Thou shalt go mad.
- Thou shalt get a stalker.
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