Music Monday #14: Busted by Busted

Sticking with the theme of albums that were reissued, 'Busted' the self titled album by the Brit pop punk band was released in 2002, and then again in 2004.  I've gone with the 2004 version here because that's the one I own, but I was aware of Busted before I got this album.  In 2002 when the first issue was released I had just entered into my 4th year of High School.  For those that don't know much about the school system in the UK and Northern Ireland in particular the first 3 years of High School are spent pursuing foundation subjects that everyone takes, and in the final 2 years you study electives these are subjects that you get to pick from a list what you want to study in particular.  I chose Geographical Science, Art and Design, and Information Computer Technology, the only one of those that probably comes as a surprise is the first one but you should know I was an A* student when it came to science based subjects, I even won awards for my performance.

Art and Design in particular was a subject I loved not just because of the artistic expression and creativity that it let me tap into but also because the subject incorporated a lot of freedom, you got to decide what you wanted to focus on and what direction you wanted to take all you had to do was create art that referenced the themes you chose.  The other reason that I loved art class was because the class itself was a little bit constructive chaos, the teach always had music playing, and classes could listen to whatever they agreed as a collective to listen to.  This was fascinating to me because it was the first time I got to see the music taste of people I never really engaged with socially.  EDM featured heavily in particularly over those two years the first 4 Clubland albums were played quite a bit, but in addition to EDM almost anything and everything that was in the charts at that time featured at some point including Busted.

'You Said No' and 'Year 3000' in particular were played quite a bit, by the time the album was reissued in 2004 I had finally made it through High School and felt relief and optimistic once more about my future as mentioned in another post 2004 saw a lot of changes in a short space of time and there was a sense of renewal that went with those changes.  I don't listen to Busted that much now, as for their rivals McFly I never really got into their music, and the super-group they eventually formed McBusted when they put their rivalry aside completely passed me by.  When the original trio finally reunited in 2015 and reformed the band I didn't pick up where I left off as I felt my music taste had diverged.

This touches on something I have alluded to in other posts however, that is the idea that art is static, that it incorporates a final product that encompasses the journey the artist made up until that point, whereas the artist themselves are dynamic and their journey continues.  The journey that artists take is one that can go in many different directions and it isn't that you don't give any value or substance to what they created before or what they created after, but rather a reflection of who you are and the journey you are on in tandem.  Art is about alignment, about paths crossing, and the connection or disconnection that occurs at that moment where those paths cross.  Reissuing an album can let you connect with an artist that passed you by as it did for me with Katy Perry, but the journey and the new directions artists go in can also determine whether you connect with them.  When I talked about Pink I mentioned that Missundaztood was not her debut album, likewise with Katy Perry they both had albums that existed prior but that incorporated musical styling that didn't appeal to me, there is another artist that will feature later in this list that also didn't appeal to me until their changed direction.

Busted with their reunion chose a different direction to pursue with their music, one that didn't appeal to me.  That's not meant to undermine their work, just an admission that styles evolve and as with Jesse McCartney who I parted ways with, Busted serves as another one of those bands I dip into every now and then to see what they are doing but keep moving crossing paths only for a time then moving on.  I understand the frustration that some fans feel when artists take new directions they don't like, and I can understand why some refuse to ever give them another chance after they give up on them but to me personally I recognise that everyone has a path to walk and their own sense of self expression that they want to exhibit, this is one of the few areas of my life where I have the maturity to look and say "This isn't for me" and move on, you still have the memories and the music is preserved to tap into that time in your life when it meant that much to you, you're not losing anything in the process other than potential, and potential by its nature is intangible.