Let me just start by saying that I was born in 1970, and remember, vaguely at times, the music of the 70's. I remember the 80's all too well, and while I'm not knocking ALL of the music of that decade, let's be serious, it was a time of some really creatively disappointing music and styles as well. There were a few standouts that didn't fit into the neon colored, big haired, acid washed niche that most bands/groups found themselves in . I think that's why I migrated towards rap and punk during this time...it was just refreshing and different, which is what I was all about during those dark days. Some of the bands I later came to love had their start in the 80's, (Nine Inch Nails, Fugazi, Social Distortion, Pixies, etc), but what I would consider a musical renaissance actually began during the 90's.
I was in Korea in the Army in 1990 when a fellow soldier from the Seattle area, that I cannot even remember by his first name introduced me to basically a garage band named Nirvana that just blew me away! He had tapes from live shows in small, intimate clubs that he gave me copies of. Not just Nirvana, but Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, and of course the budding Pearl Jam and Sound Garden. I was in audio heaven! Everything that I had been accustomed to in the generic, bubble gum music scene of the 80's wash washed away in the opening bass chords of "Blew" by Nirvana off their debut, garage-made, album "Bleach", (which incidentally was made in 88-89, but re-released in the U.S. in 1992, AFTER the multi-platinum "Nevermind") I was hooked!
It wasn't just the "grunge" music that was so defining in the 90's, there were entire genres born in the 90's that changed the face of music forever, and that I feel some bands still try to live up to today. "Alternative" crawled out of the recesses between grunge and the harder bands that were emerging pioneering their own sounds; (Tool, Korn, Stabbing Westward, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, etc.). Alternative later became a "one-size-fits-all" label for any kind of music that wasn't boy bands or screamo, but that is much later. The Alternative that I knew, loved, partied to, and later watched turn into the same mindless garbage that you might as well call pop, were bands like Smashing Pumpkins, (still the BEST live show I've ever seen HANDS DOWN!!), Everclear, Radiohead,Sublime, Rage Against the Machine, Cold, and after Kurt Cobains untimely demise, the Foo Fighters. It was all so "new" and refreshing that it was literally like a musical revolution had occurred. I saw the Smashing Pumpkins, Meat Puppets, and Blind Melon on the campus of ASU in 1993 or 1994, and it literally changed my life! I had never experienced the sonic bombardment of the likes I heard that night when Billy Corgan and James Iha unleashed their dual guitar bombardment on my unsuspecting ears.
Even the rap/hip-hop from the 90's had a certain substance and grit to it that had never been seen before, or since. Unfortunately, the deaths of two of raps biggest icons, Christopher Wallace,(Biggie Smalls, Notorious B.I.G.) and Tupac Shakur, would lead to it's eventual demise into the bling-heavy, back-up singing, auto-tuning, garbage that they pass for hip-hop these days. Groups like Wu-Tang Clan, Goodie-Mobb, Outkast, and anyone from Bad Boy or Death Row Records, and individuals like Nas, Method Man, and even a white boy by the name of Enimem blazed a trail for all of the clones and wannabes of the current rap/hip-hop genre.
Anyone that I left out in either genre whether it be rap, grunge, alternative, was unintended, and I'm sure I've overlooked several, no offense intended. They always say write about what you know, well that's what I know!
I pumped my gas the other day and my son who is almost 13 was left in charge of the Ipod when I was out of the car, when I came back I found to my surprise and joy, that he and my 8 year old daughter were blasting the Breeders album and singing along. Now if that's not some positive parenting, then I don't know what is!!
Until next time bloggonians, I say dig out some of the old cd's, or dare I say cassette tapes and crank that 90's music 'til your eardrums scream for mercy, or until your wife/husband tells you you're going to wake up the kids, which ever comes first!
No comments:
Post a Comment