OK, time to hold court on why I think the music scene is currently very, very fucked.
It’s because there’s nothing new. There hasn’t been a new genre to shake things up in ten years, man. Every decade from the birth of rock and roll has grown something never seen before:
60’s: you name it
70’s: prog-rock, metal, disco, electronica, punk
80’s: thrash, rap, industrial
90’s: “alternative” (which, unfortunately, we really begin to see the recycling start…for all the angst and energy provided, there was nothing really new here)
Now: nothing but endless “alternative” rehashes and riff theft. Rap going nowhere. “Metal” turned into some pop-mush perfect for the temporary-tattoo fraternity cruising the malls. Stale, stale, stale…
You need to look a bit harder, scharmers. There’s a hell of a lot going on out there. The French are doing really nifty experimentations with French Pop/Arab music hybrids, electronica is going nuts recombining all sorts of different ethnic flavors, as well as the continuing evolution of the sub-genres found under the umbrella of “electronica”, there are interesting French/Spanish/South American Native American hybrids springing up like Manu Chau, plus I’ve heard some interesting stuff out of the jazz scene.
And those are just the new stuff that I can think of off the top of my head. I’m sure there are many, many others. Rather than declaring that the scene is fucked, why not dig around and see what’s out there?
The lead singer of Nickelback is photogenic? His hair might have looked good on a woman 15 years ago, and isn’t he like 45 years old?
It’s standard issue bland corporate rock. Some people dig it, others don’t. It’ll be a staple of classic rock stations for the next 20 years. It’s the Night Ranger or Journey of 2003-2004. Certain people will play the songs at weddings because it reminds them of 2003-2004, just as other people might play Franz Ferdinand, or people play The Cure today.
How it landed on “alternative” radio is a mystery to me.
All music discussions ultimately devolve into a T-shirt slogan that I own (via The Onion): “Your favorite band sucks.” Your music taste is better than everyone else’s. And Dave, you act exactly the way in the game forum, and others do it in movies, and others do it in hardware, blah blah blah.
Isn’t that one of the Rites of Passage (dare I say, Bildungsroman? I dare!) into adulthood? The exclamation “Rock and roll is dead! There is nothing new! I’m just gonna break out my old rec^H^H^H^HCDs of Jimi H^H^H^HNirvana because man, this new retreaded shit is for the fucking teenyboppers and to hell with that!”
(Not that I disagree with you, scharmers. Hey you kids, get off my lawn!)
I definitely think it’s true, and have discussed it a lot before. Mainstream music has always been created for the 14-25 year old version of you, not necessarily the 30-year old one. You can find just as much great music now; you just need to look a little harder.
Great video. It reminds me of a concert I saw in 2000 for a station in Las vegas called “Our Big Concert 3.5”. There were a large number of opening bands, including Cypress Hill, Godsmack, Staind, Static-X, Papa Roach, System Of A Down, Phatter Than Albert, and several more, with the headliners being Stone Temple Pilots. Well, if you look at the opening acts you can understand that STP was certainly the odd man out. Great band, but they’re very different than the rest of the acts listed. By the time they got on the stage (about 11pm) everyone was exhausted, and just wanted to leave. So STP comes out, starts playing some songs, and everyone starts tossing shoes at them. Scott gets pissed, walks off stage for about 10 minutes and everyone cheers and starts to leave. He comes back on stage and the few remaining people start tossing everything that isn’t too heavy to lift, including chairs, bottles, firecrackers, and so on. The whole band walked off short thereafter without a word.
Great video. It reminds me of a concert I saw in 2000 for a station in Las vegas called “Our Big Concert 3.5”. There were a large number of opening bands, including Cypress Hill, Godsmack, Staind, Static-X, Papa Roach, System Of A Down, Phatter Than Albert, and several more, with the headliners being Stone Temple Pilots. Well, if you look at the opening acts you can understand that STP was certainly the odd man out. Great band, but they’re very different than the rest of the acts listed. By the time they got on the stage (about 11pm) everyone was exhausted, and just wanted to leave. So STP comes out, starts playing some songs, and everyone starts tossing shoes at them. Scott gets pissed, walks off stage for about 10 minutes and everyone cheers and starts to leave. He comes back on stage and the few remaining people start tossing everything that isn’t too heavy to lift, including chairs, bottles, firecrackers, and so on. The whole band walked off short thereafter without a word.
Best $20 I ever spent, great concert.[/quote]
That was a great concert. Cypress Hill was quite a surprise live, as well as Static X. I felt bad for STP. The next OBC was a bit shorter (and not in the middle of summer), and featured Deftones, Trapt, Taproot, and more! Fun, fun stuff from our local nu-metal/hard rock station, Xtreme(!!!) Radio 107.5.
Edit: Another big downer was they stopped serving beer at 9:00PM, and STP went on around 11.
Cypress Hill was extremely good. My friend Jose and I were up near the front of the stage the whole day, and it wasn’t until Cypress Hill’s set that I thought I was going to die from lack of oxygen. People just packed in tight… the fact that most the people were smoking out didn’t exactly help either. It’s funny, I live in Sacramento these days (and lived here before Vegas) and I still haven’t seen Deftones. Sigh, one day. Anyway, Xtreme’s shows are basically the one thing I really miss about Vegas. I’m thinking I’ll go down there for next years show depending on the line up.
Nickelback was always one of those bands I didn’t think people actually liked, or even listened to on purpose, they just played it on the radio, no one really know who they were, so when the kids asked each other, “Do you like nickelback” in fear of looking less than cool, kids responded, “Yeah, nickelback rules”.
I can understand the nintendo love, not the nickelback love.
WERD. I saw Hole here in Vegas years ago, and someone beaned Courtney Love in the neck with a full bottle of water. She screamed “AAAGH! This isn’t a fucking Nine Inch Nails concert, you assholes!” Then she stomped off, leaving her bassist (the new hot one, fresh with the band) to walk up to the lead mic and offer a meek apology “S-sorry.” But as Ben said, Screw you fucking animals. However, it’s funny because it’s Courtney Love, and paying to see her get clobbered is potentially better than listening to her perform live (she sort of sucked live IMO, incidentally, but her band rocked).[/quote]
That’s easy. “Alternative” is the easiest genre to break in a new act. If the act shows promise, they quickly shun the alternative label and move on to where they wanted to be all also.
Some acts who broke in as “alternative”
Sheryl Crow
Creed
Kid Rock
Smashmouth
Matchbox 20
Sugar Ray
That “Drops of Jupiter” Band
Hoobastank
The list goes on and on. I used to get upset because I didn’t understand what was going on. I couldn’t understand why these bands were selling out, but now I see that it’s marketing and I’m eating it up.
Geez… Nickelback existed before “How you remind me”, you know. They’re a manufactured corporate rock group only if you include self-managed bands that build up a fanbase through relentless touring until a label finally picks up and releases their previously independently-released album to massive success in the classification.
That said, a lot of their songs do sound similar, and I though it was hilarious when Matt Good called them a Creed clone, but that’s mostly because I like to see Matt cause trouble.
Dave - is “Static-X” the group comprised of with the old “Age of Electric” singer? (whoops never mind, it’s a different band) I don’t know how much Canadian content works its way down to the States, but have you heard any Alexisonfire or Billy Talent?
How it landed on “alternative” radio is a mystery to me.
That’s easy, and I suspect from you sarcastic quotes you already know this, but alternative radio hasn’t been alternative for a while. It was pretty much completely commercialized completely commercialized by the end of the ninties. Now formerly alternative stations are just the dumping ground for new rock music that isn’t hard enough for a metal station, or pop enough for a pop/mix station. Bands like Nickleback and Creed are the 80s hair bands of our time. Only now with media conglomoration being what it is, it’s damn near impossible to create an independant radio station. You’ll have better luck finding cool new music by watching hip commercials on TV, or shows like the Gilmore Girls or the OC.
It’s been my secret dream to create an alternative superstation here in Salem to service the entire Willamette valley…
Don’t go dissin’ Ms. Crow. The chorus and middle 8 of “Favorite Mistake” is one of the best things to happen to mainstream pop charts in the last ten years.
I remember when Sheryl Crow hit the radio with “All I wanna do” and “Leaving Las Vegas.” At the time, nothing really sounded like that, and that’s probably a good reason to call it, at the time, alternative radio.
