by Protagonist X » Fri Sep 06, 2002 11:00 pm
loafergirl, a person of clearly superior taste and intellect wrote:Does anyone else remember when Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, REM and other bands with musical talent were getting played? It was like a golden age.
I do indeed remember such a golden age. From around the middle of 1991 up through, say, a good portion of 1995, much music on the airwaves was worth listening to. Currently, I'm waiting for the Dread Onslaught of Fred Durst to pass over Western culture like a plague of locusts before venturing out again.
What the hell happened?
I've ruminated on this for a while and come up with a few theories. All are probably true to some extent, and as none are mutually exclusive, you can pick your own blend of them to suit you.
Hypothesis A: We remember this period as being a better era because of the things we were doing at the time. For me, it was actually making some friends in High School, and then going off to the first few years of college, when I still had much higher (if unrealistic) hopes for the future. When life smacked us down and forced us all to work in jobs we loathe for the pitiful sums that keep us barely alive, music seemed less worthwhile.
Hypothesis B: The golden era seems that way because most music was quite good during it, and more so because it was bracketed by periods of truly massive banality. In 1990, the biggest thing in the world was generic corporate rock hair bands, and I had no interest in listening to them at all. In 2000, the biggest thing in the world was generic corporate rap-metal and/or overpolished pop music, and I had no interest in listening to them at all. Kinda like sandwiching a Da Vinci original between two of Jeff Koons' miseries to drive the point home about quality and uniqueness of vision.
Hypothesis C: The Man regained control. In 1994 I was working at the campus radio station and got to hear weird tales of things in the music business from co-workers who were vastly more clued-in. Corporate Rock was so big in the late 80s and early 90s that certain music executives thought they had this whole "popular taste" thing figured out, and that the future was just one long decade of Pretty Boy Floyd, Anthrax, and Guns 'n' Roses on endless covers of
Hit Parader. The whole Alternative/Grunge/whatever thing caught them unawares, and they scrambled to regain control, and finally did. Or so people have told me. Hypothesis C appeals mainly to my inner conspiracy theorist, but some of the arguments and anecdotes sound just plausible enough.
So there's the possibilities I came up with, mix to taste and serve well-chilled over a lengthy debate in your coffehouse of choice. Discussion is always invited.
[quote="loafergirl, a person of clearly superior taste and intellect"]Does anyone else remember when Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, REM and other bands with musical talent were getting played? It was like a golden age.
[/quote]
I do indeed remember such a golden age. From around the middle of 1991 up through, say, a good portion of 1995, much music on the airwaves was worth listening to. Currently, I'm waiting for the Dread Onslaught of Fred Durst to pass over Western culture like a plague of locusts before venturing out again.
[quote]What the hell happened? [/quote]
I've ruminated on this for a while and come up with a few theories. All are probably true to some extent, and as none are mutually exclusive, you can pick your own blend of them to suit you.
Hypothesis A: We remember this period as being a better era because of the things we were doing at the time. For me, it was actually making some friends in High School, and then going off to the first few years of college, when I still had much higher (if unrealistic) hopes for the future. When life smacked us down and forced us all to work in jobs we loathe for the pitiful sums that keep us barely alive, music seemed less worthwhile.
Hypothesis B: The golden era seems that way because most music was quite good during it, and more so because it was bracketed by periods of truly massive banality. In 1990, the biggest thing in the world was generic corporate rock hair bands, and I had no interest in listening to them at all. In 2000, the biggest thing in the world was generic corporate rap-metal and/or overpolished pop music, and I had no interest in listening to them at all. Kinda like sandwiching a Da Vinci original between two of Jeff Koons' miseries to drive the point home about quality and uniqueness of vision.
Hypothesis C: The Man regained control. In 1994 I was working at the campus radio station and got to hear weird tales of things in the music business from co-workers who were vastly more clued-in. Corporate Rock was so big in the late 80s and early 90s that certain music executives thought they had this whole "popular taste" thing figured out, and that the future was just one long decade of Pretty Boy Floyd, Anthrax, and Guns 'n' Roses on endless covers of [i]Hit Parader[/i]. The whole Alternative/Grunge/whatever thing caught them unawares, and they scrambled to regain control, and finally did. Or so people have told me. Hypothesis C appeals mainly to my inner conspiracy theorist, but some of the arguments and anecdotes sound just plausible enough.
So there's the possibilities I came up with, mix to taste and serve well-chilled over a lengthy debate in your coffehouse of choice. Discussion is always invited.