TODAY'S TEENAGE WASTELAND
There had been phases with cheesy pop (12 Inches of Snow anyone?) and hip-hop like Public Enemy while I was growing up, but for the most part I concentrated on rock. I am quite thankful for that, because kids of different ages have had a tougher time. There has been quite a wasteland for the kids who are coming up in music today. They have been peppered by Britney, Christina, American Idol, Backstreet, N'Sync, 98 Degrees, O-Town and worst of all, LFO. (Summer Girls is top on my list of worst songs of all time, by the way.)
They have also grown up experiencing the changing of MTV to the point where there is no music on it at all. Radio stations have been consolidated by huge corporations to the point that there are probably only 20 songs that are allotted on each station's play lists. The long and short of it is that it has been a wasteland for any kid who might have had an inkling of getting into rock music over the last five years.
I will give credit where credit is due, however. You may not like any of these bands, but they have done what they could to keep rock music alive in the mainstream since grunge died with Kurt Cobain. Bands including but not limited to, System of a Down, Deftones, Incubus, Slipknot, Korn, Staind, Blink 182, Green Day, Radiohead, Linkin Park, No Doubt (kind of,) Tool, A Perfect Circle, Zwan and (gasp) even the horror that is Limp Bizkit. (Keep in mind that Limp Bizkit's first album was actually pretty good before we got to know Fred Durst's ego.) These are some of the bands that have carried the flag for rock music over the last five years. I think they can now take a break because rock is about to break again.
Why do I think rock music is about to break again? I think I see a shift in people's tastes. People don't know exactly what they want, but they want something different. Witness last year's critical and commercial success of The Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." This year we have seen Dashboard Confessional do some damage on the charts. We have seen Thursday succeed with their major label debut. We have also seen bands like The Postal Service and Modest Mouse emerge from their underground status'. Modest Mouse hit the charts with their latest release and Ben Gibbard of The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie was recently featured in an article by Newsweek. I think it is safe to say that something new has started to take shape.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
craid, i definitely think that the lack of mtv influece, coupled with the lameness of rock radio...make the whole situation very perplexing.
if radio wasn't so regimented then maybe some life would spring back into the whole mess.
a couple of weeks ago i was doing a bunch of yardwork. we had the radio on tuned to one of those 'modern rock' stations. i swear, after about 4 hours i got the feeling that they kept on playing the same staind/korn/incubus/linkin park tunes over and over and over...kinda gross.
2 - Craig Lyndall
Exactly right Mark. And the thing is, that I think it is slowly making them obsolete. They are ruining their own business. They can only exist for so long without contributing something positive to the music industry. Technology combined with their myopia will make them disappear.
3 - Shark
Craig,
I don' t think it's as much a "new" trend in rock one should expect (I would argue in a post-modern world, there are none) -- but rather new trends in technology that will (and are!) having a huge effect on the music biz.
You didn't mention technology much, but don't you think it's safe to say that various technologies are making radio, 'studios', labels, and distributors extremely marginalized?
One can wed a computer with some relatively inexpensive software, and record a million $ sounding piece in one's bathroom.
Add the internet - word of mouth - file sharing - guerilla marketing, etc. and you can see the music industry as we know it sliding off the radar.
Which is a good thing, imo: rock has always been primarily about anti-establishment rebellion -- and everytime it's co-opted by some corporate pimps, it wriggles out of the grip for another glorious, revolutionary fifteen minutes.
"I think the changes in the industry are conducive to a prolonged stay instead of the ebb and flow that has been so drastic in the past."
True and false; the top 40 crap will continue as always: here today - gone tomorrow, only to be replaced by the act du jour.
As you said: alternative material will: "...have a whole lot of bands splitting up the market."
A WHOLE LOT OF BANDS. And if we're lucky, we'll see artists who put out material for years (decades), but only sell 50 to 100 k cd with each shot. But that's been enough to sustain many from my era, the 60s/70s.
Lots to ponder, and thanks for the jump start.
4 - Craig Lyndall
I agree Shark. I didn't want to dork out too much with the technology, but it is one of the major reasons that I think the changes are occurring.
I wanted to make the point that radio stations that are concerned with keeping more costs down than quality of content, are adding to their own marginalization.
Finally, with the lower cost structures, 50k-100k CD's sold will be more than enough to make some money and support a tour.
The ultimate thing is that I think it will be good for the fans. That is until the government starts taxing the internet. But that is a different discussion for a different day.
5 - Mark Saleski
the impact of technology (both in the making of music and at the consuming end) will unfold slowly over time.
i sometimes wonder about the effect of the 'one-box'...where kids use the computer as their all-in-one entertainment/socialization system: email, instant messaging, music, video, etc...
personally, it kinda creeps me out.
6 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Craig, nice work here, man. You share some of my own thoughts on the innovation-excitement-decline cycle of rock music. Persoanlly, i am undergoing a serious resurgence of interest in "contemporary" acts after a long period where i could find nothing of interest in the music press and so sought out all that old stuff folks in Mojo would bang on about. The Libertines, Frans Ferdinand, Velvet Revolver, Andrew WK, these things make me smile.
I do think, however, there is a danger of being short-sighted on the assumption that onlt music with guitars and power-chords can be of any real worth. I realise the following statement may invoke cries of rapturous derision, but i haven't heard a record rock as hard as "stripped" by christina aguilera in a LOOOONG time.
7 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Plus, the fact that Morrissey got to no.3 in the UK chart with his latest single "Irish Blood, English Heart", only being held from the top by those two folks shouting about fuck you to one another, does make one feel like something great must be going on.
8 - Craig Lyndall
I would say that if you check out Iron and Wine, Death Cab for Cutie, The Dismemberment Plan, Modest Mouse, The Flaming Lips, Mogwai, Pedro the Lion, Minus the Bear, The Velvet Teen and others you will be quite surprised to find that the power chord is being passed right on by in many rock circles.
9 - Vern Halen
No, doubt, as it always does, rock will reinvent itself & come to the forefront of popular culture - after all, that's part of the cycle where the edge becomes the mainstream and then the old school. I think the question this time around is, just how long can this last? The cycle seems to be getting shorter & shorter every time, to the point that whatever's cool now is gone before twelve months have passed. It's hard to build up a catalog and fan base familiar with that catalog in so short a time.
As far as radio goes, forget it. As a force to promote art & culture (POP art & culture at that!), they shot themselves in the foot a long, long time ago. They continue to be basically irrelevant to the cutting edge.
10 - ClubhouseCancer
So, to further the Great Rock Revival of 04, why not post a little review of some recent thing you really liked?
I'll start.
Destroyer: Your Blues
Destroyer is Dan Bejar (of New Pornographers), and his new album is a strange thing of great beauty. Made of mostly acoustic guitars and vintage-sounding synths, it's all sort of fey and Hunky-Dory-era Bowie.
I think the cryptic, allusive lyrics combined with the insane catchiness of the tunes are what keep me coming back.
The Wednesday Morning Download column on Salon pointed me to two free download tracks, and they are two of the best songs on the album, and here they are if you wanna try Destroyer:
Long live rock.
http://multimedia.mergerecords.com/audio/destroyer/ItsGonnaTakeAnAirplane.mp3
http://multimedia.mergerecords.com/audio/destroyer/TheMusicLovers.mp3
11 - Craig Lyndall
Thanks Clubhouse, I will check those out.
I just got a copy of Time in Malta from Equal Vision records and if you like hardcore/punk, you will really dig it.
If you like acoustic stuff, check out Iron and Wine.
12 - dimas
ist cooollll
13 - madhatter
I stopped listening to the radio a looooong time ago. They cycle the same set of songs every 2 hrs, give or take 10 mins. And the songs they choose are so squeaky clean (yes the 'rock' songs), they make me ill. And why do the singers all sound like they just reached puberty? Doesn't anyone know how to SING anymore?
I enjoyed reading this, good job. I also grew up listening to all the 'grunge' like SP, PJ, Nirvana, Mudhoney, as well as sublime, bad religion, etc. I feel bad for the kids these days... they all love Good Charlotte and Linkin Park. It's a shame. I personally believe music tends to recycle itself into something a little more palatable every 15 yrs or so. The next cycle is just around the corner, so keep your chin up :)
By the way... my first two cassettes i can recall owning were BoysIIMen and A.B.C. That's what the radio fed me in my younger days. And i know i'm not alone :)