CHRles said:
You brought up some interesting points, but you also mentioned Pink Floyd. Have you ever listened to their first album? Sounds pretty Alternative Rock, if not College Rock. Yes, their later albums were masterpieces, but Floyd or guys like David Bowie influenced all sorts of acts with some of their early stuff.
Yeah, I'm quite familiar with the Piper at the Gates of Dawn, though it's not my favorite Floyd album, and you're absolutely right that they, David Bowie, T. Rex, & so many others influenced later generations. That record, as weird as it is, is chock-full of vintage Blues riffing from Syd Barrett, while the experimental stuff on college radio today skips the Blues and just delves right into weird.
CHRles said:
You also mentioned Weezer whose singer is currently finding success with B.O.B. on the track "Magic". Their biggest 90s hit, "Buddy Holly" was a throwback to older Rock N Roll, although it was a huge hit on commercial Modern Rock radio. They also had a hit a few years ago with the catchy "Beverly Hills". Basically, they're a band that knows how to entertain and doesn't always take themselves too seriously. That was the problem with some of the 70s Rock bands - they took themselves wayyy too seriously so when Punk Rock came along it sounded fresh, youthful, and simple.
Truthfully, I don't know what B.O.B. is. 'Buddy Holly' was a fun little song back around 1996 or whenever it came out, and is easily their finest hour. Still, I think they helped create a monster where seemingly thousands of copycat bands - self-consciously geeky and goofy - flooded the airwaves. Enough already; maybe getting back to that '70s ethos you referenced where musicians actually took their work seriously would be a good thing. These are very serious times we are living in and one would think that would be reflected in the music we hear. Yet, whenever I turn on a station that plays contemporary music, it's all partying and escapism. I guess that works for some people, but its all gotten very tiring to people like me. Country radio has some exceptions, but even there most of the material is just plain fluff. I guess I just want to hear some substance again. I'm tired of nerds with guitars.
CHRles said:
I also believe Modern Rock is what SAVED Rock music in the early 90s when younger Hard Rock bands were too caught up in Heavy Metal, Thrash metal, and even Death and Doom Metal. Most of the harder bands just didn't have the same caliber of talent as Metallica or Pantera, or 80s pioneers Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. They just sounded loud.
Meanwhile Modern Rock acts applied some hard Rock techniques, along with 60s and 70s Rock sounds, 80s New Wave, and socially concious lyrics. All the cool stuff was coming from Modern Rock - Nirvana, Beck, Pearl Jam, Ten Thousand Maniacs, Rage Against The Machine, Toad The Wet Sprocket, New Order, Garbage, Blur, Soundgarden, Jesus Jones, Sublime, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Collective Soul, Nine Inch Nails, Tori Amos, Faith No More, and others.
Yes, that first wave of '90s groups were for real & took their craft seriously, and the hair metal had run its course. That was healthy & good, the purging that took place around 1992, and it hasn't been repeated in quite the same way since. But just as the hair bands bastardized Led Zeppelin, the post-grunge that emerged bastardized Soundgarden &, especially, Alice in Chains (I love Alice in Chains & their recent comeback album is great, but I hate what the bands that have followed in their wake have done.) Today's 'Indie' rock is merely doing the same thing a group like Pavement did back in the day - dull, nerdy music without any style to it. Shoegazers, so to speak. Yawn. Back to post-grunge, about '94, '95, artists like Live, Bush, Candlebox, Creed, et al. came about and just watered down the entire 'alternative' scene. And then more & more bands, to this very day, just kept playing along, not a lick of originality to them. Then, to add insult to injury, in the late '90s Metal of the variety you described above came into fashion. Korn and all that utter crap. Just plain noise, with rapping & hip-hop beats thrown into the mix just to make it even more annoying & dreadful. Thank God that whole thing has largely disappeared. Post-grunge pablum has stuck around, though, and for about 15 years too long. Again, this is not timeless music like the best of what is heard on classic rock. Something has to give, because modern/active/whatever rock radio - & CHR, as well, because the pop stuff is equally redundant - does not have much of a future if the music scene doesn't move forward somehow, and soon. As I said in my prior post, a large-scale return to Blues-based sounds might go a lot way toward sparking a rock revival. I'm not (yet) familiar with all of their music, but there's a group called Wolfmother that has had some buzz the past couple of years, and they are a throwback to the Cream, Hendrix era. Slash recently recorded with the group's lead singer, and the resulting single is one of the best things I've heard on rock radio in years. There are probably more young artists out there doing such a thing than I realize, but are they radio-friendly (in other words, can they write catchy hooks)? 'Seven Nation Army' is the blueprint that should be followed and expanded upon. Do they have big label support (and does that even matter all that much anymore?) If so, then smart and proactive PD's need to respond. That's another angle to all this, that stations of all varieties today play it way too safe most of the time. If a CHR tried out some of Slash's new material, they may discover that their audiences like it and find it a refreshing change. I also propose a permanent retiring of the moniker 'Alternative,' but I digress, this is the CHR board. For the record, I'm in my '30s, so I'm not some middle-aged man or old fogey reminiscing about the good old days here.
