Many of the songs on this list don't actually feel like part of our past, but still linger as representations of our eternal present. And yet it's sort of impossible to not feel a twinge of nostalgia for the finitude of solid-matter, extended-play singles with copious remixes, to feel gratitude for the chemically balanced variety that emerged from the rigid discipline—and, yes, probably payola—of radio DJ charts.I would add that I've always thought that we feel "nostalgic" for those moments juuuuust before we were fully aware of being able to revel in them. For example, I romanticize the Amerindie/Minneapolis early-mid 80s scene, and harken back for those glory days, but in reality I was JUST too young to really be a part of it, or to enjoy it in real time. Meanwhile, I feel no real longing or nostalgia for the Grunge Era, and yet any cultural historian would point to it as being the defining musical genre of my particular segment of a generation. I think we tend to kind of pooh-pooh the moments we actually live through, and romanticize the ones we've just missed - particularly if you have older brothers/sisters, or friends with older siblings et al. We look back at the CBGB's scene in NYC and assume those bands sat around soaking in how much of a "scene" and "history" they were a part of, yet they surely did no such thing, and in fact probably bitched and moaned that there's wasn't something magical like whatever scene had come before their own. And on and on.
More to the point, the '90s may have been the last full decade during which stepping outside of the box to broaden one's musical horizons was not necessarily the given—whereas the iPod era has turned us all into active musical scavengers, always seeking out the next obscure download. With perfectly acceptable gems right at the heart of the mainstream (Nirvana's "Come As You Are," Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart," Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody?"), who even wanted to entertain wanderlust?
As far as I can tell, at least musically we're still steeped in 80's nostalgia, and that's probably because people my age kind of run the pop culture machine, ie people that were old enough to feel the era and enjoy it without having been old enough to really be a part of it, or judge it on anything from the past. Meanwhile, there's a zillion bands that're in their early 20's and are incredibly popular because they sound like bands from the 80's, which they discovered as someone my age would've The Clash or Ramones. In a few years, the next group that's slightly younger than myself will come along in the same position, but the years will have progressed into the 90's, and away we'll go.
1 comment:
Perhaps we ran in different circles but my peers, who I hung out with, were very keen on the music of the time, which was comprised mostly of the Seattle scene but also included stuff like Eric Matthews, Jellyfish, Fishbone, etc. For those of us who enjoyed the tunes of the so-called alternative rock era it was finally our time: after being in the shadow of the classic rock gods, our peers were making music that spoke to us and was our own.
One of the most overlooked aspects of the '90s was that, for the first time since the '60s rock explosion--and never again afterwards--there was a brief window in which the major labels did not have an idea of what "the kids" wanted and signed anything that even smelled like teen spirit. (And yes, the Nirvana reference is on purpose seeing as Sonic Youth were practically A&R scouts for DGC.) That was very quickly remedied when they signed lame, watered down versions of some of the era's best, for sure. However, many deserving but not very commercial artists got signed to deals because of that initial ignorance. With mixed results, of course, but outside of the Celine Dion-Matchbox 20 mainstream there seemed to be something in the air. To paraphrase Ira Robbins it was kind of a haze that went "off with a spectacular atmospheric bang" but when it eventually settled turned into smelly gas. So there.
As much as I loved--and still do--the music of the late '60s and a good chunk of the '70s, it never felt completely mine. And then our peers started making music that we could identify with; in OK Computer our own Dark Side of the Moon. Yeah, I know: I'm being sentimental and corny but that's how it felt.
Then again, it was supposed to be an alternative to the vast majority of artists decried in the article you linked to.
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