Ongoing History of New Music

One of the great things about the alt-rock revolution of the 1990s was its diversity… The sounds from this part of the rock universe had always been varied…that’s because the idea of “alternative music” was so amorphous…if it was (a) non-mainstream and ignored by most radio stations; (b) a little left of centre in terms of aesthetics; and (c) considered weird by the majority, then it qualified as “alternative” by default, simply because the was no other way to categorize it…and humans love to organize things into piles, right?... Multiple genres thrived in the alt-rock universe…plus there were all the sub-genres and sub-sub-genres and even sub-sub-sub-genres…this mean that if you into alternative music before the 1990s, you were spoiled for choice…there was something for everyone… Then along came grunge, the biggest sound of the decade…it ripped a whole in the music-space-time continuum, opening a hole into this parallel universe, allowing all these sounds to invade the mainstream… And because these sounds and scenes and sub-genres had been happily evolving almost unseen for years, the people making this music knew what they were doing…the mainstream was flooded with new songs from scenes that were already mature—or at least close to it… Never before had so much solid music from so many seasoned performers been waiting in wings, ready to show their stuff…and when they got their chance—wow… This is our look at the alt-rock of the 1990s, part 7… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The early 90s were an amazing time for music…generation x, a powerful demographic force, reached the age where they were in a position to demand music that reflected their needs and wants and wishes and desires and fears… The biggest sea change came with the rise of grunge, thanks to Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and, of course, Nirvana…but that music was just the kick-start for the alternative nation that came to dominate most of the 90s…. For many, grunge was alternative music with training wheels…those who liked what they heard were invariably led deeper into a culture that had existed outside the mainstream for years…Gen X discovered different flavours of goth and industrial and electronic music…and they also discovered punk…. Punk had always been around…sure, it kinda got burned out at the end of the 70s, but it never died…the Ramones kept touring…bands like husker du were putting out records…and American hardcore established itself as a force to be reckoned with… But punk was still a niche thing, away from the attention of most music fans…but then an interesting set of circumstances came into play that resulted in a massive resurrection of interest in punk rock—and echoes of that resurrection are still being felt today… This is chapter 6 of our look at back at the 1990s…it’s the mid-90s punk revival… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If we look at the state of rock here in the 21st century, it is no longer the main musical driver of popular culture…hip-hop is king… This doesn’t mean it’s dead, that it doesn’t have a place in our lives, that it isn’t going to be around for decades to come…but if you’re honest, you’ll have to admit that hip-hop has extended its reach into popular culture with the strength and depth that used to belong to rock… And it’s not like rock’s appeal shrank…it’s that other genres have exploded, hip-hop being the genre with the most growth… Now let’s go back to the 1990s, the last decade where rock ruled everything…alt-rock was the thing…but if we dig through what happened in the 90s, we can see how hip-hop not only infiltrated alt-rock but how it was embraced, incorporated, and celebrated… Regions of the alt-rock universe began to evolve…the beats got bigger…the rhymes got tougher and more complicated…the vibe began to change…and it was all pretty good—but not all of it worked out well… What were hip-hop’s effects on alt-rock?...we’re going to continue with that topic on this next episode on the alternative 90s… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are some things you should never mix...oil and water...nitro and glycerin...tequila and—well, it’s not a good idea to mix tequila with anything other than salt, lemon and maybe some fruit juice… They used to say this about rock and rap music, too...and they were pretty adamant about that… When rap and hip-hop started seeping into the mainstream in the middle 1980s, it immediately polarized people...those who didn’t (or refused) to get it, were aggressively dismissive of what rap brought to the table... “that’s not rap…it’s crap!” …. “this isn’t music…it’s just bad poetry over beats stolen from another record”… It took a few years, but by the time we got into the 90s, hip-hop and rap was becoming a very powerful musical and cultural force…today, it is the genre when it comes to driving culture…after half a century of being in charge, rock has fallen to second place… Not only that, but a chunk of the rock scene was co-opted into hip-hop, creating a new series of hybrid sounds… The original post-punk alt-rock population also aged...the older, set-in-their-ways crowd was pushed out by a new generation who didn’t have any preconceived notions or baggage when it came to these new sounds...to them, rap was just another form of exciting new music... So, by the end of the 80s, there were signs that punk, funk, rap, hip-hop and metal were all becoming inextricably intertwined...but who knew that in a few years we’d all be talking about this thing called “nu metal?”... This is part 5 of our look back on the alt-rock of the 1990s… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I want you to think about fashion for a moment…fashion is one of the most disposable of all the artistic endeavours…much of what’s created isn’t designed to last more than a season…once the season is over, time to toss out all the coture and buy new stuff… But there are cycles in fashion…after a certain amount of time, old styles might come back into favour again…this, in a way, makes fashion a renewable resource… Music is also like that…trends and sounds and styles come along and then disappear…but then ten, fifteen, twenty or more years later, those trends, sounds and styles are resurrected by a brand-new generation… Sometimes the kids rediscover the joys and appeal of a certain style of music independently…or maybe they got into some older records and were inspired by that…whatever the reason, anything to keep from being bored, right?... If you were around in the early-to-mid 90s, you may remember a period when every week seemed to bring along something new and cool…a new band with a new sound and a new attitude…and this stuff was coming from all directions… North America had developed a massive appetite for all things alternative, led by grunge…in fact, grunge threatened to completely swamp rock music worldwide, including the UK… But some young musicians would have none of this musical imperialism from the colonies…they decided to fight back with a real Made-In-Britain approach… The result was fantastic…and until the whole thing collapsed under its own weight of excess and overexposure and drugs, it was an excellent party…this is part 4 of our look back of the alt-rock of the 1990s…the topic?...Britpop… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up until the 1990s, the section of the rock universe known as “alternative” was all over the place…there wasn’t what anyone could call a defining sound…if it was left of centre, weird to mainstream music fans and ignored by the media, then it was “alternative”... If you were around the late 80s—the decade where the word “alternative” began to be used to describe a certain attitude in rock—you’ll remember that this was an umbrella term for so many different types of artists… If you couldn’t categorize a song or an artist by tossing it into any of the regular buckets, then there was only one other bucket you could use…and it quickly filled up… Singer-songwriters…indie pop artists…industrial bands…groups with synthesizers…goth groups…extra-noisy guitar bands…even rap was alternative for a while in the 80s: it was new, it was weird and it was hated by the mainstream…ergo: alternative! There were so many different sounds and textures and moods and looks that just trying to come up with a definition of “alternative music” was impossible…basically, we went by the credo of “I can’t tell exactly what it is, but I know it when I hear it”… Come to think of it, in many ways, back then was a lot like the alt-rock of today…a vast variety of sounds that were adventurous, different and sometimes weird… But then came along something that codified everything, something around which everything else could coalesce and organize…and once that happened, alt-rock was unstoppable—for a while, anyway… This is part 3 of our look back on the 1990s… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1967 during the summer of love, anything seemed possible…civil rights issues were being addressed…the war in Vietnam could be stopped…drugs and free love were in the air…and women were being liberated… Amongst all this was Jimi Hendrix who became a fan of an all-female rock band from San Francisco called “the ace of cups”… Wait a second…an all-girl rock band?...who wrote their own songs?...who had a chick out front that could shred like a man?...and a girl playing drums?... Even in 1967, that was radical…Hendrix was so impressed by their chops that he invited them to open a couple of his shows…it really did seem like a defining moment… But then the old sexist attitudes took over…women groups did not—could not—rock…it was common sense…self-evident…everyone knew that… The ace of cups gave it a good shot, but by 1972, they’d broken up…and until punk rock came around a few years later, the idea of a female-fronted rock band was considered silly… But punk brought in new egalitarian values…and fans embraced groups fronted by, led by and occasionally consisting entirely of women… Deborah harry and blondie…Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders…The Slits…Patti Smith…Siouxsie and the Banshees…Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics… These amazing women did all sorts of good for women’s role in rock…and by the time generation x and the 90s started to happen, the idea of bands where the leader and most (or all) its members had extra x chromosomes wasn’t weird at all…finally… But there was still work to be done…and all through the alt-rock 90s, we were influenced and inspired and entertained by some of the greatest female musicians in rock, period, full stop…this is part 2 of our series on the alternative rock of the 1990s… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a less-enlightened time, women were barely tolerated by the rock’n’roll establishment…they could sing, shake a tambourine and look pretty…but that’s about it…in retrospect, the sexism and misogyny was unbelievable…but back in the day, it was business as usual… Some strong women who broke through…Joan Baez, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Carole King, Janis Joplin…but they were the exceptions… Sexism continued through the early- and mid-seventies…the prevailing “wisdom” was that women just couldn’t rock…it was a biological impossibility, apparently… But then along came punk rock and a sense of egalitarism…the central tennet of being a punk was that anyone with anything to say should be allowed to say it, regardless of musical ability, class, race, religion—or sex… The punk rock of the 70s opened musical doors for women more than any other era in musical history…this doesn’t mean that sexism and misogyny and abuse was over…but it did mean way more strong, powerful female musicians… Slow, steady progress was made in through the 80s…and yes, there were setbacks…but by the time we got into the next decade, the music world was flooded with women who, in many ways, set the agenda for all rock music… This is part 2 of our series on the 1990s… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writing history takes a very long time…sure, you could write down everything as it happens, but that’s really only like writing a diary…you only have a record of events—which is fine…but real history, meaningful history is something more… To understand what happened in the past, more time has to go by so that we can observe the ripples events have the world…it’s only by examining those ripples that we begin to understand what’s happening in the present and what could happen in the future… It’s often helpful and convenient to look at the past by decade…that’s certainly a favourite way to do things with music…in fact, that’s how we like to categorize music history… If I say “50s music,” you know exactly what I mean…if we move to the music of the 1960s, same thing…the names or artists and songs leap to mind, just as they do if I said we’re going to talk about the 70s or 80s… But what about the 1990s?...what comes to mind on that branch of music history?...grunge, Britpop, raves, electronica generation x, hip hop, sampling, cell phones, personal computers, the internet, MP3s, music piracy… The 90s were a transformational decade, in so many ways, the end of the way music used to be and the beginning of what it would become in the next millennium…many people have come to the conclusion that the 90s were the last great decade for music… Is that true?...now that enough time has passed, we can now look back on the 90s to help us understand where we are today… And if we’re going to be successful at that, we’re gonna need to spread this investigation over out over a lot of shows… These are the 1990s, part 1… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How would you like to be remembered when you’re gone?...most people make do with a tombstone or some such other grave marker…maybe a few photographs and other detritus from a life… But maybe you’ve done something exceptional, something that extends beyond just your family and friends…my dad was mayor of my tiny hometown on the Canadian prairies and was instrumental in the development of a tourist area…for that, he had a street named after him…very nice… Others have schools named after them…buildings…airports…whole towns and cities and countries and even continents…North America, for example, is named after an Italian cartopgrapher named “Amerigo Vespucci”…you get the idea… Another way to achieve this sort of immortality is to have something in nature named in your honour…it turns out that this is a great way to pay tribute to rock stars… Sit tight…we’re going to spend the next hour learning a few Latin terms… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices