in 2002, author michael azerrad wrote our band could be your life. this book chronicled 13 indie bands from the '80's that compromised the musical underground. bands such as: the minutemen, mission of burma, sonic youth, big black, etc. azerrad felt these bands were a direct response to the likes of def leppard, tesla, bon jovi and other 'mainstream' bands. in an interview, azerrad was asked to speculate on the differences between a kid who went to a black flag show at the moose lodge (read: small venue) and a kid who went to a van halen concert at the forum (read: large auditorium) on the very same night. here is his response:
"obviously, the kid at the black flag show is a bit of an independent, investigative thinker. he or she probably had to read about black flag in a fanzine, and he or she can look past glossy production to see the gist of a band. that takes a certain independence of thought and a leap of imagination. someone who makes their way to a black flag concert in 1981 is obviously different then the kind of kid who's at van halen, because the van halen kid only reads mainstream publication and listens to the radio, so that's all he knows. for the person who goes to the black flag show, music is probably more important to them. but that's not a value judgement about them as a human being."
but isn't it? how can you tell me that the kid who goes to the black flag show appreciates music more because he had to do more research? while it's very possible that these two hypothetical kids like black flag and van halen for completely different reasons, isn't it also completely possible that they like these bands for the exact same reason too? and that reason would be, because in their minds they are saying "these guys freaking rock!!!"
bottom line is, it's up to the individual listener. if they think it rocks, then it rocks. below are some examples of music that has 'rocked' my life:
guns n roses - appetite for destruction - 1987 - i got this cassette for Christmas, and it changed my life forever. instantly, i feel in love with it. it rocked! i had no idea what any of the songs were really about 'til years later. to me, the meaning of the song was, and still is unimportant - what's important is the childhood memory of listening to and loving rock n roll.
bon jovi - new jersey - 1988 - i loved this album because it was almost tough enough to be rock n roll - but my sister liked it - so that combination made it cool. side note about my sister's (jennifer's) musical taste - she use to have an entire wall in her bedroom full of new kids on the block pics cut out of tiger beat and bop! so perhaps my memory of her taste in music is a bit off, but bon jovi still rocks!
alabama - mountain music - 1982 - i borrowed (without asking) one of their cassettes from my aunt toni years ago - this instantly became my favorite country group - i even went as far as to imagine that my friends and i were in the band. random side note of aunt toni...my family use to frequent a bar called the outdoorsman...that's right, a child in a bar, big whoop. it was more of a living room than a bar. anywho, i use to love playing shuffleboard, but before she "allowed" me to play, i had to sit on her lap as she played survivor's eye of the tiger on the jukebox...and i'd have to sing every word to her beforehand. in my childhood memory, this situation occured approximately 487 times, but in reality it was probably closer to 2. gotta love a child's imagination!
fine young cannibals - good thing - 1989 - back when my cousin mary katherine was an infant we all (jodey, susan, jacob, amy, kyle, mary katherine, jennifer and myself) piled into the burkholders surburban and headed for lake lbj. about halfway into the drive, good thing comes on the radio... instantly everyone gets "sleeping baby" excited. you know, when there's a baby sleeping, but you want to celebrate and make noise, so you bounce around in excitement without making any actual noise. well, during the chorus, there is repetitive clapping in the song...well, guess who doesn't know how to "sleeping baby" clap...yours truly. needless to say, i was excited, clapped as loud as possible, and woke up mary katherine. to this day i can't hear that song without bringing back memories of evil looks i received after waking a sleeping child...and perhaps this is why i can't clap on beat.
c&c music factory - gunna make you sweat - 1990 - a quick hit and off they were, but gunna make you sweat (everybody dance now) was a hit at an imporant time in my life. see, girls liked c&c, i liked girls, thus i liked c&c - everybody dance now!
screaming trees - sweet oblivion - 1992 - this was the first CD i ever bought (read: that i convinced my mom to buy me, thanks mom!)...and to this day its still one of my all time favorite albums. just opening that CD case for the first time. i can still smell the way the disc, plastic case and paper lyrics & liner notes smelled for the first time. i will never forget that smell.
hum - you'd prefer an astronaut - 1995 - i will always attribute this album to my last boring, jobless summer. i listened to this album practically every single day that summer. i'd sit at home, pop that cd in the stereo and play TPC golf all day. occasionally i'd switch it out for the nixons- foma - 1995 - but i always went back to my favorite. another random side note: my friend joe use to have a band in college up at baylor called identikit. my friend rick and i went up there a couple times to check them out, party, etc. everytime we saw them live, they played a song called stars, by hum. i had always loved this song...it was by far the best song on the album (and is now in the new cadillac commercial with kate walsh (the red head) from grey's anatomy and private practice). one night after his show i asked him why he decided to play a cover of stars over any other song. his answer blew me away at the simplicity of it. "because it's a cool song". i suppose that the point of this entire blog. if the listener thinks it's cool, the it's cool.
tripping daisy - i'm an elastic firecracker - 1995 - reminds me of my junior year of high school...and i can't listen to nada surf - high/low - 1996 - without recalling countless memories from my senior year. in fact, i'm sure if i tried hard enough, i could probably find an album that would sum up practically every year of my life...trip along...
one of my favorite movies of all time, high fidelity, introduced me to a couple bands that i instantly fell in love with... belle and sebastian - tigermilk - 1996 - and the beta band - the three EPs - 1998 - now, i probably never would have heard of these 2 bands if it wasn't for this movie, so that is just an added bonus to an already great movie. quickly, high fidelity is a movie about love, music and the love of music...plus john cusack is in it, so it can't be that bad, right. unfortunately, bands like belle and sebastian and the beta band would never be played on the radio in san antonio, except for perhaps during an obscure 3am hour on trinity university radio, krtu.
dashboard confessional - the places you have come to fear the most - 2001 - somewhere there is a teenage heart being broken, and they will listen to dashboard on repeat for the next 3 years straight. also, somewhere there is a 20-something screaming dashboard 'infidelities' at the top of their lungs in their car for reasons long forgotten...
bottom line is, you like music just because you do. you may not even know the words the the song, but that doesn't mean you're aren't justified in telling people just how amazing that certain track is. let's put it this way, i love radiohead. they're possibly the one of the best bands i've ever heard. in fact, if in some weird experiment i had to choose only one band that i could listen to for the rest of my life, it just might be radiohead. but i could never love radiohead as much as i love guns n roses. the reason i could never love radiohead as much as i love guns n roses is because i can never be 8 again. radiohead is not an extension of my life like guns n roses was. and no band ever will be. that kind of random mystical connection can only happen during those terrible, magical years of adolescense...when i could somehow convince myself that w. axl rose understood me, even though i didn't even understand his lyrics. i can't tell you the last time i listened to their 'appetite' album...and i don't know if i ever will again. but i can tell you that music is all about preference and experience; whether it be black flag or van halen, radiohead or guns n roses.
i could probably keep going, and perhaps someday i will... but i think i've walked far enough down memory lane for now. i'm pretty sure just about everyone has a list of songs and albums in their head that "rock" and that they can tie to a certain time, age or event. feel free to share... i may not be able to sing well or be talented enough to play a single musical instrument, but i love talking about music. welcome to the jungle...
13 comments:
Wow, Jeff. Your music list totally took me back, kind of a blast from the past.
I think the band that changed my life was U2. I found them in 1983 because a friend loved them and wanted the whole world to love them. They have evolved with time, but man, the music still touches my soul. (Did I just date myself?? In 1983 I was 16 and a few years later U2 released 'The Joshua Tree' and life was never the same...great album, great band and to this day remains my all time favorite)
Music has a way of speaking to people. I am not sure why that is and I am sure some expert would love to tell me, but it has a way of bridging gaps between people and culture. The very first album I ever bought with my own money was Barry Manilow, I still like him (although the face lift was a bit much..) and I still love Neil Diamond ("the Jazz Singer' album..awesome) and to this day, my great aunt, who is 94, and I can sit together and listen to Neil or Barry and be on the same wavelength. Kind of wierd, but definitely nice.
Does it matter that I can sing all of the Amy Grant songs from the beginning of her career cause I had all of her records and played them till they wore out? Nope. But to hear one of them today, as she remasters them, takes me back to the 80s when life was pretty simple and my biggest worry was what to wear to school that day or who to eat lunch with.
Music rocks, no matter what you love to listen to. (and by the way, studies show that when a child is about 18 years old, they have about 3,000 song lyrics embedded in their brains..mine was filled with Amy and U2..and Pat Benatar. Man, what could I do if I cleared out all the useless memory of old songs and filled it with information. I would be dangerous!)
..'If music be the bread of life, play on'....
---Sara
You can never have a bad day when you start it with a little bit of Jon. I think I will always be an 80's girl! Rock on!
But Azerrad never says that those two kids don't both think that their respective bands rock. Rather, he was explaining the difference between the way they consume media. Obviously, you have an agenda with your post, and misinterpreted Azerrad's statement to fit your thesis. And that's kind of lame.
maldo, while you're correct in saying that Azerrad never says that those two kids don't both think that their respective bands rock, he does clearly state "because the van halen kid only reads mainstream publication and listens to the radio, so that's all he knows". and i think that arguement is pretty lame. my point is that music shouldn't be judged for quality just by how difficult it is to find it. he goes on to say "for the person who goes to the black flag show, music is more important to them." says who? how can he possibly know that? whether you like a certain band or not is about personal preference, not about how difficult it is to find info about them. there was no agenda here with my blog. my point is that people can tell me all day that my choice of music is horrible and i would think they're wrong...because its MY choice...and who are they to think they know me better than i know myself. i like a certain band just because i do... and on an ironic note, i like sonic youth and absolutely cannot stand van halen. just thought i'd throw that out there!
that was a lot of typing. exhaustive (not exhausting, mind you). i feel like i know you better having read this.
and maldo chimed in. wait, maldo?
Kyle i think you have an agenda with that post....lame
Thanks for acknowledging my point, Jeff. But Azerrad simply does not say that music should, as you write, "be judged for quality just by how difficult it is to find it." You’re reading that interpretation into what he said, and it simply isn't there.
Azerrad is right: If you're going to go to the trouble of tracking down a band like Black Flag – and remember, we're talking the early to mid '80s here, when that really was difficult – by delving through hard-to-find alternative media like fanzines, then clearly music plays a more profound and pervasive part of your life than if you only depend on ubiquitous mainstream media.
Again, don't interpret that to mean that music means nothing to the average Van Halen fan. It might well mean a whole lot. But, like I said, anyone who put in the substantial time and energy to track down Black Flag in, say, 1982 probably had a lot more emotional and intellectual investment in music and its surrounding culture,
Here's an analogy: who's more into food, the person who eats at McDonald's (and might well enjoy it a lot) or the person who takes the time to track down the city's best organic vegetarian Indian restaurant? (You can mock that analogy all you want, but it won't win any arguments.)
The fact is, nothing in Azerrad's statement claims that your choice of music is "horrible." It really seems like you're very sensitive and defensive on this point and so I'd turn the discussion around to you and ask why you feel threatened by other people's tastes in music.
maldo... i don't feel threatened by other peoples music at all. like i keep saying, if they like it, then they like it, and that's all that matters... what i think about their choice of music or what you think about it has not relative significance to their choice. i actually wrote a long response, but accidently deleted it and really don't feel like retyping my thoughts...sorry! just to sum up, i may like a band for reasons that have nothing to do with them or their music, but because of a emotional tie..and that goes way beyond research. i think we're gunna have to agree to disagree on this one! thanks for the comments.
Jeff, you absolutely are threatened by other people's taste in music. That's why you wrote "people can tell me all day that my choice of music is horrible... who are they to think they know me better than i know myself." Someone sure feels defensive here!
But my main point is, you are simply not reading what I'm saying. You're reading what you think I'm saying.
I never said or implied that anyone likes a band because they researched them more than most people research their bands. (For instance, I've found plenty of favorite bands by accident.) That would be your aforementioned insecurity showing there. Instead, I'm saying that people who take more time to research bands than most people do are -- de facto -- more devoted to music in general. This is self-evident: spending more time on something means one is more devoted to it.
Capisce?
dude, there is NO insecurity. i could give a RIP who likes or dislikes my choice of music. it makes no difference whatsoever. i do appreciate the fact though that you somehow managed to search for my blog and take hours of your time to read and comment on it. i feel honored and privilaged. thanks again.
You're very welcome. Hope you get over your insecurity -- really, it's OK if you like mainstream music.
dude... i like mainstream. if its not apparenty by me saying that gnr is my favorite band of all time, then i don't know how much clearer to make it for you. and i don't think that bon jovi and dashboard are that far off either. im not sure what qualifies as mainstream up in new york, but here in texas that pretty much works. i think you've managed to confuse youself through all the reading and typing. seriously, im finished with this discussion!
I think we realy have beter things to do with our time guys....
There is 8 posts from you both....
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