|
Paranoid delusions of a rambling fool or the end of punk as we know it?
09/07/2007 03:22:17 / angry
Steve posted an interesting thread the other day and it got me thinking. The thread itself was regarding his disdain for one of these pseudo/faux so-called "punk" bands that seem to be springing up daily like weeds. Now I was O.K. with bands like Alkaline Trio and Dashboard Confessional and even Saves the Day when this emo/screamo/whatever-you-wanna-call-it genre first came into being but some of the newer ones who I won't even accredit by mentioning are quite ridiculous. On this thread I made a comparison of these bands vs. the "hair bands" of the late 80s, early 90s and how I felt that both were products of jumping on a bandwagon driven not by talent or originality but by a pre-packaged image and a giant marketing conglomerate. If you look at the eventual decline and death of the hair band from a historical perspective you can attribute its demise to two basic factors: One would be oversaturation of the market, thereby diluting the talent pool to the point of one lame band looking and sounding just like the next without an ounce of creativity or contrast. The second factor would be a certain Mr. Kurt Cobain. Now I don't want to say Kurt single-handedly killed off the hair band genre, he had some help from bands like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and the like but he was definitely the one who spearheaded the charge. Kids were just sick of seeing the same mascara wearing, overly theatrical, grown men who looked like women and who's most thought provoking lyrics involved banging 'ol Bobby Sue in the back of their fathers Chevrolet. Nirvana and the bands of that time period provided a long anticipated and needed change in the music world, an "alternative" if you will. In my opinion the passing of the hair band era was a good thing, never much cared for it myself however the sad part was that there were a number of bands, mostly the original ones that coined the phrase, who were actually quite good, both in the technical aspect and the originality factor, unfortunately this mattered not as they all went down in the same ship together. Why the history lesson you ask?, here's the scary part, I've been noticing a direct correlation between what's happening in the current music industry trends vs. the cause and effect of the hair bands ultimate undoing. Here's just a few startling similarities. Both genres placed fashion and image ahead of substance, both genres target market demographics are mostly teen and pre-teen females, both genres are coming in to being riding the coat tails of well established and respected predecessors and most importantly both genres create music using only one inspiration as their guide, WHAT WILL SELL. I know we all live in a capitalistic society and I can somewhat appreciate the albeit residual effect that some of these bands have had on the overall scene and music that I personally listen to. These bands translate to dollars, dollars record companies can spend searching out and signing quality bands, dollars promoters can spend making it financially viable for some of the legends of punk rock to reform and go back out on tour (just in the space of a few weeks I'll be able to see the Subhumans, the Vibrators and Youth Brigade). Some would say that's a beautiful thing, but at what price? I'll use the anaolgy of a resevoir being contained by a dam, the more water you add to the lake thereby increasing its volume, the more pressure put on the device constraining it. Continue to add even more water and there will be an eventual and most certain failure of the dam, the resevoir and the surrounding areas. My greatest fear is that if we as consumers continue to put up with all the mediocrity from these no-talent ass clowns a new-era Nirvana will emerge and we will awake one morning to the sound of a giant "POP" which will be the sound of the youth of this country pulling their heads from their asses to be followed by in unison this question, "What the fuck have I been listening to?"
|
|
|
MEMBERS COMMENTS
|
|
|
|
|
|
