Yesterday afternoon, I was listening to Pearl Jam's masterpiece Ten, when the thought hit me:
The early-mid '90s were the last time a Rock music movement really sounded interesting to me.
Let me clarify: I don't mean that I haven't heard a decent Rock(*) record since the '90s, nor am I indulging in that patented old-fart chestnut You kids today don't know REAL music - why, when I was your age... It's not that I like only the stuff that came out at the age when my musical tastes were supposedly set in stone. Nope. I've heard some pretty damned good Rock albums these last few years (Thea Gilmore's Songs From the Gutter, Muse's Absolution, Flogging Molly's Within a Mile of Home and The Sword's Age of Winters, among others), and really enjoy a number of recent artists (again, Thea Gilmore, Flogging Molly, Muse and The Sword as well as Placebo, Gnarls Barkley, The Decemberists, Nouvelle Vague, She Wants Revenge, and more). Still, I can't remember an explosion in Rock music that has really lit the world on fire since the early 1990s. Since then, even the best artists have been riffing on earlier achievements by earlier bands.
Really, think abut it: Thea Gilmore sounds like a distaff Neil Young; Flogging Molly is a direct descendant of The Pogues; Muse melds Queen with U2 and Pearl Jam, while The Sword records the best Black Sabbath albums that Sabbath never recorded. P!nk riffs on Madonna, She Wants Revenge riffs on Bauhaus, The Killers riff on Queen, and Gorillaz riff on everybody. Almost everyone in popular music these days sounds like earlier artists. I had hoped at one point that the Neo-Cabaret sound of bands like The Dresden Dolls, The Decemberists and The Ditty Bops would break into something larger, but... nope. The best Rock albums of the last decade or so have either come from older artists (Velvet Revolver**, the Rolling Stones) or from new artists who sound like older artists (Coldplay, Nickelback, Muse, Placebo, Flogging Molly, etc.).
The sad epitomes of this trend arrive with the hype over new albums from Metallica (Death Magnetic, their best in nearly 20 years because it sounds like what they did 20 years ago) and Guns-n-Lawyers... *ahem* I mean, the Axl Rose Ego Experience. Both dangle brand names with over two decades of shelf life, and while neither album is bad, exactly, they're just... OLD.
In contrast, think back to 1990-95: Nirvana. Pearl Jam. Nine Inch Nails. Ministry. Hole. L7. The Smashing Pumpkins. Tori Amos. The Indigo Girls. White Zombie. Soundgarden. P.J. Harvey. Alanis Morrisette. The Offspring. Live. Their names and music still have a classic sound to them. That's the last time I can recall turning on the radio and actually wanting to listen to it for more than a song or two. Yes, those artists were also riffing on the music they grew up with, but... I dunno, there just seems to have been something more exciting and innovative about the movement as a whole. Before the scene turned into Whiny White Boy Wave (Candlebox, Creed, Matchbox Fucking 20), heroined itself into oblivion (Ministry), or disappeared up its own ass (with The Smashing Billy Corrigans being the prime offender), there was a visceral power to the era's ROCK that reverberates even now. I didn't wanna pump my fist in the air to Ten yesterday because it came out during my impressionable teens - I was almost 30 when it was released. I found my heart pounding to every song on that album because it's still a great fucking album. I haven't heard its like in years.
I'm not saying there are no good Rock artists out there. I have yet, however, to see a movement where a torrent of artists combine into something memorable - a new "wave" of Rock that sweeps over the shoreline of popular culture again.
So, thoughts? Am I just getting old, or has Rock finally rolled itself out? What am I missing? Or is it Rock itself that's missing in the age of Rock Band?
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* - I'm not referring here to Hip-Hip, Soul, Electronica or Rap, although those genres seem pretty played out right now, too. The most intriguing artists in those arenas are mining their old influences to death as well - yes Kanye West, Joss Stone, Thievery Corporation and L'il Wayne I am talking about you.
** - Aka, the real Guns-n-Roses.
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