Sleazy Hard Rock from NYC could've,should've,would've been a big band with a great debut album in 1990.Things were looking bright BUT then on the 24th Sept '91 a little known Seattle band released 'Nevermind' and that was IT, a whole genre of music was wiped out and I still haven't forgiven Mr. Cobain.BUT thankfully they reformed a few years back and at last I get to see them albeit in a small shitty club but sometimes that's the best way to see certain bands,especially these guys bringing that cool New York Groove to the streets of Camden....loved it..Enjoy,Ed.
Where did this odd idea that (so called) 'grunge' killed off Hard Rock come from? I've heard this same theory regurgitated for years in a multitude of places yet i've never been able to ascertain where it orginated from.
ReplyDeleteRealistically, the big bands in the scene had commercially & creatively peaked so the record labels were actively looking for something to replace it. It was they who used the 'grunge' term and they effectively created a so-called 'genre' out of a bunch of young bands who really didn't sound much alike (or indeed that much different from the bands they replaced) it was just a dressed down, earthier, rawer version & most of those bands reached back to exactly the same 60s/70s influences as the 80's Hard Rock bands.
Soundgarden were hugely in thrall to Sabbath & Zeppelin. Alice In Chains were also very Sabs-like but with Beatles harmonies. Pearl Jam? Kiss fans to a man. Their biggest hit 'Alive' even blatantly steals the main riff from 'Love Theme From Kiss' & they've admitted as much many times. It led to the band becoming friends with Ace Frehley who's joined the band onstage several times to cover 'Black Diamond'. Even Nirvana, who were more punky in their sound than those others ripped off one of classic rocks biggest moments, Boston's 'More Than A Feeling' for 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' & covered Kiss's 'Do You Love Me?'
So much for 'the revolution'. This was hardly the cultural & ideological revolt of Punk in the late 70's, instead it was labels investing their promotional dollars in new bands whilst allowing the existing crop to rot on the vine. The marketplace had become saturated with bands lacking in identity & if we're honest a cull was needed. It's unfortunate that a lot of great bands fell by the wayside, tarred with the same brush as their generic peers, bit it was the labels themselves who pulled the plug, along with MTV & radio, who dropped all those older groups from rotation overnight for 'the next big thing'. No big surprise, they've done the same thing over & over as long as they've existed, it's just fad & fashion to them.
Much to the annoyance of the entertainment industry Hard Rock & Heavy Metal never went away, it merely disappeared from the mainstream, and continues to flourish in the underground & confound those who thought that Rock was dead. It's in rude health & perversely there are probably more bands around now than there were at the genre's 80's peak. This presents it's own problems, the field's just so damn crowded it's often hard to find bands you enjoy, but they're out there. It just requires a bit of persistence to sniff them out.
In summation, Judas Priest just had their highest charting UK album ever & are currently playing sold-out arenas across Europe. Kurt Cobain' on the other hand has now been dead for longer than he was alive. Tragic, but in the long run it's clear that this style of music that was supposed to have been killed off 30 years ago is in rude health and will continue to prosper as lng as there's disaffected youth who find it to be an appealing soundtrack to their lives.
Oh, and cheers for the Spead Eagle show, i've been a fan for decades yet never had the pleasure of seeing them live.
Korky
Thanks - like hearing some of these unknown bands....
ReplyDeleteLook the over saturation of one business made fad eclipsed another business fad that's it. Some bands could not survive without the big money push. I agree most of the so called Grunge bands were big Metal fans at heart and Kurt Cobain was a huge Abba fan. Us Metal Heads actually prefer being back in the underground...too much publicity and Tipper and her Prom Queen Court get their tiaras in a twist about babes in bikinis dancing in front of kids (ok i can see it) and then bring some of the worst Porn Rockers in to testify in front of Congress. They even included John Fucking Denver because he admitted to exploring "other religions and spiritualitys. The Seattle scene was not about a sound or style of dress but about not needing the pompous trappings of Rock Stardum(b). Just like the original New York Punk scene. We can discuss this stuff all the time till we are gone but what is important right now is that we get a fucking Spread Eagle show for our collections...no that was not expected this morning!!!
DeleteJustDave
Korky,thanks for clearing that up for us,sorry for the delay in replying but it's taken me a week to read it.keep rockin' buddy...ed
ReplyDeleteEddie, I've enjoyed all of your small club shows that you've put up recently. Many thanks for your contribution.
ReplyDeleteEddie, apologies for being so long-winded with my thoughts about 'Grunge', the whole idea that it killed Metal is just one of those ideas i've always found puzzling.
ReplyDeleteWhile that was all happening i was at the peak of my gig-going, and saw Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden (x2), Screaming Trees etc. live & it was exactly the same audience there as at Hard Rock & Heavy Metal shows which you could clearly see from all the t-shirts on display. At the same time i'd also be going to see Bang Tango, Circus Of Power, The Black Crowes or Monster Magnet & seeing A.I.C. & P.J. t-shirts at those gigs, so it was clear the audience was largely the same for all these bands.
I viewed it as just another evolutionary development which this style of music has been undergoing ever since Hendrix, Blue Cheer & Sabbath showed us the blueprints. I never held any notion that it was 'us vs them' or anything like that, nor did i encounter that attitude amongst any of my rock loving friends.
There's only really 2 kinds of music when you get right down to it anyway, good & bad.
Cheers,
Korky