The MTV generation (sorry, long)

[Henderson Keith]

CM queries...

> The question is: why do people like music? I've been a music fanatic
> since 8th grade, getting into bands like Queen, Duran Duran,

NB: Any similarities between Duran Duran and "music" being entirely
coincidental.  :)  Although I must have to admit that I've considered
recently the possibility that indeed the Bee Gees (following the
reminder presented by the recent death of one of them) and not Duran
Duran was the worst band in history.  :)  (Not counting Country and
Rap "music."  And 'serious' techno either.)

But ok, I consider the entire early 80s to be one gigantic unmitigated
disaster...I took refuge in unknown-in-the-US bands like Marillion,
Diamond Head, Saxon, & Scorps/Rainbow/Whitesnake (who did eventually
find massive audiences in the US once Randy Rhoads made it all possible
with a little name-recognition-help from one pre-doddering self-
proclaimed Prince of Darkness, but by then they'd been watered down
to the same pathetic mysogynistic brand of hair metal that fought
against the horribly insipid synth-pop of Thompson Twins et al. for
MTV supremacy, and thankfully, as indicated below, created some sort
of matter-antimatter sonic explosion that wiped both from the charts
simultaneously about 1988).  Of course, I also waited breathlessly
for every new HW album to come in the mail from California, like Sonic
Attack, CYM and CoH.  Oh, and to link to the latest RnRHoF induction,
I was quite fond of the Police (mainly the reggae-rockers, esp. due
to Copeland's drumming who I've always liked), and actually saw them
in 1981 (?), which I think was my third concert (after Judas Priest/
Whitesnake/Iron Maiden triple bill, and Rainbow w/ Riot).  Bow Wow
Wow was the opener.  "I Want Candy!"

Oh, and I liked Y&T and Queensryche quite a lot too, though again,
recent spinnings of their catalogs don't quite come across like they
used to.  Still the Mindcrime piece is a great thing.  And I guess
I'll repeat once more my thought that bands like the Clash, Police,
REM, and U2, that not only were huge in the early-mid 80s but are
also highly regarded still (unlike New Wave and Hair Metal, Bon Jovi's
continued popularity against all odds notwithstanding), is mainly due
to having almost zero 'competition.'  I mean, *some* music from every
half-decade has to continue to be memorable-without-embarassment to
all those people who happened to be 16 yrs. old at that time!  And I
doubt 30-somethings are really going to still kick back to a little
Flock of Seagulls or the like.  Though perhaps I underestimate the
staying power of bad taste!  Si House *really* worked with Thomas
Dolby?  Sheez...that's as bad as Huwy with Leo Sayer!  :)

> The whole "grunge" revolution affected me as well as my friends,
> everybody owning a copy of Nirvana's "Nevermind" album at some stage,
> a big hit to say the least, with everyone being into Husker Du or
> The Pixies picking up on Nirvana and such.

Yeah, me, too, 'cause it seemed that *finally* something with some
courage was showing up to shake up the whole global scene that had gone
so horribly jaded.  So I remember purchasing "Nevermind" when I only
had heard about it from a friend (they hadn't made it onto radio yet,
as least in Cleveland), and thinking that it was OK but there were
similar bands with more interesting music and the same level of energy.
Like the Buck Pets, from Dallas TX on Island Records, who for some
reason never found an audience.  During this time, I saw the Replacements,
Soul Asylum (pre-Runaway Train...ich!, with just a handful of others),
Bob Mould, and even some non-Minnesota bands like Jane's Addiction w/
Rollins (yikes!), the aforementioned Buck Pets, and 13 Engines (Toronto).

As I look back now, though, I don't think much of it has 'aged' well
already.  I'm not even sure that I can really think of Janes' "Nothing
Shocking" (which I thought was outstanding at the time) as a worthy
piece of plastic.  I find myself actually preferring the pseudo-psychedelic
experiment on 'Side Two' of "Ritual" (that then I thought was not working
for them).  What the hell's Perry doing these days anyway?  Waiting for
the inevitable Jane's reunion?  Or has he already died from heroin
overdose?

Oh, yeah, as I've occasionally mentioned here, I was oddly taken by
10,000 Maniacs early material (1983-89), which I thought was a wonderfully
bizarre mixture of reggae, 'alternative,' and folk.  But their commercial
breakthrough "In My Tribe" is starting to lose its luster in my mind,
though I still retain my full interest in the first three albums.  And
also "Our Time in Eden," the last album before Merchant split (for the
purpose of making the world's worst music ever it seems) I find
interesting still.  He was underutilized greatly most times, but Rob
Buck was a very interesting and creative guitar player...sadly the
band died with him.  I like Talking Heads too, who I think were probably
a strong early influence on 10KM.

> I have to say as an MTV Generation spokesperson that music is alive
> and well still in the 21st century! The question remains: why do
> people like me and others like myself go to such lengths to see a band
> live or find just the right album or live recording? Are we as crazy
> as we were in our younger years about music? The answer would be YES.

Well, to go back to the very first line of text in this message that
you posed...

I don't think the majority of people really experience music to its
full extent, and so they don't really care so much about it.  I mean,
many people I've known over the years seem to only listen to music
superficially and so they don't really know or care what it is they're
listening to...so if music comes on that is challenging or outside their
life experience to that date, they don't have the interest in trying
to make sense out of it.  It just isn't important enough for them to
care about.  (I can come up with a lot of things that I feel the
same way about (e.g., movies), but that others are passionately into...
so I guess it's not so surprising.)

But for some of us (at least me), music enters our consciousness
completely and so it becomes 'entwined' (or something) in our active
mind at the expense of most other stimuli (in my case at least).  And
so for me, listening to music is 'doing something' in and of itself.
I think this is reasonably rare...at least I think that I experience
music far more personally and 'emotionally' (I suppose) than the vast
majority of people.  Which is probably not unrelated to the fact that
I also experience other forms of art (or simple communication for that
matter) far *less* vividly.  Esp. if it requires a connection to be made
between one another.  I dunno...I don't ever feel like I 'connect' to
the musicians...the music that I hear in my head could just as well
have been created there.  That's even true when I'm at a concert,
though of course the visual aspect can also help to create a certain
atmosphere.  But still, for me it's really the music itself that makes
it 'alive.'  And if I close my eyes (and I sometimes do), it really is
much the same for me.

Anyway, perhaps I'm talking nonsense, but I do think there's a connection
between my fondness for 'my' music and the fact that my brain seems so
internally focussed.  I have a hard time seeing 'outside of my mind,'
but since music easily enters it and can be 'processed,' then it's
something that I can analyze (if I care to) and enjoy (at any level).
And I like to hear music for *all* of its various properties...
despite the apparent narrowness of my tastes (that some often accuse me
of), I can come up with a song/album/artist/whatever that accentuates
just about any adjective one can suggest to describe music in all its
'voices.'  Something for every mood that I might have.

Grakkl (FAA), who's always wished to be synaesthetic (in a 'colors-in-
music' way), but not enough to ever have tried the artificial way of
doing it...i.e., LSD.

P.S.  Oh yeah, fIREHOSE was great too, to link up to the other thread
about dreams and BOC.  I saw them in Columbus, when I actually still
lived in Cleveland, and I think that was the first time I ever bought
merchandise from a member of the band itself...none other than Mike
Watt was the one selling me my "Totem Pole" t-shirt.  I think they may
have done Red & Black on that night too.

P.P.S.  I used to have dreams all the time about unknown record stores
that had racks full of Hawkwind albums, a bunch of which I had never
seen before.  And I'd always be panicking, 'cause I never had enough
money to buy them all and I didn't think I'd ever be back to that store
again.  I wish I could remember all the weird titles and weird cover
art that was on those lost albums of my dreams, 'cause they were quite
vivid at the time.  Although in the end, they *all* would have turned
out to be reissues* of 'Yuri Gagarin.'  :)  I also remember a reoccurring
dream in a record store where the whole ceiling was giving way and a
giant pile of dust and debris was falling on the record bins, but I
was undeterred and fighting my way through it into the "H" Misc. section.
Or perhaps that one was real.  :)

*I think these dreams occurred before the endless reissuing began tho'.

P.P.P.S.  To link to that other thread about H bands that you always
saw and wondered about while searching for Hawkwind albums in Misc.
bins, for me it was Horslips.  To this day, I still don't have any clue
who this band is/was!  But I'd recognize their LPs in a second.