Unit 8
Textbook or eBook:
Campbell, M. (2019). Popular music in America. 5th ed. Cengage Learning.
The two units below explore the music from the 1990s and beyond, including punk, alternative, heavy metal and grunge. Emphasis is placed on the grunge movement, as a reflection of American society as this time and the personal struggles experienced by musicians as they attempted to stay authentic in an increasingly commercialized society.
· Chapter 19: Alternatives (pgs 356-373)
· Chapter 20: Popular Music in the 21st Century (pgs. 374-388)
Articles, Websites, and Videos:
One of the most significant musical figures in the grunge movement was Kurt Cobain from Nirvana. This video details his life and the sound he sought to create.
· MVD. (2015, Mar 17). Kurt cobain: The early life of a legend .
· From Punk to Alternative
CH. 84
84-1The Alternative Movement
Alternative was a grassroots movement to restore integrity and importance to rock. Bands toured relentlessly, going from one small club to the next. (The Bird, Seattle’s first punk rock club, had an official capacity of 99 people, although twice that many routinely crowded into the club.) They recorded low-budget albums on their own or on independent labels and sold many of them at performances. Some got airplay on college radio stations; during the eighties, commercial stations seldom programmed songs by alternative bands. Many developed loyal, even fanatic, followings; some fans published or wrote for fanzines. Occasionally, bands attracted attention from outside critics and fans: Rolling Stone selected Murmur, R.E.M.’s first album, as the best album of 1983.
Because it started out on such a small scale, the world of alternative music was far more personal. Fans, writers, and others who supported the music felt a sense of ownership. Usually, they had gone the extra mile or two to seek out bands to follow. They bought their recordings. Perhaps they had gotten to know members of the band, done some of the grunt work, or written for a fanzine. The sense of connection went beyond the music; as the Minutemen, one of the pioneer alternative bands, sang, “Our band could be your life.” So when a band caught on—signed with a major label; played on big, well-organized tours; made videos; appeared on MTV—fans felt betrayed, or at least marginalized.
Success was also a concern for the musicians. The experience of becoming a rock star helped drive Kurt Cobain to suicide. His suicide note alludes to this.
I feel guilty beyond words about these things, for example when we’re backstage and the lights go out and the manic roar of the crowd begins. It doesn’t affect me in the way which it did for Freddie Mercury, who seemed to love and relish the love and admiration from the crowd, which is something I totally admire and envy. The fact is, I can’t fool you, any of you. It simply isn’t fair to you, or to me. The worst crime I can think of would be to pull people off by faking it, pretending as if I’m having one hundred percent fun. Sometimes I feel as though I should have a punch-in time clock before I walk out on-stage. I’ve tried everything within my power to appreciate it, and I do, God believe me, I do, but it’s not enough. —Kurt Cobain
It is painful to read how fame caused Cobain to lose the thing that he valued the most. In 1994, he cancelled Nirvana’s appearance at Lollapalooza, the Woodstock-like touring festival that helped catapult alternative into the mainstream, then took his life.
It’s ironic that “rock that mattered” became an alternative to mainstream music, rather than the heart of it, in less than two decades. Even though many of the sixties artists whose music mattered the most—artists such as Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, the Velvet Underground—were never mainstays on the singles charts, there was a sense of common purpose between them and acts such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones that did have a real pop presence. Moreover, they had the support of those behind the scenes, from major labels eager to book the next important act to free-form radio and festivals like Woodstock.
That wasn’t the case in the eighties. For the most part, the mainstream had evolved away from this change-the-world attitude. Acts like Springsteen and U2—acts that said something important to a lot of people—were the exception, not the rule. Most of the other integrity-first bands were simply an alternative to the mainstream.
84-1aAlternative: A Neo-Traditional Trend
As the movement gained momentum in the latter part of the eighties, it diversified by infusing elements of other rock-era substyles—such as funk, metal, and electronica—into its punk core or by imparting a more modern sensibility to genres that had come and gone, such as ska and the music of the early seventies singer-songwriters. Common ground became more a matter of attitude and commercial presence (or lack of it—bands flew under the radar of big music) than musical similarity. The first Lollapalooza tour (1991)—an important outlet for alternative music in the nineties—featured such diverse acts as Jane’s Addiction (the festival was band member Perry Ferrell’s idea), Nine Inch Nails, and Ice-T and Body Count. None of these is a “pure” post-punk band.
With the sudden and surprising success of grunge in the early nineties, alternative music wrestled with the tension between high-mindedness and commercial success. In the early twenty-first century, alternative is as much a music industry label as it is a statement of purpose.
84-1bFrom Punk to Alternative
The boundary between punk and new wave on the one hand and alternative on the other seems more geographic than temporal or musical. The formation of the first alternative bands occurred around 1980, when the careers of bands like the Clash, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and Talking Heads were at a high point. Their music represents a stylistic continuation of punk and new wave; there is no radical difference between the two at the beginning.
However, alternative took root in college towns throughout the United States rather than in major metropolitan areas. The size of the town wasn’t as important as the size of the university; it was the student body that provided the most enthusiastic support for these bands. Active regional scenes, in the United States and ultimately throughout the world, would become a hallmark of alternative music.
84-2Early Alternative Rock
The two bands most responsible for starting the alternative music movement were Hüsker Dü, based in St. Paul, Minneapolis (home of the University of Minnesota), and R.E.M., formed in Athens, Georgia (home of the University of Georgia). Both locales were well outside the New York-London axis where punk and new wave flourished. Hüsker Dü (the group took their name from a Swedish board game whose name means “Do you remember?”) began as a hardcore punk band trying to out-Ramone the Ramones. Their music occasionally ventured beyond this frenetically paced music toward a more moderate and melodic style. Although admired as an important influence on the new alternative movement, Hüsker Dü never crossed over to a more mainstream audience. R.E.M., however, did. R.E.M. was formed in 1980 by guitarist Peter Buck (b. 1956) and vocalist Michael Stipe (b. 1960). Buck and Stipe recruited bassist Mike Mills (b. 1958) and drummer Bill Berry (b. 1958), agreed on a name (REM is the acronym for “rapid eye movement,” a defining characteristic of the lightest stage of sleep), then performed relentlessly. They quickly became favorites of the local underground rock scene, playing college bars and parties while waiting for their big break, which came quickly.
“Radio Free Europe,” their first hit, helped put the band on the rock music map and establish the essentially retrospective orientation of alternative music. It has the bright tempo, clean rhythm, and lean sound associated with David Bowie and new wave bands. The texture is spare in the verse; by contrast, the chorus features a much richer texture because of the jangly, reverberant guitar figuration and the active bass line underneath Stipe’s vocals.
Characteristically for R.E.M., the lyric is as elliptical as the music is clear. The words are intelligible, but what do they mean? By their own admission, the band has deliberately written nonspecific lyrics. As Michael Stipe said in a late-eighties interview, “I’ve always left myself pretty open to interpretation.”
R.E.M. (l – r, Mike Mills, Peter Buck, Michael Stipe, Bill Berry), 1986
Listening Cue
“Radio Free Europe” (1981)
Bill Berry,
Peter Buck,
Mike Mills,
Michael Stipe
R.E.M.
STYLE Early alternative ⋅ FORM Verse/chorus
Listen For …
INSTRUMENTATION
“Radio” noises: vocals, guitars, bass, drums
PERFORMANCE STYLE
Nice contrast between detached guitar sound in verse, more resonant and sustained sound in chorus
RHYTHM
Punk-influenced fast, basic rock beat, with strong backbeat, repeated notes in bass/guitar in verse; chorus adds sustained vocal sound
MELODY
Verse = short, separated statement on repeated melodic phrase; chorus = string of long notes in different key
TEXTURE
Shift in texture underscores verse/chorus contrast: spare sound in verse; richer sound, with moving bass line, guitar figuration in chorus
Remember …
WHAT IS THE SONG ABOUT?
Nonnarrative lyrics whose meaning is at best abstruse
POST-PUNK ROCK
Clean, prominent rock rhythm in drums and bass at fast tempo, but active bass line; harmonies in different key departure from conventional punk approach: less aggressive, subtler
SHARP CONTRASTS
Open sound of the verse and warmer, guitar-enriched texture of the chorus, with more melodic bass line
Listen to this selection in the unit playlist.
By the late eighties, R.E.M. had begun to bring alternative into the mainstream: “The One I Love” (1987) was their first Top 10 single. They would remain a popular band through the nineties, although Berry retired from performing in 1997.
In their determination to follow their own creative path, even if it circled back to the past instead of moving toward the future, the group set the tone for the alternative movement. And the simplicity of their sound—basic instrumentation, clear textures, little if any electronic wizardry—was a model for the alternative bands that followed. Among them was Sonic Youth.
84-3The Persistence of Punk
Even as reverberations from the punk movement touched much of the new music of the eighties, “pure” punk—that is, the music that was most in tune with the attitude and sound of late seventies punk—went underground. With its breakneck tempos, screamed-out vocals, loud and crude riffs, and confrontational, politically charged lyrics, hardcore punk (or simply hardcore) was the most direct continuation of the punk esthetic established by the Sex Pistols.
The movement known as post-punk identifies a family of styles that merged the aggressive elements of punk with more experimental elements and outside influences, such as synthesizers. Joy Division, which dissolved in 1980 after the suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis, is generally regarded as a seminal post-punk band. The early industrial group Throbbing Gristle is often associated with post-punk. Other noteworthy bands include Public Image, Ltd. (fronted by John Lydon), Sisters of Mercy, and Sonic Youth.
From the start, the fundamental creative tension in punk has been power versus expressive range. The challenge for bands was to broaden the range without dampening the impact. In the seventies, this tension was manifested in the different paths of punk and new wave music. In the eighties, it was evident in the numerous punk offshoots, most notably in the numerous post-punk substyles, such as no wave . The most successful no wave band, critically and commercially, is Sonic Youth.
84-4Sonic Youth
Like other no wave bands, Sonic Youth brought a rock-as-art sensibility to their work. Using the basic instrumentation, fast tempos, and clear timekeeping as a point of departure for their style, they overlaid it with unusual guitar sounds, noise, exotic harmonies, and sharp contrasts in texture. This sound world supported lyrics that put a fresh spin on familiar themes, sung/shouted accessibly to a simple melody. We hear these qualities in “Hey Joni,” a track from their critically acclaimed double album Daydream Nation (1988).
“Hey Joni” begins with low synthesizer drone that is gradually surrounded by extraneous noises. This abruptly gives way to the refrain of the song, in which both the connection and the distance from punk are evident. Drummer Shelley raps out a fast, straightforward rock rhythm—the kind that one expects to hear in a typical punk song. However, both guitarists alternate between conventional power chords and more dissonant and intricate figuration. An alternative effect comes to the forefront during the interlude between refrain and verse. Syncopated riffs in one guitar part compete with high-register figuration that use the more delicate sound of harmonics (musicians create the sound of harmonics on a stringed instrument by depressing the string only partway at certain points; this creates higher-pitched sounds with a distinctive ring). Other similar effects, such as the “Wipeout”-inspired glissando, follow in the verse and subsequent instrumental interludes. The changes in texture, which are concentrated in the middle registers, create a kaleidoscopic effect.
For Sonic Youth, sonic variety is key. Although they start from a basic rock-band instrumentation, they create magical sounds with the interplay of often discordant riffs and figuration and by employing special effects, such as the harmonics used here. The song melds the energy of punk with the glorious guitar sounds and noises for which the group is known.
Although Daydream Nation remains their most respected and best-known album, Sonic Youth has continued to evolve and explore new directions. Their tour with then barely known Nirvana was captured on the DVD 1991: The Year Punk Broke. Their work, and especially the innovative guitar sounds and noises, have influenced more recent alternative bands.
Listening Cue
“Hey Joni” (1988)
Gordon,
Moore,
Ranaldo,
Shelley
Sonic Youth.
STYLE No wave ⋅ FORM Verse/chorus based–lyrics repeat, but no real melody; spoken sections and extended instrumental interludes
Listen For …
INSTRUMENTATION
Vocals, synthesizer, guitars, bass, drums
PERFORMANCE STYLE
Monotone singing/speaking; array of magical guitar sounds, e.g., harmonics
RHYTHM
Fast tempo with punk-like rock beat is the norm, but with considerable variation in instrumental interludes, such as double-time drums, and less marking of the rock beat
MELODY
No melody to speak of in the vocal line: mainly sung on one note or spoken. Guitar figuration melodically interesting
TEXTURE
Dramatic contrasts between loud, punk-like textures in vocals vs. more delicate and rhythmically subtle texture in instrumental interludes
Remember …
PUNK INFLUENCE
Punk tempo and rhythm, marked clearly by the drummer in vocal sections
UNUSUAL TEXTURES
Dense in the middle range because of multiple riffs and figuration, often with little or no bass; strong contrasts between vocal and instrumental sounds
AN ARRAY OF GUITAR EFFECTS
From conventional distortion to harmonics and the “noise halos” that surround guitar pitches
MELODY VS. HARMONY
Single-pitch “melody” supported by jarring, often discordant harmonies, often layered on top of each other
Listen to this selection in the unit playlist.
CH. 85
Other Alternatives: Heavy Metal and Alternative Fusions in the 1980s
85-1The Revival of Heavy Metal
In the 1980s, heavy metal gained momentum through an influx of new bands—Megadeth, AC/DC, Motörhead, Judas Priest, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Twisted Sister, Scorpions, and Metallica—and a new generation that responded to their music. Young males made up most of the heavy metal fan base in the eighties. In the wake of the economic hard times in both Great Britain and the United States, many faced a bleak future. They felt out of the loop, especially during the eighties, when the gap between rich and poor widened so dramatically. They responded to the recurrent themes in heavy metal: the occult, sexual dominance (often to the point of misogyny), rage, frustration, protest, and—above all—power.
And it was the music above all that conveyed the power. Most characteristically, heavy metal was loud to the point where a listener felt it as much as heard it. The sound was heavily distorted, a sign both of power (distortion originally came from overdriving amplifiers) and defiance (distortion was originally an undesirable byproduct of amplification, to be avoided if possible).
Performances were a communion between musicians and their audience. Bands preached to the converted. Fans knew the words to songs (from liner notes), even though they were often unintelligible in performance. Stage shows were typically spectacles on a grand scale, comparable to an elaborate pagan ritual. In response, metalheads engaged in headbanging , heavy metal’s version of dancing. In the familiarity of the audience/congregation with the songs, their involvement in the performance, and the sense of power that they experienced during the event, a heavy metal concert was more like a religious rite than a conventional concert.
85-1aThe Sounds of 1980s Heavy Metal
Heavy metal was never a monolithic style, but in the eighties it became even more diverse. Substyles, often based on a single feature, proliferated. By the end of the decade, there was speed metal, thrash metal, death metal, industrial metal, and more. Its diversity was also due to its blending with other styles; during the eighties, heavy metal came in several grades of purity. Distortion remained metal’s sound signature, but “pure” heavy metal was far more than a rock song played with distortion.
As evidenced in the music of top eighties bands such as Metallica and Megadeth, a heavy metal song is a far cry from standard rock, rhythm and blues, or pop fare. Here are some of the most striking differences:
· Distortion is typically more extreme than in conventional hard rock. Metal bands compensated for nonmetal bands’ use of distortion by increasing distortion to the point that it obscured pitches.
· Instrumentation is basic: Metal bands use core rock instrumentation. Synths, saxes, and other sounds are stylistic impurities.
· It is not tuneful music. Vocal lines tend to be more incantation than melody.
· The ratio of instrumental sections to vocal sections is much higher than in most other rock-based styles. In addition to extended solos, where lead guitarists show off their prowess, there are also long passages with no vocal lines. These typically consist of a series of intricate riffs.
· The best metal bands are virtuosic. In solo and group playing, metal bands create and perform intricate riffs, often at breathtakingly fast tempos, with a level of precision comparable to that of a fine string quartet or tight jazz combo.
· Metal “songs” tend to be long, sprawling, multisectional works. Blocks of sound, often in different tempos and with different key centers, all arranged in complex, unpredictable sequences, often replace the verse/chorus pattern of more conventional rock.
These features occur in heavy metal tracks undiluted with other stylistic elements. What passed for heavy metal in the eighties ranged from mainstream rock covered with a metal sheen (for example, Def Leppard’s “Photograph”) to the music of such conscientious bands as Metallica. We consider “One,” a track from their 1988 album And Justice for All. The song was released as a single during the following year; it was also the song used for the band’s first music video.
85-2Metallica
Metallica began the eighties toiling in relative obscurity. The group, formed in 1981 by guitarist-vocalist James Hetfield (b. 1963) and drummer Lars Ulrich (b. 1963), built an ardent cult following during the first part of the eighties even as it burned through a string of guitarists, including Dave Mustaine (b. 1961), who would later form Megadeth. In 1983, Hetfield and Ulrich recruited Kirk Hammett (b. 1962); Hammett remains the lead guitarist with the group. Cliff Burton (1962–1986), the bassist for Metallica’s first three albums, died in a freak accident during a 1986 Swedish tour. Jason Newsted (b. 1963) replaced him; he would remain with the group through 2001.
Metallica’s record sales were brisk, although the band got almost no exposure on radio or television. The group eventually broke through on radio in 1988 with “One,” a single from their fourth album (and first with Newsted), And Justice for All, which peaked at No. 6 on the charts. Even a cursory listening to “One” makes clear that the market came to Metallica, not the other way around. “One” is a grim antiwar statement that unfolds on a large scale: the work is well over seven minutes long. It makes few concessions to mainstream rock—in lyrics, music, or length. The form of the song takes its shape from the images in the lyrics; it is an especially graphic depiction of the horrors of war, as experienced by one of its many casualties.
In its sprawling form—from the gentle, almost flamenco-like opening to the abrupt ending; relatively little emphasis on vocal lines; musical sophistication (e.g., there are several shifts from four-beat to three-beat measures); and deep contrast from dark and moody beginning to powerful conclusion—“One” demands a lot from its listeners. The music is as uncompromising and grim as its message.
Listening Cue
“One” (1988)
James Hetfield and
Lars Ulrich
Metallica.
STYLE 1980s heavy metal ⋅ FORM Multisectional
Listen For …
INSTRUMENTATION
War sounds; vocal, guitars, bass, drums
PERFORMANCE STYLE
Growling vocal, extreme distortion in guitars, bass in latter part of track
RHYTHM
Frequent shifts between four-beat and three-beat measures; rock rhythm implied throughout
MELODY
Multiple melodies in vocal sections: verse deliberately flat—several repeated notes—chorus short, simple
TEXTURE
Numerous textures ranging from guitar solo/duet to full band in low register: massive dark sound
Remember …
PROTEST SONG
Lyrics and music send grim, powerful antiwar message
SPRAWLING FORM
“One” unfolds slowly with Spanish-flavored guitar intro, dramatic shifts in pacing, rhythm, texture, extended instrument sections: episodic form, with several “scenes”
UPDATED METAL SOUNDS
Intense distortion, tight ensemble (especially in the latter half of the song), fluent guitar solo
STRONG CONTRASTS
Shifts from section to section amplify “flashback” elements in lyrics
Listen to this selection in the unit playlist.
“One” has more in common with a film soundtrack than a conventional rock song. Indeed, after recording the song, Metallica discovered the similarities between their song and Johnny Get Your Gun, a 1939 antiwar novel that author Dalton Trumbo later turned into a film. The music video of “One” juxtaposes scenes from Trumbo’s film with footage of the band and adds dialog from the film to the music. Curiously, many of Metallica’s fans objected to the video, the band’s first. Perhaps it was the fact of the video that troubled them, because the video, with its skillful mixing of band scenes with film footage, makes the antiwar message of the track even more compelling.
Metallica’s “One” is significant rock. With its long, narrative-based form; dramatic shifts in mood; masterful playing; and vivid sound images, “One” exemplifies Metallica’s principled approach to music making—there is nothing in the track that suggests any effort to accommodate more mainstream tastes.
Despite its growing popularity, no rock music of the eighties was less understood or less appreciated than heavy metal. However, even though critics and audiences may have scorned it early on, musicians didn’t. Not only did it develop into one of the important directions of the late eighties and nineties, it also bled into the exciting new fusions of the alternative bands that began to surface at the end of the decade. It remains a significant part of the rock music scene.
85-3Alternatives Beyond Punk: Infusions of Funk, Rap, and Heavy Metal
Among the most eclectic and electric new sounds of the late eighties and early nineties alternative scene was the music created by bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus, Jane’s Addiction, Living Colour, and the Spin Doctors. Like the music of the pop middle ground, this alternative music thoroughly integrated black and white music. But all of it was almost militantly anti-pop.
The songs expressed wildly different attitudes, from rage to razor-sharp humor. However, they shared stylistic common ground, which comes mainly from two features. One was deep roots in soul and sixties hard rock. This connection is evident in the complex, active, syncopated rhythms and the reaffirmation of the basic rock-band instrumentation. The other was the infusion of elements from important non-pop styles of the late seventies and eighties, most commonly funk, heavy metal, and rap. From funk, they took complex, active sixteen-beat rhythms and strong bass lines. From heavy metal, they took extreme distortion and virtuosity. They occasionally overlaid these mixes with rap-inspired voice parts, more spoken than sung.
Red Hot Chili Peppers Performing in 2006.
In 1985, none of these sources was new. Neither was the idea of forging new styles by mixing black and white sources, which is rock’s most time-honored tradition. What gave the music a late eighties sound was its thorough integration of rock and soul, and punk and funk, and the currency of its sources. We hear this interplay in “Good Time Boys,” a track from the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 1989 album Mother’s Milk.
85-4The Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Red Hot Chili Peppers was formed in 1983 by four alumni of Fairfax High School of West Hollywood, California. Two of the original four, bassist Michael “Flea” Balzary (b. 1962) and vocalist Anthony Kiedis (b. 1962), are still band members. Hillel Slovak (1962–1988), the original guitarist, died of a heroin overdose in 1988; his death prompted drummer Jack Irons (b. 1962) to leave the band. Drummer Chad Smith (b. 1961) and guitarist John Frusciante (b. 1970) replaced Irons and Slovak.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers received their training in funk from the highest authority. George Clinton produced their 1985 album Freaky Styley, which also featured Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley, both veterans of James Brown’s band. Neither their self-titled debut album nor Freaky Styley, their second album, went anywhere commercially, but their next album, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987), did. Mother’s Milk, with new band members Smith and Frusciante, did even better. It would become the group’s first platinum album, eventually selling over 2 million units.
In “Good Time Boys,” a track from Mother’s Milk, the Red Hot Chili Peppers blend the edge of punk with the strong bass lines of funk, the distorted guitar sounds and prominent and complex riffs of hard rock and heavy metal, and rap-like vocals. Among the most innovative features of the song is the presence of both a strong bass line and a prominent guitar part. In the music that we have heard, typically either guitar or bass is dominant—guitar in rock, bass in R&B. Here they are virtually equal partners. Flea’s bass lines stand out beneath the rap-style verse; Frusciante’s complex guitar riffs take over in the instrumental interludes. And with its chanted, pentatonic melodic line, sung in unison by the band and guest vocalist Randy Ruff and doubled on the bass, the chorus recalls Parliament-style funk. All this supports an upbeat, self-promoting lyric, much closer to rock and roll and early rap in style and spirit than it is to the anger of punk or the weirdness of new wave. A simulated spinning of the radio dial interrupts the song just after the midway point. The final radio clip ends with the phrase “She’s a white girl …” sung to a vanilla accompaniment; the abrupt return to the funky groove underscores the strong black influence in this song.
The influence is especially evident in the rhythm. From the very opening riff to the end of the song, the rhythms are complex, active, and highly syncopated. Smith lays down a rock beat, but Frusciante’s riffs, Flea’s bass lines, and Kiedis’s rap-style all move twice as fast.
“Good Time Boys” illustrates the punk/funk fusion of the latter part of the eighties and early nineties. The infusion of funk and rap elements helped introduce a different tone in alternative music and broaden its horizons. The success of the Red Hot Chili Peppers helped put alternative on the music industry’s radar and blur the musical, commercial, ecological, and ideological boundaries that distinguished alternative from other genres.
The band’s well-documented problems with drugs—Kiedis, Frusciante, and Flea were addicts—crippled the band during the nineties. Frusciante left the band in 1992 and was invited to return in 1998 after quitting drugs. At the turn of the century, they were the leading “modern rock” act in the music industry. Like other acts that have moved from the fringes of the industry to stardom, they have left the alternative world behind. And they were never at the center of it, as were R.E.M. and Nirvana during their early years. For the Red Hot Chili Peppers, “alternative” is increasingly just a label.
Listening Cue
“Good Time Boys” (1989)
Flea,
Frusciante,
Kiedis,
Smith
The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
STYLE 1980s rock/funk fusion ⋅ FORM Verse/chorus with solos and “radio dial” interlude
Listen For …
INSTRUMENTATION
Vocalists, guitar, bass, drums
PERFORMING STYLE
Funk-like “popped” bass sound, heavy distortion in guitar, rapped vocal sections
RHYTHM
Highly syncopated rhythms based on sixteen-beat rhythmic foundation, with active vocal, guitar, and bass lines
MELODY
Vocal lines in verse half-sung/half-rapped; chorus built from short rifffs; complex, extended instrumental riffs
HARMONY
Verse over one chord; chorus in a new key
Remember …
GOOD-TIME WORDS
Good-time lyrics, rapped in the verse, sung in the chorus
BEST OF TWO WORLDS
Both bass and guitar have prominent roles: fusion of R&B and rock instrumental roles
DENSE SOUND
Thick texture because of active guitar and bass lines and low- or mid-register placement
NEW ROCK RHYTHMS
Complex sixteen-beat rhythms over a rock beat in both vocal and instrumental sections
Listen to this selection in the unit playlist.
CH. 86
Alienation
86-1Grunge
The pivotal song in the history of alternative rock as a commercial music was Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” from their 1991 album, Nevermind. For this recording, Nirvana consisted of singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain (1967–1994), bassist Chris Novoselic (b. 1965), and drummer Dave Grohl (b. 1969). Grohl replaced the drummers on Nirvana’s first album, Bleach (1989), which the group made for just over $600. In the wake of its surprising success, Nirvana signed with Geffen Records. As a result, Nevermind was a far more elaborately produced album.
The album soared to No. 1, dethroning Michael Jackson’s Dangerous album, which had been on top of the charts. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” got incessant airplay from MTV. All of a sudden the nineties had an anthem: It is still among the best-known songs of the decade. Alternative had crossed over.
Nirvana’s particular brand of alternative came to be called grunge , though those involved in the scene hated the term. Grunge fused punk disaffection with the power and distortion of heavy metal. Like so many other alternative styles, it started on the fringes—literally: Aberdeen, Washington, is on the fringe of North America. The group’s first single appeared on one of the many indie labels, the appropriately named Sub Pop, which was based in Seattle. Nirvana’s sudden success made Seattle the mecca for grunge, but the sound had already surfaced in several locations around the United States.
Listening Cue
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991)
Kurt Cobain
Nirvana.
STYLE Grunge ⋅ FORM Verse/chorus
Listen For …
INSTRUMENTATION
Vocal(s), guitar, bass, drums
PERFORMANCE STYLE
Screamed vocals, extreme distortion in loud section; modified vocal sound in “hello/how low”
RHYTHM
Active rock rhythm at moderate tempo
HARMONY
Distinctive progression cycles throughout song
TEXTURE
Dramatic contrasts between three sections: first section = empty sound, “hello” = reverberant guitar sound, third section = loud, with thick sound: vocal/ distorted guitar/drums/bass
Remember …
STRONG CONTRASTS
Three distinct sound worlds through most of song: empty verse, ringing bridge, screamed chorus
HARMONIC GLUE
Unresolved progression cycles throughout song, links contrasting sections
SCHIZOPHRENIC SONG
Chord progression like depressed state impossible to shake; contrasting textures, sounds, dynamic levels suggest shift in mood
Listen to this selection in the unit playlist.
The music amplifies this sense of dislocation. The song begins with a distinctive four-chord pattern. It is barely amplified; it sounds almost as if Cobain is trying it out for a song he’s writing. Suddenly, we hear the same riff, this time with the whole band in heavy metal mode. Just as suddenly, the middle falls out—we are left with just bass, simple drum timekeeping, and a haunting two-note riff, which serves as an introduction to the verse; it continues underneath Cobain’s singing. The two-note riff speeds up under the “hello/how low.” The two-note vocal riff that sets “hello” then becomes the raw melodic material for the climactic section of the refrain. Here Cobain sings as if his throat is being ripped out. A short instrumental interlude, which interrupts the four-chord progression, bridges the chorus and the verse that follows. We hear this same sequence of events, then a loud instrumental version of the verse and “hello” section. Instead of the refrain, however, the song shifts to a third verse; we hear the entire verse/bridge/chorus sequence again, followed by primal screams on the word “denial.”
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” is a dark song. Everything about it conveys that message; its enormous impact comes in part from the reinforcement of this mood on so many levels. The chord progression does not follow a well-established path; because of this we respond more to its rise and fall. It is like a hole that one cannot climb out of: every time the band arrives at the fourth and highest chord, they drop back down. Because the bass line/outline runs through almost all of the song, despite all of the contrasts, it seems to suggest a depressed state of mind that’s impossible to shake. In this context, the instrumental break following the refrain sounds absolutely demonic; it is purposefully ugly, even mocking.
The big innovation—and perhaps the biggest stroke of genius—is the schizophrenic shift from section to section. Nirvana creates sharply defined sound worlds within each section of the song. They are haunting, mocking, and angry in turn. They create sharp contrasts from section to section—the kind one would more likely encounter between one song and the next, rather than within a song. When combined with the relentless chord progression and the repetition of the two two-note melodic fragments, they project a mood of utter despair. One can rage against the wind—or the machine—or fall into an almost apathetic state, but it is impossible to shake off the dark mood.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” is a remarkable synthesis of several different, almost contradictory, elements. The melodic material—especially the several instrumental hooks, the “hello” section, and the vocal chorus—embed themselves in the listener’s ear, offering immediate points of entry. At the same time, they don’t sound like music calculated to be appealing. Rather, they seem to be a direct expression of the mood of the song; that they are catchy at the same time is a bonus.
Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, 1993
The sharp contrasts and abrupt shifts from section to section help “Smells Like Teen Spirit” portray the darkest depression: an oppressive weight that cannot be thrown off. And it makes Cobain’s subsequent suicide even harder to take; it is as if he let us into his mind so that we can feel his despair.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” is a punk song in spirit, expressing rage, alienation, and frustration in both words and music. But the eclectic mix of styles—power trio intro, understated verse, metal breaks—serves an expressive purpose here. It extends the emotional range of punk, if only because the quiet of the verse makes the louder sections, especially the chorus with its short vocal riffs, more powerful by contrast. Classic punk drove in only one gear; here, Nirvana shifts back and forth among several.
86-2Radiohead: The New Art Rock of the Nineties
The members of Radiohead all went to the same high school, Abingdon School, a private institution outside of Oxford. Drummer Phil Selway (b. 1967), guitarist Ed O’Brien (b. 1968), guitarist-vocalist Thom Yorke (b. 1968), bassist Colin Greenwood (b. 1969), and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood (b. 1971)—Colin’s younger brother—formed the band On A Friday in 1986. They went to different universities but continued to practice together over vacations during their college years and came together again as Radiohead in 1992 (their name comes from a 1986 Talking Heads song, “Radio Head.”). Their first album made it quite clear that the group would find their own direction. The album name Pablo Honey came from a bit by the Jerky Boys, a comedy group whose CDs consist of irritatingly funny phone calls. “Creep,” the single that got them noticed, is very much in the spirit of the times: It is Buddy Holly, deeply depressed. Musically, however, it does little to predict the group’s future.
The alienation that marked Radiohead’s early work becomes even more apparent in subsequent albums. This is sometimes evident before the first sound: the booklet that comes with OK Computer (1997) contains the lyrics displayed almost randomly amid collage-like images. Both words and images are hard to decode. Kid A (2000) is even more frugal with content. There are simply fragments of images and no lyrics. It is as if the group were challenging its audience: we have something of value to say to you, but you have to work hard to discover what it is. This attitude extends to their songs, as we hear in “Paranoid Android,” from OK Computer.
“Paranoid Android” was a boundary-stretching single. This is apparent on even the first hearing, because the song is almost minutes long, more than double the length of a typical single. The lyrics are at once unremittingly depressing and incoherent. We have the impression of someone (human or android) holding his head and screaming, “I can’t stand this any more!” as he goes mad.
The song is profoundly disturbing, not because the music is as dark as the lyrics, but because it is often so beautiful. It begins with a pan-Latin sound: intricate guitar figuration outlining exotic harmony, plus the shaker associated with Brazilian music and the claves of Cuban music, then a higher-pitched classical guitarlike line. There is no bass yet; the music floats. Yorke delivers the lyric slowly and in measured fashion, which directs our attention more to the haunting, plaintive quality of his voice. The refrain of this part has only two syllables: “what’s then.” Because these are only two words, our attention goes even more to the sound of his voice. A beautiful halo of sound surrounds it, as bass and a high synthesizer part enrich the texture. All this seems to resonate with the melancholy that is so much a part of Latin culture. Radiohead seems to have captured its essence in this part of the song, although they apply it to a quite different end.
Listening Cue
“Paranoid Android” (1997)
Ed O’Brien,
Jonny Greenwood,
Colin Greenwood,
Phil Selway, and
Thom Yorke
Radiohead.
STYLE 1990s prog rock ⋅ FORM Multisectional
Listen For …
INSTRUMENTATION
Vocal, Latin percussion, synthesizer, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums, keyboard
PERFORMANCE STYLE
Yorke’s plaintive singing; sharp contrasts in instrumental timbre, from delicate acoustic guitar to heavily distorted sounds
RHYTHM
Latin-like rhythm in first part/rock rhythm in second section; occasional three-beat measures create imbalance; slow rock rhythm with sustained harmonies in third section
MELODY
Tuneful fragments in opening section
TEXTURE
Jarring contrasts in texture, but all are rich, with several melodically interesting layers; extended sections without vocal
Remember …
WORDS OF ALIENATION
Dark lyric, rich in obscure allusions, and as violently contrasting as the music
MUSIC OF ALIENATION
The contrast between sections shocks because the sections are so completely different in musical features such as instrumentation, rhythm and tempo, dynamics, and melodic style, and in the moods that they project. The opposition seems to be beauty vs. ugliness; the unifying element is the terrible sadness that runs through the entire track.
INTRASONG CONTRASTS: AN AESTHETIC FOR THE 1990s
In 1990s alternative music, jarring disjointedness often replaces internal coherence as an organizational principle
ROCK AS ART REDUX
In their evocative use of rich, complex, contrasting sound worlds, Radiohead follows the lead of the Beatles
Listen to this selection in the unit playlist.
A long transition to a new section begins with a guitar riff set against the Latin percussion. The riff appears on two levels and in two forms. The first statement lines up with four-beat measures. The higher-pitched restatement has one beat less (four beats plus three). The sense of imbalance that the foreshortened riff creates helps set up the next vocal section, which has no apparent connection to the previous section. We get a spark of distortion, then another statement of the riff with full-bore distortion. It gains in power because of the contrast with the two previous sections. After a brief guitar solo, we hear a sustained chord, then a slower section with wordless vocal harmonies. Yorke sings over these simple but beautiful harmonies. Little by little, other layers are added; by the time the guitar riff interrupts again, the sonority is rich with vocal parts and sustained string-like synthesizer sounds. The reprise of the guitar riff is strictly instrumental; with its abrupt ending, it seems to signal a descent into madness.
The facts of the song—its sprawling length; the three distinct sections and the reprise of the second section; the strong contrast in character within and between sections; the deliberate delivery of the lyrics—are there. The reading of it is necessarily subjective.
The more significant point is that the conflicts and discontinuities within the words, within the music, and between the words and music demand that listeners engage with the song in more than a casual way. In particular, the music is complex and rich enough—even though it is also quite accessible—to admit multiple levels of meaning. Not since the Beatles’ demise has a group blended accessibility, challenge, sound imagination, and sound variety so artfully. This is rock aspiring to significance.
86-3Alienation and Fragmentation
Although “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Paranoid Android” create dramatically different sound worlds, they share two common elements that place them in the nineties. One is the sense of alienation that the lyrics project. In both, there is palpable tension between the outside world and the world inside the protagonist’s head. The other are sudden and jarring musical contrasts. In both tracks, the abrupt shifts from soft to loud seem to suggest a sudden loss of control—flying into a violent rage because one can’t stand it anymore. These shifts magnify the message of the words; as used here, they provide the most consistent and powerful expression of the alienation depicted in the lyrics.
The strong sectional contrasts—sometimes to the point of discontinuity—describe a formal approach that is precisely the opposite of that used in more conventional rock songs. There, the chorus establishes the mood of the songs; the function of the verses is to amplify and explain that overall mood. Here, the various sections create their own moods; we are violently whipped from one to the next. This kind of sonic fragmentation within a song is common in alternative music since the early 1990s, in part because of the critical and commercial success of both bands.
CH. 87
Women’s Voices
87-1Ani DiFranco
Although her music has evolved away from what she calls the “folk punk” of her early recordings, Ani DiFranco (b. 1970) embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of alternative music as fully as any artist. Rather than wait for a major label to offer her a contract, she started her own record company, Righteous Babe Records, in 1989 and put out her first album the following year. While in college at New York City’s New School, she began touring actively, performing in small clubs and other venues, where she built up a loyal following. As she and her label grew more successful (it now offers all of her recordings, plus recordings by twelve other acts), she established the Righteous Babe Foundation, to give support to causes in which she believes, including queer visibility, opposition to the death penalty, and historic preservation. (The new headquarters of Righteous Babe is a formerly abandoned church in Buffalo.)
Like Joni Mitchell, whose music has reflected a similarly wide-ranging curiosity and a from-the-heart perspective, DiFranco’s music has ranged from contemporary takes on the urban folk style to collaborations with major artists such as Prince, Janis Ian, Maceo Parker, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Three constants have been incisive lyrics, which usually speak either to social and political issues dear to her heart or the current take on her personal life; her affecting voice; and her fluent and imaginative acoustic guitar playing. We hear her mordant view on a failed relationship in “32 Flavors,” a track from her 1995 album Not a Pretty Girl.
DiFranco’s enterprise and determination in charting her own career path, unbeholden to authority figures in any branch of the music industry, has been an inspiration to numerous young musicians.
“32 Flavors” (1995)
Ani DiFranco
DiFranco, vocals, guitar, bass; Andy Stochansky, percussion.
STYLE Alternative singer-songwriter ⋅ FORM Verse/chorus, but with a wordless chorus and an extended instrumental outro
Listen For …
INSTRUMENTATION
Lead/backup vocal, guitar, bass, percussion, drums
PERFORMANCE STYLE
Understated vocal, instrumental styles put lyrics in forefront
RHYTHM
Gentle sixteen-beat rhythm with persistent syncopation in accompaniment pattern
MELODY
Two repeated melodic ideas: stream of descending notes for verse; shorter wordless chorus
HARMONY
Vocal sections: cycling progression avoids conventional sequence
Remember …
STORY OUT FRONT
Sharp-edged lyric that describes a relationship gone bad with vivid images and imaginative, occasionally humorous wordplay
BUOYANT UNOBTRUSIVE SETTING
Low-key vocal style, repetitious melody, and rhythmically active and melodically imaginative guitar/ percussion accompaniment create a buoyant cushion: melody, vocal style, and accompaniment an ideal foil for lyrics
RHYTHMIC NON SEQUITUR
Extended percussion jam = last half of song = no apparent relation to vocal section. Both project a sense of alienation that pours out of the lyrics and the music. And it comes from and speaks to a group dubbed Generation X.
Listen to this selection in the unit playlist.
“32 Flavors” is the product of just two musicians: DiFranco and percussionist Andy Stochansky, a longtime collaborator. Together, they update the work of the great singer-songwriters of the early seventies. DiFranco’s guitar accompaniment, which remains consistent throughout the song, is more elaborate and melodic than the accompaniments typically heard in the folk and folk-inspired music of the sixties and seventies. Guitar(s)—DiFranco added a discreet bass guitar part—and percussion provide a buoyant cushion for DiFranco’s scathing indictment of a former partner. Lines like “cuz some day you are going to get hungry/and eat most of the words you just said” cut like a scalpel because they are funny and true. DiFranco’s warm, low-key vocal style in this song resonates with the gentle accompaniment; its understated quality gives the lyrics even more bite because of the contrast between the message and its delivery. The extended percussion outro is a nice bonus, although not connected thematically to the lyric.
The gently flowing music of Ani DiFranco heard here is some distance stylistically from the punk-inspired sounds that typify alternative music. However, her do-it-yourself approach to all aspects of her career—performing, recording, managing, promoting, and support for other grassroots efforts in causes that are important to her—embodies the spirit of alternative music. Her enterprise and determination in charting her own career path, unbeholden to authority figures, took the independence so prized by alternative acts to a new level.
CH. 88
The “Death” and Transfiguration of the Music Industry
88-1The “Comprehensive” Era
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Billboard’s Top 200 chart listed the best-selling albums, regardless of genre, that had been released within the previous eighteen months. Older albums appeared on the Top Pop Catalog Albums. However, in 2003, Billboard introduced the Top Comprehensive Albums chart, which identified the best-selling albums, regardless of release date. In 2009 when, after Michael Jackson’s passing, three of his albums topped the charts, Billboard turned the relationship between current and catalog albums on its head by converting the Top Comprehensive Albums chart into the Billboard 200 and introducing a new Top Current Albums chart.
The inversion of the relationship between “catalog” (older) and “current” during the first decade of the new century, acknowledged the reality of musical life in twenty-first century America. The marketplace is more fragmented than ever before, not only by genre—rock, country, hip-hop, etc.—but also by generation. In this context, “generation” refers not just to the age(s) of the acts or the release date of their work, but also their musical approach.
Billboard’s decade-end chart lists the best-selling acts of the decade. For the 2000’s, the top ten included three rap/R&B acts, three rock acts, three country acts, and a pop diva.
|
Rap/hip-hop |
Rock |
Country |
Pop |
|
Eminem |
Linkin Park |
Toby Keith |
Britney Spears |
|
Nelly |
Nickelback |
Tim McGraw |
|
|
Jay-Z |
Creed |
Kenny Chesney |
|
All four categories represent well-established genres. Country is inherently traditional, or at least neo-traditional. Of the three top rock acts, only Linkin Park was at all contemporary in approach. The turn-of-the-century pop divas followed closely Madonna’s lead. Rap, the newest genre—if music from the 1980s can still be considered “new” in the twenty-first century—has been leavened with melody. The rest of the list includes acts that reach into the more distant past: traditional pop and classical crossover singers like Josh Groban (14), Andrea Bocelli (53) and Michael Bublé (90), stars from rock’s first generation like the Beatles (27), Santana (29), Elvis (102!), the Eagles (105) and Ray Charles (109), and Celtic/new-age star Enya (56).
This embrace of the past has continued into this decade. A 2015 Music Watch survey, sponsored by the RIAA, aggregates listeners’ preferences by age and music delivery method (CD, streaming, etc.). The overall top choices were classic rock (60s-80s), Top 40, and country. Similarly, the twenty top-grossing tours of 2015 included AC/DC, U2, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Billy Joel, and Neil Diamond, along with contemporary singer/songwriters Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, and top country acts like Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, and Shania Twain.
The resurgence of records, a decidedly retro technology, is perhaps most indicative of the confluence of old and new in the twenty-first-century music industry. A stroll through the local music shop will present shoppers with classic rock records alongside grunge from the 90s situated next to today’s most popular artists.
What’s missing from these twenty-first-century lists are acts whose music offers a transformative new style, a style with sufficient gravitational pull to not only take over the market but also mirror and even change the culture—as the jazzy fox-trot songs did in the 1920s and rock did in the 1960s. There has been new music that is identifiably from this century, but it is not the dominant music of our time. Half a century later, it seems clear that there will be no third revolution comparable to the rock revolution of the 1960s, or even the modern revolution of the 1920s.
Why? There are compelling non-musical reasons. Unprecedented ease of access to recordings of all time—to learn about a range of music and to listen to it and make it your own—is one. It’s an invitation to personalization of taste, rather than having industry- and media-curated choices. Another is the quality of the recordings. The recordings of the 1970s sound far better to contemporary ears than the recordings of the 1920s did to 1960s listeners. And it’s possible to upgrade the quality of older recordings. Remastering validated the enormously successful re-release of the Beatles’ No. 1 singles in 2000.
88-1aFrom Melody to Rhythm to Sound: the Evolution of Twentieth-Century Popular Music
However, the most compelling reason involved the music itself. During the course of the twentieth century, popular music went from music in which melody was dominant to styles in which rhythm was dominant. At the turn of the previous century, the most popular songs were waltz songs like “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” where the melody was the most prominent and distinctive feature. The new dance music of the teens and twenties and its integration into popular song began the shift toward more rhythmically engaging music, not only with the bouncy two-beat rhythm of the fox-trot but also with melodies built from syncopated riffs. Each successive stage of this evolution was defined principally by a more active rhythmic foundation: the four-beat rhythm of swing in the late 1930s and 1940s, the eight-beat rhythm of rock in the 1960s, and the sixteen-beat rhythms that mainstreamed in the 1970s and 1980s. At the same time, the rhythmic elements of melody became more prominent: riffs repeated syncopated patterns rather developing into more melodically varied parts. In addition, percussive sounds became more prominent, especially during the latter half of the century. Eventually even the voice became a percussion instrument with rap.
By the 1990s, this large-scale evolutionary shift had reached an end point. The pendulum had swung completely from melody to rhythm, as heard in the two important new trends of the 1980s, techno and rap. A 32-beat rhythm was theoretically possible but functionally impractical. It was apparent to creative minds that further innovation required a new direction altogether. It was found in sound.
CH. 89
Sound Innovations of the 1990s
89-1Sound Parameters
In the broadest sense of the term, sound is what we hear. In the more limited connotation used in this account, sound refers more specifically to three parameters of the sounds we hear: the resources used to produce the sound, how loud they are, and how they combine. Resources include voices, conventional instruments, digitally generated sounds, samples, and everyday “found” sounds. But a simple resources list—vocals, guitars, bass, drums—may be no more than an outline. Increasingly, we have been more interested in how musicians sing, play their instruments, or create sounds digitally—to what extent they individualize the sounds they produce, either through modification of a conventional instrument, or by discovering new sounds.
The overall volume level of a recorded or live performance (or presenting a recording in performance, as DJ’s do) is the most obvious feature of the music, particularly when it’s extremely loud or soft. More subtle, and typically much more interesting, is the relative volume levels of the various parts: which are in the forefront and which are in the background.
When we hear sounds in combination, we want to notice three additional features of sound. One is how many parts there are. The second is the density of the sounds—how they are distributed across the audible spectrum: are they close together in pitch or far apart? The third is the ranges (or registers) in which they lie (high, middle, low).
This list of sound attributes is long and necessarily somewhat complex, because the innovative and creative approaches to sound in the 1990s (even more than in previous decades) are the antithesis of the garageband esthetic. This music largely belongs to digital artists, engineers, and producers. It is often music of considerable richness, with many skillfully mixed layers of sound. The innovations have included all of these aspects of sound.
89-1aThe Expanding Sound World of the 1990s
New sounds and sound combinations have been part of American popular music since its inception: the core instruments of the minstrel show were unusual, heterogeneous, and largely unprecedented. Sound was a crucial element in the revolutions of the 1920s and 1960s. However, in defining the music of an era, sound was secondary: aggressive guitars, bass, and drums distinguished the core rock style from sub-styles that were hybrids of rock and established traditions, such as folk rock, soft rock, and country rock. Rhythm, by contrast, played the primary role in linking all of this music and distinguishing it from the music of the previous generation.
However, by the 1990s, sound had become the primary source of innovation in popular music. Creative musicians employed two complementary strategies: expanding and diversifying sounds and sound combinations, and minimizing musical interest in the other musical elements—melody, harmony, rhythm, and form. Together, these strategies brought sound to the forefront as a differentiating element to an unprecedented degree. They were most obvious in electronica and rap, but they also surfaced, often to a lesser extent, in other music, especially alternative rock.
Widely used methods for bringing sound to the forefront included:
1. An expanded range of timbres, mainly through electronically generated and manipulated sounds, but also occasionally through “found” sounds of various kinds, as well as instruments not typically associated with pre-1990s rock, R&B, country, and pop.
2. Abrupt, often jarring, contrasts in the various parameters of sound: volume, register, density, and timbre.
3. Unusual sound combinations, including those that avoid or substantially modify genre-specific sound choices.
4. Sonic “makeup”: delicate background sounds that enhance more prominent layers.
None of these methods was unprecedented; one can find pre-1990 instances of all of them. What was different was the extent to which they were used: either singly or, more often, in combination with others, and with the de-emphasis of other musical elements.
1990s musicians used specific approaches to the other elements that reduced traditional sources of interest and variety, which in turn focused more attention on the their sonic qualities. The most radical was simply to not include them, and there are critically acclaimed tracks without a steady and inviting beat, something approaching a singable melody, chords of any kind, or a form that coalesces into a perceptible pattern. And there were also less radical but still innovative approaches to the other elements. Among the widely used were these:
1. Rhythmic “signatures”: extensive repetition of a distinctive rhythmic pattern that is related to but different from basic “number” beats. These signature rhythms would typically last through long stretches or even the entire length of a track. Often the rhythmic signatures are produced electronically, with a sound that is analogous to but different from a conventional drum kit. This helps focus attention on the sound of the rhythm.
2. Chord cycles: the continuous repetition of a sequence of two, three, or four chords. Typically, these chord sequences effectively form a harmonic loop that repeats extensively: at least through a long section or even the entire track.
3. Melodic “rappification”: not only interpolating or overlaying rap into an otherwise sung track, but also creating sung sections with fast streams of notes in a conversational rhythm and/or a narrow range, with little melodic interest. As with the other elements, this kind of melody is showcased sonically, with electronically modified vocal sounds or distinctive instrumental sounds.
4. “Timeless” form: the repetitive rhythms and the absence or repetition of harmony and melody tend to eliminate or reduce (in frequency and prominence) the milestones that mark off sections in a track. In the most extreme realizations of this approach it’s almost as if a track has neither beginning nor end (which is how it’s experienced when mixed by a DJ).
The Chemical Brothers is one band known for this radical approach to twenty-first-century sound.
These strategies appeared more frequently in electronica and rap than alternative, and typically in a more extreme form. Still, the sound-oriented music of the decade employed at least some of these strategies, as we can hear in a sampling of critically acclaimed music from the 1990s. The order of the tracks reflects the extent to which these strategies appear. Aphex Twin’s “#3” is almost completely about sound; “1979” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” show rock acts gravitating toward the approach to sound that took shape in the 1990s.
This small sampling of 1990s music hints at the extent to which the increasing prominence of sound helped define a new musical generation. Not surprisingly, it’s most evident in the electronic-based genres, but the presence of some of these strategies in alternative rock helped distinguish this music from 1980s rock. These strategies would help define a twenty-first-century sound in a range of commercially and critically important music.
|
Aphex Twin: #3 |
Distinctive electronic sounds, repetitive harmony, no melody and beat-speed rhythms, little change throughout |
|
Chemical Brothers: Dig Your Own Hole |
Range of distinctive electronic sounds, including some that sound more like everyday noises rather than conventional musical sounds; rhythmic signature from repeated riff and drum-like percussion pattern; no harmony; little in the way of melody beyond the riff; layers come and go |
|
Basement Jaxx: Rendez-Vu |
Sci-fi like electronic sounds mixed with Spanish-sounding acoustic guitar; four-chord cycle throughout almost all of the track; sections comprised of multiple layers, including several high-register synth sounds; vocals mainly repeated riffs in a narrow range; drums w/ brushes sound playing double-time shuffle rhythm |
|
Björk: Human Behavior |
“Empty” sound: voice, military-style snare drum, low register timpani playing repeated pattern, occasional high chord and clusters of high synth sounds; no harmony |
|
Nine Inch Nails: I Do Not Want This |
Drum-like sounds = rhythmic signature instead of number beat; no harmony, although piano-like riff implies two chords; wide array of electronic sounds, including layers of high-register synthesized sounds periodically appearing in background |
|
Nas: Life’s a Bitch |
Sustained high-register synth note; repeated signature rhythm; two-chord cycle throughout; no melody; surprising jazz trumpet at end; open-ended form |
|
Tupac: California Love |
Broad array of extra percussion, nonpitched sounds: shaker, whistle, etc.; two-chord cycle with distinctive rhythm throughout song; electronic modification of sung sections |
|
Radiohead: Paranoid Android |
Abrupt and dramatic contrasts in volume between sections, high synth sounds; rich fabric of sound, with several percussion layers |
|
Smashing Pumpkins: 1979 |
Repeated two-chord cycle through much of the song; unusual guitar sound |
|
Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit |
Four-chord cycle; abrupt contrasts in volume |
Listen to these selections in the unit playlist.
89-2Genres and Generations: Popular Music in the Twenty-First Century
In January, 2015, as the second half of the 2010s began, the staff at billboard.com celebrated in characteristic fashion, by making lists. Among them was the “10 defining artists of the 10s (so far).” Their list included five rappers, four pop/R&B singers—all female—and one rock group. The staff’s “defining artists” and their lists of best albums and singles reflect contemporary trends, but not the marketplace as a whole. Data from MusicWatch and Billboard imply that accounting for musical preferences should factor in generations as well as genres: more people were listening to classic rock than current hits. Doing so provides a different perspective on musical life in the first part of the twenty-first century.
Twenty-first-century record sales, streaming preferences, and concert attendance suggest that there are four generations of popular music that still have significant market share and mind share, and remain a vital source of new music. In chronological order, they are:
1. Classic pre-rock pop (the “Great American Songbook”), based on the post-war popular singing of Sinatra, Nat Cole, et al. The ageless Tony Bennett remains a favorite; younger stars such as Michael Bublé and Diana Krall enjoy large followings; and rock and pop stars from several decades (e.g., Rod Stewart, Lady Gaga) also delved into this music.
2. First generation rock-era music (60s+). Sixties icons such as Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney continued to record into the twenty-first century, while more recent acts such as Mumford and Sons and the Tedeschi-Trucks Band bring a fresh approach to classic rock and R&B. Moreover, most contemporary country music is stylistically aligned with first generation rock: particularly its characteristic rhythms and core instruments.
3. Second-generation rock-era music (late 70s+). This begins with punk, funk, and disco, and includes music from the 80s and beyond that built on the rhythms and sounds of these styles, e.g., R.E.M., Michael Jackson, Madonna, and U2, as well as rappers and electronic artists. Numerous alternative bands and pop stars continue to work within these styles.
4. Musicians looking to forge a distinct twenty-first-century sonic identity.
We consider this last group of musicians as we try to discern what features—present and absent—give a particular track a sound that belongs to the twenty-first century, but not before.
CH. 90
A Twenty-First-Century Sound
90-1Mainstreaming Sound in the Twenty-First Century
The sound-centric innovations of the 1990s found more widespread application in the new century. Increasingly, it was found in music that climbed its way to the upper rungs of the charts and onto “best of” lists, which was not the case at the end of the previous century.
What’s striking about the development of a twenty-first-century approach to sound is how its innovations turn twentieth-century practice on its head. Throughout the twentieth century, the path to innovation was to coalesce around a new set of conventions: new beats, sounds, melody building. Even though the revolutionary rock of the 1960s was far more eclectic and assimilative than pre-rock pop, there were still common musical conventions. These conventions linked a wide and disparate body of new music and distinguished it from the established styles of the 1950s.
In particular, rock-defining rhythms are like the beef in a hamburger: one can dress it up with exotic cheeses, rolls, and sauces, or simply slap it in a bun with some American cheese, but it’s not a hamburger without the beef. By contrast, the post-1990s approach to sound and its role was much more like a buffet: a virtually infinite smorgasbord of sounds and sound combinations, from which artists could choose any sounds that suited their concept for a particular track. There is nothing in this approach comparable to the evolution of music with regard to number or style beats. As we’ll encounter in the music below, this approach is defined not only by what’s included but also what’s not included.
We offer thumbnail sketches of widely varied instances of this approach in a broad range of music: hip-hop, R&B, pop, alternative. All of the tracks feature commercially successful and/or critically acclaimed acts whose music sounds as if it’s from this century.
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Linkin Park: In The End (2000) |
Two speeds simultaneously: rap and drums; slow vocal line; repeated chord progressions; opening sound combination: piano, synth cello, electronic noise; piano loop throughout |
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Arcade Fire: Rebellion (Lies) 2004 |
Repetitive, narrow-ranged melody, two long-term chord cycles, separation between loud low bass and loud high piano, varying string textures behind prominent instruments and voices |
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Beyoncé: Halo 2008 |
Classically inspired piano intro and interlude; patter-like vocal line, composite rhythmic signature; progression from “empty” sound in verse—mainly voice, bass, percussion—to dense, multilayered chorus with backup vocal echos and string “halo” |
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Coldplay: Viva La Vida (2008) |
String band replaces rock band as core instruments; other unusual instrumental sounds: e.g., timpani, church bell, choir. Chord cycles through much of track. String pattern = rhythmic signature |
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Lady Gaga: Bad Romance (2009) |
Array of electronic sounds, from buzzing bass through high white noise; different sound palette for verse, bridge, chorus. Abrupt and striking contrasts between sections. Chord cycles in chorus; no harmony in verse. Richly layered, especially in chorus |
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Bon Iver: Holocene (2011) |
Rhythmic signature in guitar accompaniment, enhanced with drums later in track; complex, slow moving, slightly varying chord cycle; melody made up of short phrase floats on accompaniment, low register saved for emphasis; gradual buildup through track; subtle background sounds throughout. |
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Adele: Turning Tables (2011) |
Just piano and strings accompaniment to vocal; distinctive chord cycle and accompaniment pattern; sharp contrasts between sections, and dramatic use of silence |
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Kanye West: On Sight (2013) |
Rhythmic signature played by synth sounds composite; abrupt contrasts through samples; no harmony under rap, instead repeated riff-like patterns |
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James Blake: Retrograde (2013) |
Minimalist beginning: voice, piano, then basic beat/backbeat. Electronic siren-like sounds, low-end bass line reinforcement in middle; thickening toward end of siren sounds, then abrupt halt |
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Taylor Swift: Blank Space (2014) |
Electronic soundscape intro, accompaniment for chatty verse (no harmony at beginning). Rhythmic signature when percussion ends. Sustained sounds outline four-chord cycle in chorus; numerous background sounds flesh out sound behind Swift |
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Drake, et al.: One Dance (2016) |
Jarring interaction between calypso-like rhythm in percussion and offbeat piano chords; electronic sounds, more electronic sounds behind Drake’s vocal; several background vocal sounds, constant addition and subtraction of electronic sound fragments; abrupt end |
Listen to these selections in the unit playlist.
Adele, shortly after winning an Academy Award for the James Bond theme song “Skyfall” in 2013.
Despite their obvious differences, these tracks share a common focus on making sound prominent and distinctive. They differ widely in the degree to which they commit to a break from the past, and the individual ways in which they realize their sound conception.
For example, Arcade Fire’s “Rebellion (Lies)” traces its lineage back at least to the 1960s, in the proto-punk of the Velvet Underground’s song “I’m Waiting for the Man.” What gives the track a more contemporary sound are its sound features: the special string instrument effects, and the gradual scaling up of volume and density from verse through chorus. These give the song a shape despite the relentless punk-influenced rhythm and repetitive melodic fragments.
By contrast, Adele gives “Turning Tables” a fresh sound mainly through subtraction: no bass, guitar, drums, or electronics. Instead, there are just piano and symphonic strings behind her voice. In these sound choices, the song has more in common with classical song from the nineteenth century than it does with rock or pop from the 1990s.
There is no one element of the strategy that predominates. The closest to a “universal” might well be the “sonic makeup.” More than ever before, popular music belongs to producers and electronic artists, and tech companies have brought sophisticated software to the marketplace at far more affordable price points.
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Sound, Comfort Music, and the Balance Among Melody, Rhythm, and Sound
All of the twenty-first-century music mentioned in this unit has attracted a large and supportive audience that finds it appealing, and much of it is beautiful in innovative, even unprecedented, ways. So it’s worth pondering why this sound-centric music hasn’t become the dominant music of this time, in the way that the fox-trot song did in the 20s and 30s, or the way rock did in the 60s and 70s.
Our access to an almost unlimited amount of music has played a role in diffusing listeners’ preferences. The ease with which we can choose among millions of recordings was unimaginable before the digital age. So our tastes are not constrained by the relatively limited availability of music on the radio and in record stores, as they were during the modern and rock revolutions.
There are also music-related reasons that help account for the absence of a new dominant style. First, the nature of sound-related innovation encouraged individuality, not adherence to a set of conventions. Second, sound elements do not engage us physically the way melody or rhythm do. There’s no aspect of sound comparable to singing along during the chorus or moving in time with the beat. Third, the most popular music of the modern and rock revolutions pulled listeners in and kept them there through across-the-board access and appeal: not only because of new sounds and a new beat, but also because of catchy riff-based melodies and formal milestones that helped listeners navigate through a song. So it would seem that for a significant percentage of listeners, the stylized rhythms and suppressed melodic and harmonic interest of much twenty-first-century popular music render the music less appealing than earlier music, where sound, rhythm, and especially melody (and the lyrics that are sung to it) are more in balance.
In the late-2010s, the audience for 60s and 70s music is far greater and more diverse than the audience for 20s and 30s music during the 60s and 70s. Some of this has to do with the quality and accessibility of modern-era music during the early rock era. The recordings of the 20s and 30s were inferior and originally available in outdated formats—when albums really were “albums,” of 78 rpm discs—and there was little financial incentive to reissue them, because older styles and artists were no longer fashionable. By contrast, established acts from the last century routinely outdraw twenty-first-century artists on concert tours. Their music, even remastered reissues, continues to sell well and attract listeners on streaming services. Today there is nothing approaching the pressure that established artists felt, during the rock revolution, to update their sound—pressure so intense that it drove Frank Sinatra into a brief retirement.
Considerable evidence suggests that we live in a transformative time. The current generation is the first in over a century where the music of earlier generations remains as vital a part of our musical life as the most current music. This vitality is more than an exercise in nostalgia: younger artists continue to breathe new life into traditional styles, on their own or even in collaboration with those whom they listened to for inspiration. Today’s listeners have the best of both worlds: they can pick and choose from contemporary offerings according to their taste and easily revisit high quality versions of music from an earlier time. It’s an unprecedented and unmixed blessing.
