This question reminds me of when I was at college back in the 90's. I was a radio DJ on my campus station for 4 years. I loved it; it was my main extra-curricular activity. There was only one problem: some of the music.
Now, I realize that more often then not, college radio often acts as a forum or new artists and bands that haven't yet made it big on a nationwide commercial level, but I had problems adjusting to the overall change in the sound of rock that was sparked by Nirvana and the Seattle music scene at that time.
In February of 1994, I passed the required test and received a radio broadcasting license from the FCC. I was in my second semester of my first year in college by that time, and could hardly wait to start hosting a show.
But as the time got closer and closer to my first air date, I got the feeling that something was wrong.
I had listened to this particular radio station in the past, as my family didn't live very far from the college. But whenever I called in to request a song, they were never able to play it. I couldn't figure out what good a radio station was if it didn't play songs that just about any listener would know (I didn't know about the many and varied music formats there are in radio at the time). I went through middle and high school knowing that something was different about this station: something that set it apart from the other stations in the area, but not knowing how I knew, or why, until I came to college. And that something was:
Alternative rock music.
Please humor me while I take yet another trip into the past. In the 1930's until at least the 1950's, radio was booming with the variety of programming that television supplies for us today. You could find it all on radio: news, comedy, drama, mystery, adventure, what have you. When TV finally made its existence known, many radio programs found a new home there; and radio receiving sets began to fall into disuse since people were now gathering around the TV every night.
Beginning in the 1950's, radio took a new direction: broadcasting recorded music, particularly rock'n'roll, the primary themes of which were excitement, fun, and romance. When the Vietnam conflict escalated in the 1960's and into the '70's, recording artists began using rock and folk music to convey the attitudes of the American people about the war, usually unfavorable. Examples include Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Phil Ochs, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Country Joe & the Fish
.
With the advent of electronic music and the emergence of FM radio, the emphasis of songs in the 1980's changed from "How beautifully can you write or perform a song?" to "What types of sounds can you produce?" Synthesizers were becoming common instruments for most groups and artists: Genesis, Bruce Hornsby, Lionel Richie, Steve Winwood, the Cars, and Yello, to name a few.
In the 1990's, with the advent of the genre of rock called alternative, the emphasis shifted to loud sounds and lyrics containing a message that is usually cynical, rebellious, and bombastic in nature. In the tradition of the Vietnam era, alternative (also known as "college rock" or "independent rock") tends to focus most often on the general inequities of life.
Even today, nearly ten years after I graduated, I firmly believe that if I could do it all over again, I would still not be prepared for the impact that Nirvana and the rest of the Seattle grunge scene would have on the music of the 1990's and early 2000's. I heard some alternative bands for the first time (Filter, Nirvana, Tool, Stone Temple Pilots, Cranberries, Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, Blind Melon; there are absolutely too many to name them all here) and took an instant dislike to the sound in general, even though I had favorite songs that were available at the station, which I would put on the air as often as I could. Since the station's program director at the time insisted that all of us DJ's adhere pretty strictly to a typical college radio station format, my options as a first time DJ were rather limited.
In the same semester that I received my license, I worked at the station, not as a weekly DJ but as a substitute DJ, which meant that I was pretty much all over the time clock. I did shows in the morning, afternoon, and evening. I even did at least two shows during the graveyard shift (midnight to 7 A.M). As far as music was concerned, I would play whatever style the show called for, usually alternative; but I would throw in an occasional older song as a kind of covert protest, usually by INXS, Living Colour, Depeche Mode, or Sting. That at least kept my spirits alive over all of the squealing guitar songs, most of which sounded like they belonged on the heavy metal shows which the station played all day Saturday.
The station staff would meet at least twice a month. Whenever I tried to bring up issues of musical value or artistic integrity, I was teased for being a Phil Collins fan (you had to be there to understand that one).
I remember one particular exchange I had with program director; it should be noted here that he was also a student, as was everybody participating with the station, with the exception of one advisor from the faculty. I said something to the effect of, "What about 'If You Don't Love Me?' by Prefab Sprout?"
"It sucks!" he not-so-tactfully replied.
"It is one of the single, most beautiful songs we have in our entire alternative rotation!" I shot back.
It was at that time that I really began to believe that this guy, who shall remain nameless, had absolutely no sense of musical beauty, and neither did a lot of the rest of the staff, except for the students who played urban contemporary (rap, hip-hop, R&B) on weeknights. If I remember right, it was because of incidents like this one that I did not ask for any newly released music for Christmas that year.
(Well, hardly any. I do remember getting a really great album called "Hot House" by Bruce Hornsby, but that's another story.)
After a year or two of this I finally got that Sunday afternoon timeslot I'd been rallying for, where the DJ's had free reign, and hosted a fairly successfull '80's music show for the rest of my college career.
Anyway, when I returned to my dorm room after the meeting, I put "All This Time" by Sting on my stereo. I listened in particular to the notes Sting was singing and the chords that were being used, and a thought struck me. I figured out another problem I was having with alternative.
What did all of the those angst-ridden, Nirvana-like songs that I was having difficulty sitting through for three hours have in common?
What did all of those new music videos----featuring plenty of guitarists, bassists, and drummers, as well as nice shots of Gwen Stefani's tummy, but no piano or keyboard players---that you could watch while you were enjoying a meal in some places on the campus have in common?
The answer is: most of them did not feature anyone playing piano or synthesizer.
The most blatant example of this trend slapped me in the face when I played piano at an open mike night. At the time, my college had a Friday night club for anybody who didn't want to drink. Usually a different band would perform every week. But in April of 1997, I went to the After Hours Club and played and sang about five or six different songs in the span of 45 minutes:
" Against All Odds" by Phil Collins
"In Too Deep" by Genesis
"Your Song" by Elton John
"Private Investigations" by Dire Straits
"Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by Crash Test Dummies
"King of Pain" by the Police
I'm fairly certain that everybody knows these singable songs that have been around for quite a few years, right?
Now, with that said, let me explain a little bit about the band that went on stage before me. They were called Scratch 'n' Sniff, and I believe they hail from Pittsburgh. Their music---if you can call it that---sounds nothing whatsoever like mine. Nor were their lyrics understandable either. The songs I'm thinking of were titled---I'm not making this up---"Cindy Screwless" and "Do You Think About Me When You're Sitting On The Toilet?"
The latter I didn't understand at all, but the former….
How shall I put this? The chorus to "Cindy Screwless" was lifted mercilessly from the hit song "Man Eater" by Daryl Hall and John Oates. ("Watch out, boy, she'll chew you up.") Being a Hall & Oates fan, I couldn't stand that. As if to add insult to injury, Scratch 'n' Sniff went from "Cindy Screwless" right into a hellish, hair curling, stomach turning rendition of the theme from Sesame Street.
What are today's musicians coming to?
I would ask myself that question just about every day when I was in college.
You see, I am one of the rare breed of musicians who possesses perfect pitch (also often called "absolute pitch"). What that means in plain English is that I can tell you the letter of any note and where it is on a piano keyboard in relation to Middle C. Now, most people have relative pitch, which is taken to mean that they can sing and carry a tune, but they cannot "pull" notes out of thin air in the same way someone with perfect pitch might. Also, people with relative pitch would probably not be able to tell you where notes are in relation to middle C unless they sat down and memorized the location of every note and key on a piano.
The point is that as a result of the way my brain and ears process information about musical notes, it is fairly safe to say that the music I play, buy, and listen to follows a clear logical path. During the time I was taking piano lessons, my teacher remarked to me during a session, "You certainly have an ear for picking the most beautiful of pieces!"
Well, my ear for picking the most beautiful of pieces does not receive the same kind of feeling or "vibe" when it comes to alternative. And the path that most bands and artists appeared to be taking during the Nirvana years, and many months afterward, seemed to me to be a rather twisted one. I have more respect for urban contemporary artists (or even the techno artists, whose dark, gritty, special effects-slam dunk songs permeate and pulsate their way through some of the darkest action/adventure movies out there today, such as Spawn, Seven, The Matrix, The Replacement Killers, and the Mortal Kombat movies) than I do for those kinds of rock bands. The fact that the number one female vocalist of the mid-1990's turned out to be Alanis Morrisette, who has one of the most annoying singing voices I've ever heard, only adds to my concerns about musical quality.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing about alternative rock, as I see it, was the potential that it had--or maybe even still has--- to uproot the mainstream music industry from within and change the sound of radio for the worst, if indeed it has not already done so. Because of the amount of cynicism and despair in most alternative lyrics, I believe that most young people are losing the ability to appreciate the beauty in every kind of music, not just rock. I hope it doesn't come true, but I once made a prediction that eventually the sound of music radio may deteriorate to the point where there are no longer any radio stations that still play the oldies and love songs that many adults here know. I'm sure you understand what I mean. My girlfriend and I are partial to people like Phil Collins, Peter Cetera (the former lead singer of Chicago), and Sting.
Even before alternative, I took a dislike to heavy metal and almost felt sick when I saw about three-quarters of the kids in school wearing denim jean jackets and long hair in the late 1980's. I felt the same way about metal as I do about alternative now.
So that's my take on the music scene through the years.