Nirvana, The 90s and The Drug Scene

In the birth place of grunge rock during the late 80s, heroine was the drug of choice. Being isolated from the american music scene, artists turned to hard drugs, quite often for inspiration for their music and lyrics.

When the grunge artists became rock stars the drug use turned to a higher level, with many artists dying from overdoses including Andy Wood and Stephanie Sergeant. Many artists wrote songs about their struggles with drugs, Alice in Chains "Drug of Choice" was one such song. It seemed wrong that people liked these songs and the artists, who were singing about their troubles and problems with drugs.

Despite the large number of deaths of artists, heroine was still the number one drug for the rock stars of the 90s, with a number of deaths occurring because of it.

Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain was one such artist who suffered the perils of drug addiction, using heroine as an escape from the rock star world he despised so much. While Cobain did check himself into a rehab clinic, he left 4 days later.

Cobain's troubles with fame and heroine ended when he committed suicide. He had used a huge amount of heroine then shot himself in the head.

While one could never say the outcome of drug use or addiction is in anyway anything but horrific, the gunge music scene would have been so different if it weren't for the drugs. Can you imagine what the grunge genre would have produced without the drugs?

The 90's: "A decade without an identity"?

The 90's have been called by some, including but not limited to my father, as being "a decade without an identity". This expression is most often used in reference to the 90's music industry. There is a general understanding of what someone means when they say "I love seventies music" or "I love eighties music", however, there is absolutely no clarity in what someone means when they say "I love nineties music". This said, I don't think it is fair to describe the era as having no identity. I love nineties music, which is why I am so unhappy with that description being used. It suggests, or maybe is just used to suggest, that 90's music had no character - that it was droll, forgettable and didn't pioneer any new sounds or movements. On the contrary, I feel that if anything can be said for this era it would be that it had too much to offer. In past decades, "usually only a few types of music dominated the Top 40, but in the nineties you can find rock, rap, gangsta rap, alternative, punk, country, R&B, adult contemporary, ska, and classic rock." (1) There was a broader spectrum of music to accomodate an ever-fragmenting audience. Back in the 60's artists could get a mass audience and achieve mass hysteria (think 'Beatlesmania'), but in the 90's audiences showed signs of becoming less 'mass' and more 'niche'. Today we are experiencing the full effects of this. 00's music rarely has had a 'mass audience'; we're all savvy music consumers who know how to seek out the music we like. When was the last time an artist has 'mania' in the 00's? Never to my recollection. Rather than a decade without an identity, I'd call the 90's a decade with multiple-identities. And every decade from now will probably continue further with this trend - becoming more and more fragmented. The perceived "lack of identity" hence stems from the audience and not from the standard of music.

The 90's Most Iconic Music Moments

A countdown of nine iconic 90's music moments; that is iconic artists, songs, videos, interviews and performances.

Note: I use the word 'iconic' loosely and subjectively. So, no, there will be no Nirvana.

#9 Sinead O'Connor

'Nothing Compares to You'. With a music video every bit as intense and iconic as the track itself, this is one nineties song that will stand the test of time (as a killer breakup song if nothing else).

#8 Hit Me Baby One More Time

The birth of a monster, and of one of the most hyped-up and torn-down celebrities of my lifetime at least - Britney Spears. The success story (if you could dream to call it that) starts here, when she was first presented to the world as an innocent schoolgirl. What a difference a decade can make. (still brilliant though)

#7 The Cranberries

Though a far cry from most of the hardcore pop I listen too, I'm wildly enthusiastic about the Cranberries. They are in fact the only band I would describe as pop/rock that I would rank amongst my favourites. Icons of the 90's for their hits - 'Zombie', 'Salvation', 'Dreams' and so on. I could have easily done a top 9 list just comprised of Cranberries songs.

#6 Early-Mid 90's Club Songs

Ace of Base, I'm looking squarely at you. So many wonderful beats - 'Be My Lover,' '100% Pure Love,' 'I've Been Thinking About You' and 'I've Got the Power', to name but a few. Dance music had never been better. Sometimes I wonder how I can be so nostalgic for something I never really experienced. It absolutely kills me that I'll never walk into a club and hear 'Rhythm is a Dancer' playing. And if you don't know that song you have no right to be reading a 90's music blog.

#5 Cher introduces herself to Generation X

'Believe' was the first song of Cher's to land in the ARIA Top 10 since 'The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)' charted at #4 in 1990! So in many ways this was my introduction to Cher, and what an introduction! 'Believe' was a pop masterpiece and the biggest selling hit of her four decade career. Amazing. Thankyou Cher. Thankyou 90's.

#4 90's TV Themes



It might sound silly, but some of the most memorable tunes from the 90's are the tv theme songs we sung (or hummed) along to every week. Buffy, Charmed, Melrose Place, Friends, Ally McBeal, The X-Files and especially 90210.

#3 Courtney Love Crashes a Madonna Interview



God bless Courtney Love. I won't spoil too much, just that crashing an interview with the control-freak Queen of pop is must see youtube, and an iconic 90's music moment.

#2 Kylie Minogue does Barbarella



For most, Kylie's most iconic music video would that for 'Spinning Around'. The gold hotpants seal the deal. However, for me, it was her music video for 'Put Yourself In My Place' that is her most iconic 90's effort. A pink spacesuit? Genius. Floating around naked in a spaceship? Double genius. It may not sound like the most compatible video for a song called "Put Yourself In My Place", but it works.

#1 Spice Girls perform at the BRITS 1997



Yes. The Spice Girls 1997 BRITS performance. The most iconic moment of 90's British pop culture. Geri's Union Jack outfit gave birth to 'Cool Britannia' right there on the stage. On top of that, they are my childhood. So double iconic points for them.

Note: Songs that are hugely iconic but were too abhorrent for my list include 'Jackie', 'Two Times 'and 'No Way, No Way'. Songs that are hugely iconic but I realized were in fact not released in the 90's include 'Push It' and 'Murder on the Dancefloor'.

Nineties to Now: Mariah to Leona

It would be ignorant of me to write blog entry after blog entry on 90’s pop without making mention of the highest selling artist of that decade... Mariah Carey. Achieving a Billboard #1 in every year of the 90’s (1) and selling upwards of 130 million in that decade alone, she is in many respects the face of 90’s pop music. Much like the Madonna to Lady Gaga comparison, it is highly likely that there will never be a ‘new Mariah’ as long as the ‘old Mariah’ reigns. However new international chart-topper Leona Lewis looks set to test that theory.

Winning UK X-Factor in 2006, Leona Lewis has had her debut album, Spirit, chart at #1 in the UK, US, Europe and Australia and sell upwards of 8 million copies worldwide (2). If Leona isn’t the ‘new Mariah’, then she’s certainly a new chart rival. Something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the press. In an article for the New York Daily News, Jim Farber writes: “Lewis has towered over the European charts for months with her song "Bleeding Love." In her home country - the U.K. - the single became the biggest-selling song of '07, even though it could just as easily have been the follow-up to Mariah's very first single from 1990, "Vision of Love”” (3)

Leona has roughly the same timbre as Mariah in her nascent days, as well as the same soulful way of forming and indulging phrases. Being that their voices are so similar, they are naturally tailored to make the same kinds of music. They both have the kind of power-house vocals that can execute a Whitney Houston Ballad and make it look effortless. They’re the kind of exceptional pop artist whose voice is actually their strongest asset; as opposed to other pop stars whose central draw is their image, stage performance or the creative collective behind them. It has been said that “popular music singers of the past thirty-five years have eschewed the classical perfection of the voice in favor of expressing the emotionality and personality of the voice.” (4) Leona and Mariah are rare treats who demonstrate that it isn’t an either-or situation; both being technically brilliant, but never wooden, singers. Their coy persona’s and enormous voices place them at the opposite end of the spectrum to the stripped-down, revved-up popettes of the industry. They rely on a fine-tuned voice for media attention rather than controversy or exhibitionism. Whether or not this makes them more deserving artists is up for contention; what is does show is that they are cut from the same cloth.

In terms of interview demeanor, song selections, and especially voice Leona Lewis has carved out the same niche’ in music today that Mariah occupied in the 90’s – which places her on a fairly certain road to success.

References

(4) Marshall, P.D. 1997. 'The Meaning of the Popular Music Celebrity: The Construction of Distinctive Authenticity'. Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture. University of Minneapolis. pg 155.

The Pet Shop Boys: 'Very', Very Good

"As one producer put it concisely, the pop song is “a little three-minute novel,” in which reality and daydream merge in a sort of fairytale of love or of anonymous ambitions.” (1) And how could these fairytales be translated without lyrics? Lyrics are the cornerstone of any good pop or rock song. While the 90’s most famous lyrics may well be “MmmBop” and “Zig-eh-Ziga”, we shouldn’t give up on the decade as altogether senseless. If for no other reason than that the Pet Shops Boys (PSB) released four literally amazing albums in the 90’s. While lyrics can sometimes be inconsequential to a pop song, this has never been the case for the PSB. The lyrics have always been a key source of enjoyment from one of their albums. Take, for example, their best 90’s album, Very, which offers up lyrics which are witty, resonating and best of all, largely interpretational.

"Dreaming of the Queen" is certainly an example of this multiplicity of readings. On the surface it is, as the title implies, about a dream of visiting the Queen of England and Princess Di for a cup of tea. However, deeper inspection of the lyrics allow us to conceive the song as being about the toll that AIDS has taken on the gay community; rendering it a space where love has died: "There are no more lovers left alive/No one has survived.” This is one popular reading of the song, which pegs it as a gay text. Gregory Wood’s once said “A gay text is one which lends itself to the hypothesis of a gay reading, regardless of where the author's genitals were wont to keephouse.” (2) Under this definition, almost all PSB songs can be understood as gay texts. In fact, one of the most discussed elements of PSB lyrics are their queer sensibility and accessibility regardless of sexuality. For instance, many of their love songs will never refer to a ‘he’ or a ‘she’, instead addressing the object of affection just as ‘you’. This is just one way in which PSB liberate pop lyrics (which, let’s face it, are more times than not to do with love) for a queer audience.

Another diamond track from Very, is the snarky “Yesterday When I Was Mad”. It is a bombastic, energetic tune which, as the Rolling Stone review put it, makes clear that "the Boys have a few axes to grind." (3)

"Darling, you were wonderful, you really were quite good,

I enjoyed it, though of course, no-one understood.

They wondered what was going on, they didn't have a clue,

They didn't understand your sense of humour like I do.

"You're much to kind",

I smiled with murder on my mind."

The song expresses the irritation roused by critics, press and others in the music biz, who all have a back-handed complement or condescending remark to make. The verses serve up these insincere comments: “You have a certain quality, which really is unique/Expressionless, such irony, although your voice is weak,” which are reacted to with Neil’s biting chorus line: "I smiled, with murder on my mind." "Admitting I don't believe in anyone's sincerity, and that's what really got to me," implies a sense of jadedness; that the insincerity of some has detracted from the enjoyment of any accolade. This is pointed at as the main cause of his venting frustration. The songs closing lyric: "Then, when I was lonely, I thought again and changed my mind..." suggests that these ass-kissing falsities aren’t the worst fate. Better to have people clamouring around you with their barbed, fake complements than to stand alone. For tracks like “Yesterday When I Was Mad”, it is the lyrics which are the main attraction – the music plays a subservient role to the songs narrative.

My favourite lyric from Very comes from “Young Offender”, about an older gay man who still feels vibrant but no longer turns heads. In his mind he has a conversation with the young man he wants, but who doesn’t even see him. "How graceful your movements, how bitter your scorn/I've been a teenager since before you were born!" The song is really quite a poignant tale about the “anonymous ambition” to be young again, or better still, to be seen as young again. Of course it’s a sad state of affairs to become old and irrelevant, especially if you still feel like a teenager. It is one of my worst fears, which is probably why the lyrics of the song strike such a chord with me.

Through a brief three-track look at the PSB album, Very, we can appreciate how lyrics can invite, amuse or provoke thought in their respondents. It is the diversity of meaning in lyrics which makes Very an excellent 90’s album and one worth listening to again and again.

References

(1) Hennion, A. 1983. 'The Production of Success: An Antimusicology of a Pop Song'.Eds. Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin. On Record . (1990) Routeledge Publishing. pg. 156.

What to Listen For in the 90's: Your Television

The idea of music in television isn’t a new one. From its inception, television used music used to create moods, fill spaces, provide rhythm and link the production to other cultural texts (1). However this music was traditionally just that – music. There was no artist, no lyrics, no autonomy for that music – it was simply a part of the program. However the 90’s changed all that. It was the first decade where ‘what to listen for’ was, in fact, your television.

“Recent years have seen an increase in pop music on television, replacing its more traditional incidental music. It is now dominant as stock music on television, filling expanding continuity and advertising spaces. The licensing of pop music for screen use is increasingly important for the music industry, spawning a new form of ‘multipurpose music’ which, as well as being music in its own right, can also be resold as stock music for television. While in the 1980s there was a rush to tie-in pop music with films, in the 1990s, it increasingly was to tie pop music with television.” (2)

The 90’s, especially late 90’s, saw the rise of this trend. Shows I grew up with such as Charmed and Roswell gave particular consideration to the songs they selected and their placement in the episode. They used popular music to achieve a measure of control over their audience’s emotional response. When the right song was chosen it enhanced the emotion of the narrative; and can years later still remind me of the scene in which it was used and the emotions therein. For example, one of the most memorable uses of music for me was Sarah McLaughlin’s ‘Full of Grace’, used in a 1998 episode of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer (see below). Even after eleven years, I still think of it as the ‘Buffy-gives-up-on-everything-and-leaves-Sunnydale song’. 90’s television demonstrated one of the many functions of music—which is to manipulate mood—in a brand new, televisional context.

The legacy of this is hugely apparent in 00’s television. Every ‘hip’ show, from Skins to 90210, has to have a ‘hip’ sound; ‘hip’ enough that it will warrant a soundtrack release. Recently, there has been a boom in TV soundtracks and in websites devoted to the use of popular music in television shows (3). Of this, blogger Garrett Kamps wrote:

“Last year The O.C. popularized the trick of laying indie music over the histrionic exchanges of hollow characters so as to lend real pathos to an otherwise loathsome TV show. This year the rest of Hollywood caught up, and now we've got programs like Grey's Anatomy, Gilmore Girls, and One Tree Hill paying Tegan and Sara's rent.” (4)

While suggests that the 00’s popularized the music-in-TV movement, I would counter-suggest that all the 00’s have really done is capitalize on it and take it to the next level. For example in 2006, an episode of One Tree Hill allowed the audience to decide which song would be played at Nathan and Hayley’s wedding (5). Song selection has clearly become an integral part of the TV audience’s experience.

While this can be perceived as a good thing, it also comes with some bad. Namely what I mean is when dialogue in a scene has to compete with the background music because it’s so loud and so obvious. Songs have gone from enriching the scene to sometimes dominating it. Because of this, an episode can be robbed of its quiet moments and end up feeling like a 40 minute music video. One Tree Hill can be particularly guilty of this. Music in television is most effective when it is used sparingly and appropriately; the final minutes of Six Feet Under surely being the most brilliant and well-executed example of this (see below).

The 90’s saw a transition in the use of music in television; from instrumental, lyric-less background noise to the recognizable, purchasable and sometimes incessant music of today. For many (myself included), this revelation means that television has displaced the radio as the best medium to discover new music. Rather than listen to a particular radio station, I just watch Gossip Girl weekly. If you want to know what to listen to in the 90’s, then start by watching TV.



Music in 90's TV: Buffy the Vampire Slayer


Evolution: the last 6 minutes of HBO's Six Feet Under

References

(2) Donelly, K.J. 2002. 'Tracking British television: pop music as stock soundtrack to the small screen' Popular Music 21 : 331-343 Cambridge University Press.

Nineties to Now: the Spice Girls to Girls Aloud

The Spice Girls were certainly something to listen for in the 90’s. The question is has the 00’s provided a worthy successor? Is there a girlband with enough celebrity and shine to be for the now what they were for the 90’s? The short answer is ‘yes’, and it comes in the form of U.K mega-success Girls Aloud.

Girls Aloud are a five-piece girlband who were formed in 2002 on the UK talent search Popstars: the Rivals, and who on the surface appeared quite similar to the Spice Girls. This was articulated in an article for The Independent, which suggested that: “In cherry-picking a redhead from Runcorn, two blondes from Ascot and Derry, and two similarly pretty brunettes from Newcastle and Bradford, Popstars' creators were mindful of the "catch-all" template that proved so fruitful for the Spice Girls. Give every boy his "type" and every young girl a look they might aspire to, runs the theory, and you've one hand on the prize.” (1)

In their early years especially, Girls Aloud were constantly subject to these comparisons. Both groups comprised of five young and different girls who made as many headlines as they did infectious pop songs. They represented a similar philosophy on friendship, stood tall as gay icons and placed just as much emphasis on spectacle as they did sound. Both were also hugely popular right away – with Girls Aloud debuting at #1 on the British charts like “a five headed Kylie Minogue”(2).

Despite Mel C’s claims that they’d “never be the next Spice Girls”(3), the girls were soon breaking music industry records and being branded as “the new Spice Girls”. However the comparison to, or adorations of, the Spice Girls has never been welcome in the Girls Aloud camp. In an interview with gay magazine Attitude, band member Cheryl Cole said:

“We recognize what the Spice Girls did …But it really annoys me when you meet girls who go, 'We wannabe the next Spice Girls’, I think 'piss off'. We've been around for six years, they were around 18 months. Yes, they had worldwide domination, but they fell out, bitched about each other and went their separate ways. We've been around for all this time, fighting to climb each step of the ladder, putting our hearts into everything, and you say you want to be the Spice Girls? Piss off! Six Years!” (November 2008, pg. 59)

These comments aren't without substance. It is difficult to compare the two groups, especially commercially, because of their vastly different contexts. The former were international stars in a pre-digital downloads world, whereas the latter are national treasures in the age of digital downloads. What can be said, I think, is that Girls Aloud have surpassed their predecessor in terms of creativity, maturity and longetivity. They have had 5 studio albums, a greatest hits, 20 consecutive top ten singles, won a BRIT award and are on their third sold-out arena tour. While the Spice Girls were more or less a guilty pleasure with vast amounts of fun-factor; Girls Aloud have managed to both entertain and build a credible reputation on top of that fun-factor. They’ve won praise from a whole host of industry figures including the Pet Shop Boys (who co-write their hit The Loving Kind); Bono, who tagged them as “the cutting edge of pop music”(4); and Coldplay frontman, Chris Martin, who described them quite accurately as “the ultimate form of life”(5). And have been covered by artists such as the Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party. The Spice Girls got a long way on their own hype, media buzz and the 90’s “girl power” craze. Girls Aloud, on the other hand, have officially ‘made it’ through talent, dedication, charisma and group chemistry (as well as a little buzz admittedly).

Because of this they are the “Spice Girls of today”. Not because they are a carbon copy, or the next best thing. On the contrary, the only remaining link between the girlbands is the enormous contributions they have made to the pop music of their respective decades.

"The new Spice Girls": Girls Aloud