The Generation X Blues

Chpt. 18 MUSH 261: History of Rock and Roll

The New Generation

• Generation X • Found little stability in families • Baby boomers divorced in the 70’s leaving

may post-baby-boomers in single-family households

• Turbulent families caused frustration, pain and fear

• Abuse in the home

Violence

• Few economic prospects and painful/brutal home life cause youth to become violent

• Youth witnessed violent actions daily on tv

Gun Violence

• In 1990 more than 4% of all high school students surveyed, carried a gun

• Semiautomatic 9- millimeter • Used the guns they carried

• Urban gangs • Drawn to a loud aggressive, angry music • Notions of Reagan-era fueled affluence

The Hardcore Generation

• Rock and Roll reflected the alienation of the post-baby-boom generation

• Hardcore: desperate, angry and extreme version of punk

• Began in the late 1970’s in Hollywood

X

• Hyperactive roar of English punk lyrics describing a society degenerated beyond repair

• 1980 debut album, Los Angeles, released by Slash Records

• “Nausea” • “Sex & Dying in High Society”

The Germs

• Much darker sound • Ceremoniously burned themselves with

cigarettes • One member, Crash, symbolically committed

suicide as a tribute to his hero Sid Vicious • “We Must Bleed”

Dressed For War

• Young middle-class male suburbanites fueled the hardcore explosion

• Shaved their heads – avoid hair pulling in mosh pits

• Tattoos of band names and logos • Pierced various parts of their body • T-shirts, worn jeans, combat boots, leather

jackets with studs

Black Flag

• Suburbanites/middle class • Songs about personal dysfunction • “Depression” • “Life of Pain”

The Dead Kennedys

• Embraced British punk • Lyrics that lambasted U.S. imperialism, the

Moral Majority and the creeping facism among some hardcore youths, who began to wear Nazi armbands

• “Let’s Lynch the Landlord” • “Kill the Poor”

The Dils

• Political version of Punk • 2 hard hitting singles • “I Hate the Rich” • “Class War”

Thrash Metal

• Originated with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWBHM)

• Poor British youths with no apparent future formed bands to express their frustration through a violent, explosive sound

Diamond Head• Black Sabbath combined with Robert Plant

and John Bonham of Led Zepplin • Had their own label: Happy Face • “Lightning to the Nations”

Other Thrash Metal Groups

• Modeled on blues-based style • Delivered harsh-sounding, fist-pumping music

• Saxon • Venom • Angel Witch

Heavy Metal Promotion

• Neil kay: Disc Jockey – Promoted the albums of struggling

bands like Iron Maiden, at this Heavy Metal Club, Landon’s Soundhouse

• Kerrang: Heavy-Metal Magazine– Created underground metal fans and

spread the word • Fanzines

AC/DC

• Blues powered Australian band • Struggled during the mid 1970’s • NWBHM gave exposure and they hit the

British top 10 and US top 20 with “Highway to Hell”

Metallica

• Combined the different elements of the NWBHM to create a new genre called “thrash” or “speed metal”

• Swept across Britain & US during the mid 80’s • Instead of going “Please like us” we were

like…. “AHHHHHH!! F*** You!”• They were doing something new• “a marvel of precisely channeled aggression”

Metallica

Metallica

• Signed with Metal Underground before being snagged by Megaforce in New York

• Recorded Kill Em All, originally titled Metal Up Your Ass

• Ride the Lightning - death and dying • Master of Puppets – manipulation • And Justice for All

– American dream doesn’t work out• Metallica – sold 9 million copies

Death Metal

• Violent, slasher-type lyrics• Nearly incomprehensible growls • Abrupt tempo • Key & time signature changes • Started in Florida with a band called Death

Death • Started in 1983• Scream Bloody Gore – 1987 • Leprosy – 1988 • Human - a more toned down album which

brought greater followers and MTV airplay • Philosophy – 1995 – Title song received exposure on the TV Show

Beavis & Butthead

Cannibal Corpse

• Began in Buffalo New York • Most vividly violent, gory lyrics imaginable • Received their big break in 1994 by being

featured on the soundtrack for the film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Grindcore

• Guttural growls of death metal • Combined with speed of thrash • Add the energy of hardcore punk

Napalm Death

• British Band-headed the Grindcore Movement

• Had their own label: Earache • Distribution deal with Columbia Records • Charted with Utopia Banished• Followed by Fear, Emptiness & Despair • “Twist the Knife (Slowly)”, hit the top 10

in 1995, as part of the soundtrack to the movie Mortal Kombat

Industrial Revolution

• Industrial Music: wild buzz-saw abandon of thrash metal combined with harsh, dissonant vocals and electronic samples & synthesizers

• Roots in post punk pessimism that enveloped England

Nine Inch Nails

• Added thrashing heavy metal guitar • Made industrial music more accessible to

masses of disenchanted youth • “The Perfect Drug”

Grunge• Started in Seattle • Combined hardcore and metal • Bruce Pravitt – Started the Fanzine, Subterranean Pop – Hosted a show called Sub Pop U.S.A. – Later turned Sub Pop into a record label• Signed Nirvana

Sub Pop Fashion

• Created a downtrodden punk/metal fashion unique to the Northwest

• Bands dressed in faded flannel shirts or t-shirts, ripped jeans or baggy shorts, worn boots & tennis shoes

• Long hair under woolen caps

Big Screen Sub Pop

• By the end of 1990, Sub Pop created the image of Seattle as the site of an exciting, emerging music scene

• ABC – Twin Peaks – Flannel-clad coffee-drinking North westerners

• Northern Exposure – extolled the virtues of the Northwest

• Singles – Movie – About the punk/metal Seattle Scene

Nirvana

• Left Sub Pop • Signed with David Geffen’s DGC label • Became a national phenomenon • Nevermind – 1991 – Album went gold before MTV played “Smells Like

Teen Spirit” • Appeared on SNL and were featured in Rolling

Stone and Spin

Pearl Jam

• Followed Nirvana to the top of the charts • Ten – Waited 20 weeks to crack the top 20 – Topped the charts in the wake of Nirvana’s success

selling 12 million copies

Green Day

• Signed with Warner-Reprise • Dookie – Offered listeners lyrics of hopelessness behind

snappy, bright, 1990’s punk • “Welcome to Paradise” • “Burn Out” • “Basket Case”