Tuesday, 6/24/97 Future of music remains unclear as popular
taste always changes COLUMN: Nobody can predict where the ‘next big
thing’ will be found
By Mike Prevatt Summer Bruin Senior Staff I was watching MTV (or
eMpTV as it’s been nicknamed). It wasn’t one of their themed time
slots, like "Yo MTV Raps!" They were just playing random videos,
anything that is popular with the kids these days. You know …
Hanson, Notorious B.I.G., Spice Girls, the Wallflowers, Prodigy.
I’m trying to figure out, listening to all these different acts,
where music is going. Most people don’t dwell on this, they just
switch back and forth between MTV and VH-1. But I’m here, confused
as to where music will end up at the end of this century. Didn’t
Newsweek say it would all be electronic dance? Music is a mess
these days. The retro-rockers are being played right alongside
hyperactive electronic musicians. Gangster rap is losing its edge,
bubble-gum pop is back big time and despite reports that grunge is
dead, people are still into Gavin Ross, I mean Bush. Ska is in;
folk is out. U2 goes kitsch, embarks on one of the most successful
tours of all time and is criticized in the media for heading
towards flop-dom. Then there’s Michael Jackson who can’t get anyone
to buy his music in America, but he’s still the (self-proclaimed)
pop messiah in Europe. Music is in a state of flux. It doesn’t know
what it wants to be or where it wants to go. Maybe it doesn’t want
to know, because it’s so happy being spontaneous and trashy. It’s
headed towards the new millennium with the Smashing Pumpkins and
Prodigy, and it’s looking back with Blues Traveler and Kula Shaker.
It’s looking back really far with Squirrel Nut Zippers and Big Bad
Voodoo Daddy (we have Vince Vaughn to thank for that … he’s so
money). And it’s really not looking anywhere in some areas, mainly
where Beck is at and where all 243 members of Wu Tang Clan are. The
Gen X movement laid the plans out – just borrow from the ’70s.
Rappers got all those different squeals, beats and blips from
George Clinton. R&B did likewise. Alternative rock looked to
Neil Young and other ’70s hard rock bands. Pop was trampled in the
mosh pit and caught in the crossfire (except for Mariah Carey,
whose voice drove our dogs insane). For all of us who were there,
it was nice. Or maybe just safe. Now I don’t know what to expect
next. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s fun. I’m still playing Tori
Amos’ techno songs (?!) over and over again. But music these days
has no sure bets. All you need is a hit single, and you’re set.
Forget the great album. R.E.M., Pearl Jam, U2 and Prince have tried
that already and they’ve been flogged countlessly by a medium
looking for quadruple-platinum sales. It’s never the fault of the
annoyingly fickle music listener. Oh, how they need their radio
songs! In the grunge era, that wasn’t necessary. At the sheer
announcement of a Pearl Jam album release, 900,000 fans would raid
stores on the first day. And this was without a big single. During
this time, rap relied on a catchy single to entice buyers to the
stores. Rap took off at "Nuthin’ But a G-Thang" (kind of the
"Stairway to Heaven" of rap) and made Dr. Dre the king of rap. It
also made stars of Snoop Doggy Dog and Arrested Development
(remember them? They lived in Tennessee or something). Now, it’s
the rap artists who can sell half a million copies on the first day
without a major hit single and the rock stars relying on one single
that will drive sales upward. Look at the Wallflowers’ "One
Headlight," easily the biggest rock song of the year (No Doubt’s
"Don’t Speak" is just way too pop for that honor). Now they’re Top
10 artists and have been for like four months. They weren’t selling
much of anything with their first single, "Sixth Avenue Heartache."
What about dance music? It’s only "big" because of the media and
MTV. Journalists have finally recognized the talents of DJs and
techno/electronic artists like Underworld and Chemical Brothers
thanks to the England’s rave scene. Within a second, MTV wanted to
be the starter of this new "musical revolution." They announced
that they were cutting back on alterna-rock in favor for more dance
music. Hence the countless Prodigy and Jamiroquai videos. Radio
followed. Now we can’t escape Keith Flynt’s (Prodigy) wannabe
Johnny Rotten act (shit, that was pompously journalistic of me). I
(personally) have problems with this late ’80s/early ’90s
rejuvenation. The New Kids on the Block are back and have taken the
form of five obnoxious British women. The Spice Girls have traveled
beyond England (where many New Kids imitators sell lots of records
to people who think Oasis is too loud and hard for them) to
perpetrate our music world. I find it ironic that everyone, myself
included, talks so much smack about them. Yet people, unlike
myself, are buying more of their albums than anyone else (even No
Doubt, U2 and Snoop Dog). When in doubt, blame junior high girls.
They’re even sick of Alanis and Gwen. This was going somewhere, but
there have been detours and obstacles…and that’s my point. No
matter how hard the ass-puckered record execs search for the Next
Big Thing, no one can predict who will be big cause exceptions are
the rule. Random bands with the hook from the gods are calling the
shots. They will throw the whole flow of music and "current sound"
for a loop. No style of music will prevail. Sure, there will always
be standouts from each genre, but no single style of music is going
to dominate (especially the personality-less "electronica"
movement). Rap will probably veer away from the hardcore violent
explicitness of "gangsta" rap, with the unfortunate murders of
Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. Because of current trends more
alterna-rock groups will throw in the synthesizers and beats.
Country music will always be the same. It hasn’t really changed in
years and it still sells a shitload of records (you can’t fool
middle America). Swing is a fad that will die as soon as "Swingers
2" with Jonathon Taylor Thomas is put in production (They haven’t
actually proposed a sequel, thank God). Huge rock groups that have
failed to meet media hype will give the whole establishment the
finger, as they did in the ’60s, and do their own thing until the
sugar pop fizzles out (unless, in the case of the Rolling Stones
and Aerosmith, they die first). That much I can predict. But I
shall not be surprised if the opposite happens, because music’s
evolution is unpredictable. We need another Beatles, and I don’t
mean Oasis, God bless their little hearts. We need some act to
shake things up, make everyone’s hair stand on end and set a
precedent. The fusion of dance and rock, or rap and funk, seems to
represent the most innovative sounds out there, but can the
inventiveness move into the mainstream? Will the musician evolve
into the computer dork, or will we see bell-bottomed flower
children strum their acoustic guitars, for the next 30 years? Maybe
the former, maybe the latter, maybe all of the above. Nobody knows,
not even music-obsessive me, who can name most of the groups in the
Billboard Top 200 for this week. But that’s the cool thing about
music. We live in a rock ‘n’ roll culture. Even the rap/hip-hop
scene enjoys the sex, drugs, danger and hedonism of rock, whether
they like to admit it or not. Rock ‘n’ roll is supposed to be
unpredictable and map-less. Some things will never change. But as
far as the direction of popular music goes, it thrives on
randomness and chaos. It spins in revolution, it spirals and it
turns, as U2’s Bono once said in a song. But what does he know?
After all, he can’t even sell 10 million records anymore. The media
has told us to think this and assume that. We are so bombarded by
them, we tend to take up their beliefs. Without sounding
hypocritical, given my platform, I recommend that you don’t concern
yourself with labels, expectations, and hype. You’ll find your
music niche if you haven’t already. After all, it’s the passion and
appeal of music that matters, not its direction and success rate.
You won’t find that passion in the fortune tellers of the music
business. You’ll find it with open ears and an open mind. Mike
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