Thursday, January 9, 1997
MUSIC:
Media-created ‘commercial’ bands will not prevail much
longer
Among the inevitable dire predictions of 1996’s passing is the
death of alternative and punk rock, an argument spearheaded by the
"disappointing" sales of Pearl Jam and R.E.M. and the proliferation
of feedback rip-off bands that have made their way to Star 98.7 FM
(FDA-approved for your dentist’s office).
Only politicians could spin a larger web of absurdities in one
sentence. The media erred not only in pronouncing alternative music
dead, but also in defining it in the first place.
R.E.M., Pearl Jam and any other multimillion dollar outfits do
not define or even belong in the alternative market. Many
alternative bands don’t even use guitars or have major label deals.
The media honed in on a few examples to define a diverse and
thriving music scene. And now they wonder why there’s no light at
the end of their tunnel vision.
However, they have gotten one thing right. Commercial
alternative and punk are on their death bead. Come complacent and
gorged with low-quality rip-off acts, they are drowning in their
own financial success  media creations poised to be slain by
the very hands that fed them. But maybe purging is exactly what is
necessary to make these genres the raw, vital force they were five,
10 and 20 years ago.
But something aside from the top-heavy alternative charts (who
thought up that oxymoron??) is amiss here. Those who are whining
about the "death" of alternative and punk are citing the bands’
failure to make the big bucks and conform to expectations. But
those are the very "failures" that defined punk and alternative
music in the first place.
Those who hold alternative bands to these standards have
completely forgotten the entire reason for the music’s existence.
These culprits are the radio stations that got big by playing
experimental bands like Ministry and Smashing Pumpkins, but now
play nothing but. Top 40 programming is banal and insulting,
whether the Top Five includes Mariah Carey or The Butthole
Surfers.
These are also the people that praised Courtney Love for
breaking the mold of what a "rock princess" should be, but now
condemn her for finding another direction that doesn’t fit the
Queen Bitch image bestowed upon her. Courtney Love in a respectable
dress may be a shock, but is not the apocalypse of punk.
People desperate enough to hook their IVs up to an icon or
movement hoping for some vicarious rebellion will always be
disappointed. The most hyped trends, "scenes" and celebrities fade,
and instilling them with extra meaning is not only futile, but also
insulting to the substance that first made them notable.
The media and the music industry cheapened alternative and punk
music by packaging it as a canned revolution. They did not count on
its stars refusing to cooperate with the roles they had forced upon
them, and they did not stop counting their pennies long enough to
realize that anything labeled "alternative" will probably not
enchant a mass audience for long.
Despite her talent, Ms. Love has surely sold more magazine
covers than albums. And despite their talent, many bands have gone
the way of MC Hammer because the media built up expectations of The
Next Big Thing in a Flannel that the bands couldn’t  and
didn’t want to  fulfill.
"Commercial alternative," easily defined as loud, angry guitar
music, was a construction born to collapse on itself. By
definition, alternative music is everything left in the bin after
you take out the definable. Once you package it and shove it down
the throats of 40 million consumers, it has become something
else.
So let their towers fall. "R.E.M. ain’t worth 80 million …
Eddie Vedder is a manipulative creep … Alternative and punk music
are nothing but guitar-ridden angst anthems." I’ll welcome all of
it. And while the music execs are coordinating the runway show of
the next season’s musical trends, I’ll be at Spaceland enjoying one
of 10,000 hype-free, KROQ-free, feedback-free, fantastic
alternative shows to come.