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”