EMO

The genre for today’s skinny-jean wearing bleak-tivist. To be honest the only thing I really know about emo at all is that emo people wear skinny jeans and are prone to self poking. As far as music…I’m pretty sure Death Cab for Cutie falls into this group. I think its because their name comes from a Beatles movie and emos LOVE the Beatles. Yes. That must be it

Indie

This genre is th one that confuses me most of all. I hear the term tossed around mostly to mean “music that nobody but me has heard of so I’m cooler than you”. I just listened to a never before released version of the Kool-Aid jingle. Does that make it Indie? Probably. The word itself creates problems in my brain. It comes, I’m assuming, from the word “independent” but there is nothing independent about the music. An indie film is one not produced by a studio, usually low budget, and watched mostly by “emos” (Ooooo…a cross genre pollination!). But indie music is produced in a studio by a record label. Maybe the band members “go commando” while recording. That would be independent. Ew.

Punk

My favorite genre because its so ambiguous. I was in the car the other day listening to “The Pixies” (awesomeness) and then turned on the radio and heard a Blink 182 song. Very different styles. Both “punk rock” indeed, but completely varying sides of the music coin. The Pixies, in my very uninformed opinion, were the original punkers. Since them no one has come close to capturing the true spirit of taking off your shirt, diving into crowd of wild kids, and being trampled to death. Pure Punk.

I’m sure people much smarter than me (it should be “I” but what the hell) could give all sorts of defining reasons each song and band falls into the category the record label or the listener gives it. But I just say: listen to what you like and let the genre worry about itself. Unless its county. Then we must all run. Run far far away. The end.

This is Pixies at their best. I was at this reunion concert in Palm Springs. So great.

It was the spring of ’98. I was a young lass of 14 on the cusp of discovering new uses for hormones and cleavage. Ninth grade was drawing to a close and with that a year of revelations on the subject of teenage liberation. I was looking for a place to channel what I define now as a new sense of “I don’t have to do what people in charge tell me to” frustration. At the head of that movement was Gavin Rossdale and his band Bush, my catalyst for self discovery and rebellion. They sang about life-a dark and confusing abyss and as a young girl trying to find my nitch, they were just what I needed.

Grunge Rock Grandness

Their music was edgy, well arranged, and, most of all, dark. It struck a chord in my young heart. I clung to 16 Stone like new flag to wave and listened to it on my walkman whenever I could. Their brilliance was cemented farther in my mind by my parents disapproval of the somewhat dismal and drug-laced lyrics. Bush lead the way in my musical repertoire for other bands like Tool and Silverchair to score my young rebellion. I now had a collection of anthems to serenade my wannabe teenage angst.

The Moral of the Story

So why the childhood ramblings? Well, as I listen to music written for this generation of youth, I shudder at what they have to choose from. Bush’s grunge rock fare can be criticized for many things but at least they had more than one chord progression and theme to their songs. Bands like Nickleback and Good Charlotte, groups probably considered the sound of the new generation, have little to offer in the realm of originality or even talent. They all sound the same, look the same, dress the same, and write lyrics that could have come from a cheap grocery store anniversary card.

I realize this argument could be made by anyone looking back. People in their mid-twenties probably hated Bush during their hay-day and longed for the time of Billy Idol and Oingo Boingo (I too wish we had the 80′s back-only for the music…not for the fashions). But I see new music deteriorating as song writers sell out for the modern pastiche of the popular music culture (Rihanna anyone?). Rarely am I impressed with a new main stream band- although indie rock does still continues to turn out pretty decent “nubes”.

Moral of the story: my youth rocked. Yours sucks. Sorry.

I close with these lyrics from “Machinehead”

Deaf dumb and thirty
Starting to deserve this
Leaning on my conscience wall
Blood is like wine
Unconscious all the time
If I had it all again
I’d change it all

Pure genius.