The Revolution is Coming….and it will be Gooo-oood

So the 2010 VMA’s were on last night…I just….So.…hmmm…I just don’t know where to start. Okay, let me start this way. Music goes in cycles, at least popular American music does. It has from the beginning (the 1950s). At one end of the spectrum, you have the poppy, bubbly, fun, love-crush-infatuation-heartbreak, sweet, party music. And at the other end, you have its antithesis: angsty, angry, depressed, rage-fueled, nihilistic, searching for meaning, dealing-with-real-life, social, expositional, stripped down to basics music.

Neither is better than the other. There’s nothing wrong with happy, in love, fun songs. Who doesn’t want those things? Who doesn’t want to feel good? And there’s nothing wrong with brutally honest expression of emotional pain and desire for change, for someone standing up and saying, “You know what? Things aren’t that great right now!” And so the popular styles consistently swing back and forth. Fun love pop of the late 50’s and early 60’s (Bobby Darrin, The Four Seasons, Ricky Valenz, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones) gives way to socially conscious, hippy (and later) psychedelic music (Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, The Beatles and Stones (again), Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, The Doors). And then the pendulum swings again, so you have the feel good Carpenters, Bread, lite Rock, Abba, the increasingly hedonistic Disco, teen heart throbs Donny Osmond, Shannon Cassidy, Leif Garrett, and so on. But during this time, the gritty, heartfelt singer-songwriter tradition is gaining ground (Cat Stevens, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Carol King, James Taylor), concurrently with an increasingly popular Punk rock (The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Iggy and the Stooges, early Police) and Heavy Metal (Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden). Over time, “Death to Disco” and “Disco Sucks” movements gain more and more ground, until July 12, 1979, “the day disco dies”, a full on anti-disco demonstration in Chicago where people destroy all their disco music LPs and 8-tracks and a riot ensues (guess people were really mad, heh.)

Of course, there’s always an overlap (and those who defy or cross genres), but I’m talking overall trends and popularity on a large national scale here. And Mo-Town and R&B stay somewhat consistent throughout (Though Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” is a socially relevant and beautiful song). But after a short period of Punk and Nu-wave, we start to swing back again, into the 80’s, the “me decade”. Memorable pop and rap music is made by Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince, hair metal bands, Journey, Toto, Cyndi Lauper, A-ha, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince, Tone Loc, Run DMC, New Kids on the Block, and Debbie Gibson and eventually, even a new disco sound emerges from people like Lisa Stansfield, Erasure, Dee-light and Whitney Houston (in her Bodyguard soundtrack).

It’s the same pattern: Back and forth, back and forth the pendulum swings. And so we come to 1992. At the height of the swing, a new kind of music gains momentum, a reaction to the sweet, bubbly, party (and proudly decadent) music of the 80’s and early 90’s. Grunge music, first out of Seattle, but sweeping the country (and other parts of the world) with it’s stripped down, angry, eye-opening music and lyrics by bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains, Nine-Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins. Rap, too, rips the covers off the life in the hood, with NWA, Cypress Hill, Ice-T, Tupac Shakur, Dr Dre, and Snoop Dogg.

But people can only maintain anger and depression and rage for so long before they just want a break and to feel good again. So it’s not too many years before pop makes its comeback, beginning with the boy and girl groups of the late-90’s (you know who they are). Pop continues to grow and expand, as other genres of music, like hip-hop, R&B, rap, and metal cross over and blend in collaborative works. Sean (Puffy, P. Diddy) Combs, Jay-Z, and Biggie lay the ground-work, and then others run with it, the mogul, the rap superstar. It’s the era of 50 Cent and bling-bling. Lil Wayne, Chamillionaire, Nas, and Cash Money. It’s the time of Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit and Korn- Rap rock. And while some artists and songs are about real things or dark emotions (Eminem, Korn), decadence, partying, and hedonism takes center stage. “Krunk” is coined as a word.

It is still continuing today. The pendulum as has been at this side of the swing for 13 years. Bands and artists like Korn, Green Day, Pink (in “M!zundastood”), Eminem and even 50 Cent have acted as bleeder valves, channeling some of the negative emotions, and helped disaffected youths to feel that music represented them. And perhaps 9-11 and the subsequent events since then (2 wars, 2 economic collapses) have made people desire to keep the pendulum on something that made them feel a bit better. (Friends experienced resurgence in popularity after 9-11 for that very reason- it was comforting and took peoples’ minds off of harsh realities.)

And so I return to the 2010 VMAs. And I note 2 things. One, we are in the Neo 80’s. Look around at clothing styles, colors, music influences. Popped collars. Izod shirts in pastels. Large belts and oversize shirts. Chunky jewelry.This makes sense. Most artists and performers today grew up in the late 80s and those influences are there. Gwen Stafani, Nelly Furtado, Maroon 5, and Justin Timberlake have all consciously tried to create a sound that hearkened back to early Madonna and Michael Jackson and other 80’s bands, all the while doing it in brilliant and new ways. But as with anything, this has come to dominate the landscape. 80’s techno dance music dominates music, right now. It took me a moment to realize that there was no rock music at this award show (30 Seconds to Mars doesn’t really count). No metal, no alternative, no R&B. Best Rap was mediocre at best (Eminem’s “Not Afraid” was just phoned in). The only artists (and performance) that got me excited was B.o.B and his collaborations with Bruno Mars (the beautiful “Nothin on you”) and Haley Williams (“Airplanes”). But other than that, the music seemed so…repetitive. I’m not going to say that Lady Gaga (as much as I don’t like her) isn’t brilliant. She’s actually quite talented, especially if you check out the stuff she did before she became Gaga and was still Stefani Germanotta. In many ways, she’s post-modern because she has become a parody of a pop-artist and has achieved meteoric success in that way. Her out-Madonna-ing Madonna, her use of fashion and over-the-top imagery has made a statement about what sells and what is popular in American culture. She is a walking commentary on the vapidness and easily-distracted nature of people (hence, the constant costume changes during the same awards show.) And, like any truly brilliant parody, the parody is actually very entertaining and well done (as in the movie “Spinal Tap” and the band “The Darkness”). And it culminated with the return of 80’s Cher- complete in her “If I could turn back time” non-outfit.

Second, the commercial and hedonistic nature of the show and many performers was just crass, even nauseating. Pharrell (say it ain’t so, man!) doing a concert in front of a number of Chevrolets cars (the sponsor), Sway pimping clips of (the execrable) “The Jersey Shore” on the red (white) carpet. The cast of “the Jersey Shore” treated as stars for being whorish and superficial and disgusting. Kesha in her garbage dress.

I’m not going to say things were better back when….I’m not that old. Rather, this is just a cycle, and we are at the apex of that cycle. And that’s what excites me. Because this pendulum has held us musically here for 13 years. It’s been a fun ride and there’s been some great stuff. But it’s time for change. You can’t keep doing the same thing, especially when reality is so harsh and people are suffering. Music often reflects the emotional mood of the people- and life isn’t one big party, it isn’t a bunch of girls planning their sweet 16 party costing $20,000 dollars, it isn’t a bunch of do-nothings hanging out turning orange and getting skin-cancer from all the tanning and smelling like grease. Life is a whole lot of things, but rather than reflect that, music has increasingly been focusing on just one or two aspects of it. This is the “me decade”, but even more so.

The back-lash is coming, my friends. Neo-Grunge, neo-alternative, neo-rage is coming. It’s gonna be awesome. Many will fall. A few will stand. (I have my ideas of who.) But it’s gonna rule. I can’t wait.