just finished reading Scott Plagenhoef’s great article about the dilemma of modern rock music and even though I agreed with most of his points, I have two issues with his article: Firstly, I agree that contemporary pop and hip-hop is more sonically (and melodically) pleasing than contemporary rock music, but I don’t think it’s as fresh sounding and innovative as he suggests; I know many music critics—Stylus critics included—think the Neptunes’ production-work is praise-worthy, but much of it is so derivative of what Michael and Janet Jackson were putting out in the early 1990s; has everyone forgotten what the Dangerous and Janet albums sounded like? Today’s top-40 pop/hip-hop/r&b practices just as much recycling as today’s rock music. Hell, we’re at a point now where mainstream hip-hop songs are built on samples of samples of samples; it’s recycling at its laziest form. And if modern rock music is stuck in tired and lackluster angst posturing (which it surely is), most hip-hop has become nothing but the superficial blackface on blackfaces that Spike Lee satirized in Bamboozled and pop music—or more specifically bubblegum, for it’s all popular music—doesn’t even attempt to be moderately clever in its lyrics and themes. Yes, pop-music should be fun, catchy and danceable, but that doesn’t mean it also can’t be witty or even poignant. Would Britney Spears—like Madonna before her—ever dare to perform a ditty about abortion? Would Justin Timberlake—like Michael Jackson before him—ever dare to sing a song about a deranged fan that claims he fathered her child? Like neo-punk takes only the fashion and sound of 1970s punk, neo-pop takes only the fashion, dance-moves and sounds of 1980s pop. Aside from Jacko and Janet, the Neptunes also bite pretty heavy from Prince, but that’s all they are: proficient scavengers of good hooks and beats. Well, not only did an artist like Prince come up with those good hooks and beats first (and by himself) he also enriched them with a personal edge; i.e. substance. “When Doves Cry”, which poetically dealt with the cycle of dysfunction in human relationships, sounds almost avant-garde by today’s standards and yet it was a number one hit in its day.


Right now, the music industry is like the two-headed oligarchy labeled Republican/Democrat: We have the MTV artists and the MTV2 artists; and short of a few superficial differences (instrumentation, style, attitude); they’re both created by a corporate monster in order to appease two general groups: People who like what’s labeled mainstream and those who like what’s labeled non-mainstream. My second issue with Scott Plagenhoef’s article is the following crumb: Why does rock need any help? Fuck rock. It doesn’t need to be reworked, reinvented, or any other kind of re-surgery; it simply needs to take its proper place in history and remain there. It’s a dead form of music and we’ve been witnessing its embarrassing wake for nearly a decade now. The Sex-Pistols’ proclaimed goal was to kill rock n’ roll, not save it. And in 1991—the year punk broke—Nirvana accomplished what the Pistols failed to do: Cobain’s emotive wails and self-destructive pursuits were those of a man who knew rock music had reached its limits. Rock & roll didn’t save Cobain’s life as it had a young John Lennon’s; it was merely the easiest way Cobain knew how to express his frustrations and exhibit his melodic gifts. Perhaps that’s why it never provided him with the equilibrium he so obviously needed; Cobain lamented in his later interviews that he didn’t have the courage to transcend rock music. But because rock music is a proven commodity, the monster will keep trying to push it on the kids…even when they really don’t want it anymore.


This brings me to this year’s MTV video-awards and its sub-feature: the MTV2 bands. That’s what they actually called them: the MTV2 bands! They even were nominated in their own category for best MTV2 video! And the MTV2 bands that performed back-to-back were: the Hives and the Vines. Just to show everyone how true to the rock spirit they were, the Vines’ front man even destroyed his equipment a little bit. This wasn’t Krist Novoselic’s bass smacking down on the clumsy bassist’s head at the 1992 MTV’s video-awards; oh no, the Vines’ mayhem resulted in no injuries and was seemingly choreographed. The whole garage-revival couldn’t be more calculated, yet mainstream publications like Rolling Stone praise these bands as if they’re actual artists, which are contributing to the music scene in some fashion. Why is it, that rock fans and the rock press can only imagine performers of danceable music to be tools? Like the fact that some punk can strum a few chords on a very easy to play instrument, grants the punk some legitimacy? Like a producer/manager can’t tell some lunkhead with a guitar what to do more than a male model with a few singing-lessons? Look at these garage bands: they all sound pretty much alike; they all have nearly identical names and yet…they’re from all over the freakin’ globe! In addition, they all popped up at the same exact time and were pushed heavily by the mainstream press and Viacom. If the above nuggets don’t scream pre-fab, I don’t know what does. Strangely enough, the only time on this year’s MTV video-awards in which it felt like something real was transpiring was when Eminem was freaked out by that dog puppet…and of course, MTV had to cut away from the incident and subsequently edit any traces of it from the program. It kind of reminded me of when the U.S. government intentionally misinterpreted that Bin Laden tape as to cover up any mention of Saudi Arabia. The music-industry has been a heartless corporation for many years, but what’s most dispiriting is that it now acts like a defensive branch of the government, which only makes it harder for a genuine music revolution to occur. Thus far, the 21st Century has been all lame ducks when it comes to music: popular as well as underground.


I don’t like having to go to the past for good music—I believe in living in the moment and looking to the future—but God help me: the best album I purchased this year was the Beach Boys’ 1968 album: Friends. I did like Madonna’s “Die Another Day” single, but it would be nice for the new guard to pull its creative weight a little bit. Our culture is in the midst of a cultural shit-storm—exploitation, globalization, destruction—you’d think it would inspire some good songs, maybe even a new form of music. Does it really end with disco and rap?