![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glitter_n_goreThis is probably a good time to mention, while I am focusing on the 90s for the next couple of posts, this is not a strictly linear retrospective. I haven't forgotten Dio, I haven't forgotten Iron Maiden. There's a method to my madness, so bear with me.
In the hazy space between Hair Metal and Grunge, a LOT of different sub-genres, fusions, and crossovers were taking shape to create the general atmosphere we call "Alternative." Hip-Hop fused with rock to become Funk (Red Hot Chili Peppers, 2 Skinnee J's, Rage Against the Machine), old-fashioned brass band swing music mixed with punk turned into Ska (Save Ferris, 311, early No Doubt), and Metal dropped the soaring, intricate melodies of its signature guitar solos in favor of heavy, chugging rhythms and distorted guitar tones.
That, more or less, is Thrash Metal. Everything's loud and droney, with some really interesting melodies and less adherence to the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus song structure. Metallica is one of the best examples of this, although they also brought in some classical influences to create a more complex overall style. Put a pin in that idea though, because I'm coming back to it later.
Industrial is what happened when Thrash blended with Shock Rock and Goth, layering in sounds with a darker tone on those synths I love so much. This music had a beat you could dance to and a grim, sometimes nihilistic vibe that recalled the horror movie influences that first showed up in the 60s. Only this time, the demons were personal or sociopolitical, not fictional . . . some of the time. Everything's filtered through a dystopian, cyber-punk lens. Unlike Alice Cooper singing about Universal movie monsters, or Mötley Crüe posing as biker gang vampires, the message behind Industrial bands seemed to be: "We have seen the future, and it's bleak and terrifying."
There are reasons this stuff still resonates. Fright makeup is still common, but it's very different from the more cartoonish, playful look we'd seen before. Not for nothing, this is the era I grew up in, and finally includes bands I got to see live. I am HOME.
Warning: These videos are no longer Safe For Work. No nudity or violence, but uncensored swear words. FYI.
Beginning with the obvious: Nine Inch Nails is one of my favorite artists of all time. I was obsessed with the video for "Closer" in high school, even though it scared me, and spent hours trying to work out why it affected me so intensely. I played the ditzy fangirl for awhile, pretending I was only in the fandom because I thought Trent Reznor was hot--true, but not the whole truth--before admitting I had my own personal demons to slay and the music was helping me work through that in ways I did not know I needed. I cannot overstate how much Reznor's music means to me. How could I possibly boil down everything I love about him to one video?
I tried.
I saw Nine Inch Nails in concert once, on the "Beside You In Time" tour in 2006. It was every bit as spectacular as I'd imagined. I went dressed as Delirium from The Sandman comics. Because as you may have noticed, the penchant for costumery extends beyond the bands themselves. Many of the weird kids at the shows loved dressing up, me included.
When I first started putting this particular list together, it was hard to get away from Trent Reznor. He has worked with so many people who joined other bands or had successful solo careers. I had to really dig to find someone without at least three degrees of separation from him. That's how influential he was to this genre.
This guy, for example, began his career as a NIN fanboy, and got a record deal thanks to Reznor himself sticking up for him.
A quick word on "shock rock" because I think that term is wildly misunderstood: putting shock value into performances, deliberately toeing the line of what censors will allow while still getting airplay, dressing in costumes and makeup specifically designed to upset and bewilder a certain type of listener--this is all part of that Art vs Artifice thing I was talking about in the Glam era. IMO, this flavor of shock rock is just a darker extension of Glam. There has to be something of substance there once the shock wears off. It's a weeding out process.
Marilyn Manson, when he's not making dark, gritty covers of 80s pop songs or defiantly flouting gender norms, often has valuable things to say about consumerism, our culture of violence, and more on the darker side of Americana. Out of all the artists on this list, Manson most resembles the Goth kids I actually hung out with in the 90s. They are rarely as scary or standoffish as you think.
On the other end of the spectrum:
Stabbing Westward--briefly The Dreaming in the late 2000s--is another one of my all-time favorite bands. Almost all of Christopher Hall's songs are about failed relationships, and his lyrics aren't complicated, but they are achingly raw. Even before I became a dedicated fan, the line "I can feel your heartbeat through my skin" took root in my brain. The lineup has changed somewhat over the years, but when you need an angsty, melodramatic jam about lost love, this is where you go.
It doesn't hurt that they were the last band an ex-boyfriend and I saw together, so listening to their catalog after getting my heart broken for the first time changed my perspective a lot. I met them after that show, and Chris spelled my name right on the first try when I asked him to sign my CD. We were at the very front of the stage, and he leaned over and looked straight into my eyes on the "searching for an angel" line in "Save Yourself," and I *swooooned.* I know I've told that story before, but it was a good night. Latent breakup aside.
Now, I mentioned earlier that this era had a lot of unconventional song structures, focusing more on creating art that was unique and memorable than on getting radio airplay. Let's talk about Tool:
Fun fact: This video was directed by acclaimed stop motion filmmakers The Brothers Quay, and in fact nearly all of Tool's videos are stop motion animation.
Maynard James Keenan has one of those instantly recognizable voices, along with an instantly recognizable style. When you hear a Tool song, you know it's a Tool song by the first note. (Unless it's A Perfect Circle, also fronted by Keenan, which can get confusing, but never mind that right now.) Keenan is a poet, startlingly original, and indicative of the amount of creativity pouring out of this time period. Tool's songs and videos evoke an elegant kind of terror, again with personal demons, that reminds me more of dark, high-concept short films than rock 'n roll.
In fact, many of the artists in this category lean just as hard on the visual storytelling of music videos as they do on album artwork and live performances. The technology available in the 90s, and the golden age of MTV, made music videos more important than they had ever been before. And these guys really knew how to take advantage of the medium. If you take nothing else from this retrospective, I want you to understand that this is an art form. Not just that, but it's art with a lot more variety than you might be aware of.
Now, so you don't leave this section thinking it's all gloom and doom all the time:
Rob Zombie seems a lot darker and scarier until you actually *see* him. At least that's how it is for me. This garishly colorful acid-washed Halloween anthem is just fun. To be fair, not all of his songs are like this, and I'm not familiar enough with his previous band, White Zombie, to draw comparisons in any direction. But he's closer to that "cartoonish and playful" vibe of Alice Cooper than many of his contemporaries.
Zombie's love for the macabre extends far beyond music. Although I stand by the idea that music videos are legitimate short films in their own right, Zombie went a step further to become a respected filmmaker in the horror community, giving us The Devil's Rejects, House of 1000 Corpses, and Lords of Salem on top of his musical undertakings. He may not be my favorite director personally, but my point is he knows his audience.
This wasn't the only sub-genre of Metal to come out of the 90s, however. There is more. (Much more.)
(Cross-posted torhoda_rants.)
In the hazy space between Hair Metal and Grunge, a LOT of different sub-genres, fusions, and crossovers were taking shape to create the general atmosphere we call "Alternative." Hip-Hop fused with rock to become Funk (Red Hot Chili Peppers, 2 Skinnee J's, Rage Against the Machine), old-fashioned brass band swing music mixed with punk turned into Ska (Save Ferris, 311, early No Doubt), and Metal dropped the soaring, intricate melodies of its signature guitar solos in favor of heavy, chugging rhythms and distorted guitar tones.
That, more or less, is Thrash Metal. Everything's loud and droney, with some really interesting melodies and less adherence to the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus song structure. Metallica is one of the best examples of this, although they also brought in some classical influences to create a more complex overall style. Put a pin in that idea though, because I'm coming back to it later.
Industrial is what happened when Thrash blended with Shock Rock and Goth, layering in sounds with a darker tone on those synths I love so much. This music had a beat you could dance to and a grim, sometimes nihilistic vibe that recalled the horror movie influences that first showed up in the 60s. Only this time, the demons were personal or sociopolitical, not fictional . . . some of the time. Everything's filtered through a dystopian, cyber-punk lens. Unlike Alice Cooper singing about Universal movie monsters, or Mötley Crüe posing as biker gang vampires, the message behind Industrial bands seemed to be: "We have seen the future, and it's bleak and terrifying."
There are reasons this stuff still resonates. Fright makeup is still common, but it's very different from the more cartoonish, playful look we'd seen before. Not for nothing, this is the era I grew up in, and finally includes bands I got to see live. I am HOME.
Warning: These videos are no longer Safe For Work. No nudity or violence, but uncensored swear words. FYI.
Beginning with the obvious: Nine Inch Nails is one of my favorite artists of all time. I was obsessed with the video for "Closer" in high school, even though it scared me, and spent hours trying to work out why it affected me so intensely. I played the ditzy fangirl for awhile, pretending I was only in the fandom because I thought Trent Reznor was hot--true, but not the whole truth--before admitting I had my own personal demons to slay and the music was helping me work through that in ways I did not know I needed. I cannot overstate how much Reznor's music means to me. How could I possibly boil down everything I love about him to one video?
I tried.
I saw Nine Inch Nails in concert once, on the "Beside You In Time" tour in 2006. It was every bit as spectacular as I'd imagined. I went dressed as Delirium from The Sandman comics. Because as you may have noticed, the penchant for costumery extends beyond the bands themselves. Many of the weird kids at the shows loved dressing up, me included.
When I first started putting this particular list together, it was hard to get away from Trent Reznor. He has worked with so many people who joined other bands or had successful solo careers. I had to really dig to find someone without at least three degrees of separation from him. That's how influential he was to this genre.
This guy, for example, began his career as a NIN fanboy, and got a record deal thanks to Reznor himself sticking up for him.
A quick word on "shock rock" because I think that term is wildly misunderstood: putting shock value into performances, deliberately toeing the line of what censors will allow while still getting airplay, dressing in costumes and makeup specifically designed to upset and bewilder a certain type of listener--this is all part of that Art vs Artifice thing I was talking about in the Glam era. IMO, this flavor of shock rock is just a darker extension of Glam. There has to be something of substance there once the shock wears off. It's a weeding out process.
Marilyn Manson, when he's not making dark, gritty covers of 80s pop songs or defiantly flouting gender norms, often has valuable things to say about consumerism, our culture of violence, and more on the darker side of Americana. Out of all the artists on this list, Manson most resembles the Goth kids I actually hung out with in the 90s. They are rarely as scary or standoffish as you think.
On the other end of the spectrum:
Stabbing Westward--briefly The Dreaming in the late 2000s--is another one of my all-time favorite bands. Almost all of Christopher Hall's songs are about failed relationships, and his lyrics aren't complicated, but they are achingly raw. Even before I became a dedicated fan, the line "I can feel your heartbeat through my skin" took root in my brain. The lineup has changed somewhat over the years, but when you need an angsty, melodramatic jam about lost love, this is where you go.
It doesn't hurt that they were the last band an ex-boyfriend and I saw together, so listening to their catalog after getting my heart broken for the first time changed my perspective a lot. I met them after that show, and Chris spelled my name right on the first try when I asked him to sign my CD. We were at the very front of the stage, and he leaned over and looked straight into my eyes on the "searching for an angel" line in "Save Yourself," and I *swooooned.* I know I've told that story before, but it was a good night. Latent breakup aside.
Now, I mentioned earlier that this era had a lot of unconventional song structures, focusing more on creating art that was unique and memorable than on getting radio airplay. Let's talk about Tool:
Fun fact: This video was directed by acclaimed stop motion filmmakers The Brothers Quay, and in fact nearly all of Tool's videos are stop motion animation.
Maynard James Keenan has one of those instantly recognizable voices, along with an instantly recognizable style. When you hear a Tool song, you know it's a Tool song by the first note. (Unless it's A Perfect Circle, also fronted by Keenan, which can get confusing, but never mind that right now.) Keenan is a poet, startlingly original, and indicative of the amount of creativity pouring out of this time period. Tool's songs and videos evoke an elegant kind of terror, again with personal demons, that reminds me more of dark, high-concept short films than rock 'n roll.
In fact, many of the artists in this category lean just as hard on the visual storytelling of music videos as they do on album artwork and live performances. The technology available in the 90s, and the golden age of MTV, made music videos more important than they had ever been before. And these guys really knew how to take advantage of the medium. If you take nothing else from this retrospective, I want you to understand that this is an art form. Not just that, but it's art with a lot more variety than you might be aware of.
Now, so you don't leave this section thinking it's all gloom and doom all the time:
Rob Zombie seems a lot darker and scarier until you actually *see* him. At least that's how it is for me. This garishly colorful acid-washed Halloween anthem is just fun. To be fair, not all of his songs are like this, and I'm not familiar enough with his previous band, White Zombie, to draw comparisons in any direction. But he's closer to that "cartoonish and playful" vibe of Alice Cooper than many of his contemporaries.
Zombie's love for the macabre extends far beyond music. Although I stand by the idea that music videos are legitimate short films in their own right, Zombie went a step further to become a respected filmmaker in the horror community, giving us The Devil's Rejects, House of 1000 Corpses, and Lords of Salem on top of his musical undertakings. He may not be my favorite director personally, but my point is he knows his audience.
This wasn't the only sub-genre of Metal to come out of the 90s, however. There is more. (Much more.)
(Cross-posted to
rhoda_rants.)