PEARL JAM

[Cultseeker]

But wouldn't pretty much anyone say that about their music/latest album?

Television, advertising and sport has never been any different. The media has never been full of alternative thinking, and with that the accompanying music etc. It's plain wrong to suggest otherwise because it is based on mass appeal - always has been, always will be.

Good music, good films, even good television, is always there to be found.

[funkymunkey]

It's really simple.

We have a thing called culture. That thing changes through time and space. To put it in basic terms, the arts reflect that culture more than anything else within it. I do not believe this culture to be very condusive to that art. I feel the reason for this is that reactionary art, that would have critiqued and generally opposed maistream culture, has lost its voice as it has been sold out and given an emasculated and compromised platform from which to speak.

[pogal]

It's really simple.

We have a thing called culture. That thing changes through time and space. To put it in basic terms, the arts reflect that culture more than anything else within it. I do not believe this culture to be very condusive to that art. I feel the reason for this is that reactionary art, that would have critiqued and generally opposed maistream culture, has lost its voice as it has been sold out and given an emasculated and compromised platform from which to speak.

[Cultseeker]

But it then bubbles under the surface, becoming even more creative than it was before as it is free from commercial constraints, untill one band marries the two.

[pogal]

Hopefully mate, hopefully. And hopefully not one band either, hopefully a cult of bands. The last time this happened was of course grunge, which again brings this full circle and as to why Pearl Jam are such a significant head-liner.

[funkymunkey]

Hopefully mate, hopefully. And hopefully not one band either, hopefully a cult of bands. The last time this happened was of course grunge, which again brings this full circle and as to why Pearl Jam are such a significant head-liner.

[Pope Nora XXVI]

What about Britpop? Wasn't that exactly the same kind of thing? Lots of bands doing the same kind of thing emerge onto the mainstream?

[funkymunkey]

What about Britpop? Wasn't that exactly the same kind of thing? Lots of bands doing the same kind of thing emerge onto the mainstream?

[Pope Nora XXVI]

And nu-metal. Before you start on that being shite think Fear Factory, Hep PE, SOAD, BoyHitsCar, KoRn etc. rather than Limp Bizkit and Papa Roach.

Edited August 9, 2006 by Pope Nora XXVI

[pogal]

Both Britpop and the whole new garage thing (c. 2001) produced more worthwhile bands than grunge, in my opinion.

[funkymunkey]

I can't agree either but you still make me laugh! See...

Good point about the nu-metal thing too - Fear Factory were a quality band in their day. People like Helmet, Biohazard, even Dog Eat Dog also pulled hardcore back at one stage too in the mid-nineties. Lots of quality (and not so quality) bands there.

[pogal]

You've also got emo in its many guises-Sunny Day Real Estate, through Jimmy Eat World, through Taking Back Sunday, through Coheed and Cambria, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Mars Volta.

[Cultseeker]

What about Britpop? Wasn't that exactly the same kind of thing? Lots of bands doing the same kind of thing emerge onto the mainstream?

Believe me, I really don't know..!

[Pope Nora XXVI]

Talentless and contrived by the industry, nonetheless.

Edited August 9, 2006 by Pope Nora XXVI

[Cultseeker]

Please be more specific. How are bands like Blur, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pulp and the White Stripes "talentless" and "contrived by the industry"? (And before you say it, the White Stripes were "contrived", in a good way, by Jack White if anyone. And that little "no recording equipment before 1979" chestnut isn't true.)

[pogal]

Then he lies.

As to talentless, read my sig for the answer.

[deutsche Harru]

You've also got emo in its many guises-Sunny Day Real Estate, through Jimmy Eat World, through Taking Back Sunday, through Coheed and Cambria, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Mars Volta.

[funkymunkey]

Replace the Mars Volta with Rival Schools - no way are 16 minute guitar-solo filled concept-albums emo

[Cultseeker]

Replace the Mars Volta with Rival Schools - no way are 16 minute guitar-solo filled concept-albums emo

[pinback]

Then he lies.

As to talentless, read my sig for the answer.

[Cultseeker]

Sorry to carry on with the Placebo thing (it's just for an example), but I wouldn't say they 'hit a target noone else can hit' - quite the opposite infact. Does this mean they have no talent? And if so, does this mean that you like a band that doesnt have any talent, and do you like other bands whom you don't think have any talent either (e.g. Blur, Pulp)?

[funkymunkey]

Lost you mate.

I love talent. I love genius. I don't find any of that in the bands mentioned. However, talent and genius aren't the only things worthy of merit. There is interesting, intruiging, charasmatic etc.

In basic terms, Blur, Pulp and the White Stripes have singers who cannot sing.

[moss265]

In basic terms, Blur, Pulp and the White Stripes have singers who cannot sing.

[Cultseeker]

But neither can Molko, and either you or Olivavu (I think secretly you're the same person) said that it was ok because it suited the music, just as Coxon and Albarns' voices suit theirs.

Edited August 9, 2006 by Cultseeker

[PaulJam]

Someone mentioned The White Stripes. I much prefer Pearl Jam's music on record, for example (I own all Pearl Jam's albums and only Elephant by the stripes)...

But I saw them last year at Glastonbury and that performance single handedly gave me hope for music and how particularly powerful a medium live music is. Jack played like a jazz musician. Totally spontaneous, absolutely 100% in the moment and I felt like anything could happen. It was spine tingling. I've never felt so alive as I did during that performance.

After the festival people were talking about how good Coldplay were and no one talked about The White Stripes. That made me very sad, but not for long. I'd been transformed.

Brit Pop or Grunge? Hard to say. Both important, I love both movements. Maybe Britpop for me, because there's only so long you can listen to someone moan about how depressing their life is. There's a place for both...and the likes of Definitely Maybe and Different Class (I love Pulp, what a great band) sit proudly alongside Jar of Flies and Vitalogy on my shelf.

One final point on grunge. American music was changed for the better by the 80's hardcore bands, topped off when Nevermind dislodged Michael Jackson at the top of the charts. By the time Pearl Jam came along the work had already been done.