Mainstream Hip
You, Mr. & Ms. Moshpitter, have become the new norm
Today, life unquestionably imitates art. Or more accurately, it imitates advertising and music television. To walk city streets, is to feel like you’ve missed out on a casting session for a Lenny Kravitz video.
From Point Grey to Penticton, people are sporting tattoos, or a portion of themselves pierced. Indelible evidence that they are with the times, sympatico with free spirits like Geena Davis or Max Cady. Likely though some lucky doctor with a laser will get rich when this 90’s fad is over.
Perhaps you’ve noticed that local media are rushing to get ‘with it’ too. Take Vancouver’s “Good News Paper”, The Vancouver Courier, who’ve just interviewed the publisher of underground zine In Hell’s Belly; profiled the city’s alternative nightspots; and even did a restaurant review of Wally Burgers! The Courier is becoming more like (college radio rag) Discorder, but with Rafe Mair and Joy Metcalfe.
Even stodgy old rags like Vancouver Magazine and The Province are catering to their perceived hipper, younger audiences. Professional poet/survivor Evelyn Lau is excerpted this month in the former, and recently B.C.’s finest fearmongering tab posted this plea on the internet (that hippest of hangouts)…
“We’ve been asked to redesign The Province‘s daily Page A2. The boss wants a new, cool page that is exciting, engrossing, enriching and entertaining (not necessarily in that order). And the page must, above all, appeal to… twenty-somethings. We’d be most grateful for ideas.”
Radio is trying the hardest to revamp its image for this new age of hep. In case you mistook Z95 FM (aka Radio Steveston, BC) as the source for annoying chart toppers, they’re running an ad with a rubber skinned babe beating up a TV set. My suspicion is that she’s maxxed out her credit cards and the cable company has cut off her connection.
CFOX has tried to outrun its established image as Vancouver’s home of nü rock, by injecting a few so-called “Modern Rock” artists into its playlist, and boycotting Bon Jovi.
Modern Rock? It’s hard to keep up with the industry jargon. A few months back it was ‘alternative’, and hard to find outside of college radio. But advertisers as a rule like groovy young kids with pockets full of pesos earned at Starbuck’s. So you, Mr. and Miss Moshpitter, have become the new mainstream.
Yes, try as you might to be on the fringes, you still will be Always Coca-Cola, or one of those slender moppets in Calvin Klein jeans. Idealized youth, boney, bad & beautiful as your commercial counterparts.
Mainstream culture presents the illusion, not the reality of change. So it goes with Modern Rock. For example, if “Lightning Crashes” by U.S. Modern Rock band Live isn’t the anthem to replace “Freebird” by Old Rock’s Lynyrd Skynyrd, what is it?
Plus ça change, as the saying goes. I’m convinced we’re merely listening to yesterday’s retreads, but with updated hairstyles.
The Modern Rock Quiz
Match A Letter With A Number
To illustrate the point of this story, we’ve created a quiz. Can you connect the Modern Rock successes of the mid-90s to the pop sensations of 20 years earlier? If you are at all familiar with the pop music of these periods, the similarities may startle you. Note, the answer key is below, but don’t cheat if possible.
1. Place the letter of the corresponding 70’s artist beside the name of the Modern Rock artist. Example “1. G”
2. Challenge friends and brag about how smart you are.
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| Live 1. Stone Temple Pilots 2. Bush 3. Pearl Jam 4. Gin Blossoms 5. Elastica 6. Sarah McLachlan 7. White Zombie 8. Hole 9. Alanis Morrisette 10. Sponge 11. Rancid 12. Oasis 13. The Offspring 14. Better Than Ezra 15. Radiohead 16. Blind Lemon 17. Beck 18. Marilyn Manson 19. Counting Crowes 20. Nirvana 21. Toad the Wet Sprocket 22. Moist 23. Hootie & the Blowfish 24. |
Connect Left w/ Right |
A. Cher B. KC & the Sunshine Band C. Bay City Rollers D. Sugarloaf E. Bachman Turner Overdrive F. Kiss G. Lynyrd Skynyrd H. Terry Jacks I. Chilliwack J. Ten CC K. Cliff Richards L. Ray ‘The Streak’ Stevens M. April Wine N. Queen O. Starland Vocal Band P. Andy Kim Q. Bad Company R. Eagles (Pre-Hotel California) S. Eagles (Post-Hotel California) T. Suzy Quattro U. Peter Frampton V. Electric Light Orchestra W. Neil Sedaka X. Alice Cooper |
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Answers are: 1.G, 2.Q, 3.C, 4.S, 5.H, 6.T, 7.O, 8.E, 9.A, 10.M, 11.D, 12.F, 13.K 14.L, 15.R, 16.J, 17.W, 18.V, 19.X, 20.P, 21.N, 22.U, 23.I, 24.B |
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