Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Welcome back, 1988!
This first post is about ringing in the new year (a bit late) and staying specific about 20 year retro cycles. Things have been looking a bit on the day glow side lately and misfired attempts at nu-rave have been creeping up since well over a year ago now. It marks a shift for my specific sub-generation of those born in the mid to late seventies, where sounds and scenes we participated in our younger years are beginning to make a turn around the wheel of cultural re-hash. While everyone has already been prematurely getting a hard on for grunge revival, I suggest we take a look at a time exactly twenty years ago. Even my 16 and 17 year old high school students are rocking "Appetite for Destruction" (while some of us never stopped). I was fortunate enough to be weened on the piercing, sexy/ist, pink leathered caterwaul of Axl and his druggy bar band at the ripe age of 11- my first cassette single was "Welcome to the Jungle" and shortly thereafter my first full length album on cassette- "Appetite".
This was the stuff blasting the minute mom left the house- exciting nightmares of a blown out sex and drug binge, basically my mom's worst fears after lovingly raising me in a sleepy, lovely suburb with a good school district. This road took a lot of unfortunate mascaraed turns- Faster Pussycat, Bang Tango, and L.A. Guns, anyone? But hair metal also proved to be the gateway drug to thrash and hardcore, and subsequently I settled comfortably into a diet of punk and pre-alternative modern rock by the time I hit high school. I will not bore you with my own personal path to good taste and instead take a look back at the charts of 1988. These will be club bangers on the dancefloor this year. The major tracks I can remember from my first junior high dance were Salt-n-Pepa's "Push It" and INXS "I Need you Tonight".
Both really awesome pop songs of their own right. Visually, the Ray-Bans, Vision Pyscho stick, striped sweaters, and black leather photomontage on white of INXS's "Kick" LP couldn't look a minute fresher in 2008. It couldn't sound it either with its sparse and crisp production, synthy beats and Michale Hutchin's breathy pauses.
The club breakbeats and street chick trash talk of "Push It" have been cool for awhile now-from Missy to Fannypack to M.I.A. to Kid Sister most recently. I can't really remember Rob Base's "It Takes Two" or M/A/R/R/S's "Pump Up the Volume" ever sounding that out-dated either. The party vibes of pop hip-hop were still rockin the floor and the airwaves. Even the cheesed out Van Halen riffs sampled on Ton Loc's "Wild Thing" seem ready on deck next to the heavy riffage on Brazillian electro- carioca group, Bondo do Role's 07 LP, "With Lazers". Of course, the first hip-hop that really grabbed my attention and had lasting impact on the development of my musical pursuits also debuted in 1988- two polarized, yet definitive anthems of the street- Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back" and NWA's "Straight Outta Compton", both released in '88.
Both were incendiary rants from different angles of the black urban plight. These two records defined in ways the later trajectories of east and west coast aesthetics- NWA began a first person account of Compton gang life, which undoubtedly followed through the Death Row Records catalog- Dre's "Chronic", Snoop, and 2Pac. Meanwhile Public Enemy examined the greater social injustices from their post in suburban Long Island inspiring the socially concerned Native Tongues posse of A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and Leaders of the New School. Sonically, these groups had a looser funkier sound than the paranoid bombast of P.E. and in this way I suppose that you can trace Public Enemy's stylistic influence in the grittier sounds to later come out of the lower boroughs like B.I.G. and the Wu-Tang Clan. I just picked up Boogie Down Production's "Stop the Violence" 12" and while their masterpiece "Criminally Minded" dropped in 87 (this record together with Erik B. and Rakim's "Paid in Full, '86 I consider two touchstones of the development of hip-hop from party jams to "CNN from the street"), it sounds mighty fresh with its dancehall reggae cadences and lasting influence on Blackstar's '98 classic "Definition", which contemplates the violence of the East/West Coast rivalry.
Meanwhile back on the dancefloor, House was in full effect in underground clubs in Chicago rockin to a sound of primitive 808 driven beats produced in southside bedrooms with maybe an older sister lending her gospel- trained voice to the track. This music is classic- for any electronic and dance music geeks, this stuff is absolutely essential to the development of all the dance music to succeed it for better or for worse. Squelchy 303 driven acid house was the groundwork for techno and the early nineties electronica movements, tracks like Phuture's "Acid Jacks" and Armando's "Downfall" have influenced beatmakers for more than a decade- "Rollin and Scratchin" off Daft Punk's '97 debut "Homework" is a prime example of acid house's legacy.
Technically, the height of the American rave era was 1992, so hold onto your glowsticks for a few more years, people. The house scene definitely predetermined rave with its tolerant multi-racial, polysexual scene and seminal club tracks that were still bumping the first time I spent a night in a warehouse in 1994.
Rave was reaching its climax in '88 in the UK, the Acid House movement and the first of two Summers of Love- the same Chicago house records were migrating and being ravenously scooped up by DJ's in London and Manchester, another cultural gift of Chicago to the world and also a fascinating link in the love affair between Midwestern music and Northern English sounds, but that is another essay's worth of discussion. Tracks like Frankie Knuckle's classic "Your Love" mixed snugly with new school Mancunian acid house like A Guy Called Gerald's "Voodoo Ray". I'm excited that the "baggy" sound of Madchester, which I have always held fondly in my heart, a moment when rock bands were eager to seduce people onto the dancefloors inspired by the house music bumping at the Hacienda club (watch 24 Hour Party People!).
The sounds of the Happy Monday's "Wrote for Luck" and their LP "Pills, Thrills, and Bellyaches" has a loose housey ramble that is miles away from the continued post-punk mining of groups that call themselves Nu-rave like the Klaxons. The Stone Roses self titled debut is one of the finest rock albums of the 80's, but was released in 89, another summer of love in the UK, so you'll see what I'm talking about next year. Those guys had style, too, jerseys and trainers and moppy hair.
A bit more restrained than the florescent vomit storm of American rave. 88' did not bring us the sharpest fashion trends of the decade- bright colors are cool in moderation, but do we really want to go out in public looking like DJ Tanner from Full House or little Joey Lawrence from New Kids?
Ironic sweatshirts and Cosby sweaters are one thing, but who remembers the baggy tight-rolled European jeans look- Z. Cavaricci, anyone? How about the hairsprayed foot tall bangs, ladies? The famous Kid n' Play "pump" hairstyle. This is where I start to feel old- having lived through the ups and downs of 1988 once, there are aspects to the past that are not worth remembering. That said, I have been nostalgically digging out those Vision Street Wear, Stussy, and Jimmy Z t-shirts from the boxes at mom and dad's and lovingly remembering the glory days of skateboarding and I would love to rock a Metallica "Ride the Lightning" shirt like M.I.A. in the "Paper Planes" video. It really does feel odd, though, when these cultural relics become hot again, e-bay comodities. So yeah, I was there when... so this is what it feels like to be in one's thirties. Welcome back 1988!
This was the stuff blasting the minute mom left the house- exciting nightmares of a blown out sex and drug binge, basically my mom's worst fears after lovingly raising me in a sleepy, lovely suburb with a good school district. This road took a lot of unfortunate mascaraed turns- Faster Pussycat, Bang Tango, and L.A. Guns, anyone? But hair metal also proved to be the gateway drug to thrash and hardcore, and subsequently I settled comfortably into a diet of punk and pre-alternative modern rock by the time I hit high school. I will not bore you with my own personal path to good taste and instead take a look back at the charts of 1988. These will be club bangers on the dancefloor this year. The major tracks I can remember from my first junior high dance were Salt-n-Pepa's "Push It" and INXS "I Need you Tonight".
Both really awesome pop songs of their own right. Visually, the Ray-Bans, Vision Pyscho stick, striped sweaters, and black leather photomontage on white of INXS's "Kick" LP couldn't look a minute fresher in 2008. It couldn't sound it either with its sparse and crisp production, synthy beats and Michale Hutchin's breathy pauses.
The club breakbeats and street chick trash talk of "Push It" have been cool for awhile now-from Missy to Fannypack to M.I.A. to Kid Sister most recently. I can't really remember Rob Base's "It Takes Two" or M/A/R/R/S's "Pump Up the Volume" ever sounding that out-dated either. The party vibes of pop hip-hop were still rockin the floor and the airwaves. Even the cheesed out Van Halen riffs sampled on Ton Loc's "Wild Thing" seem ready on deck next to the heavy riffage on Brazillian electro- carioca group, Bondo do Role's 07 LP, "With Lazers". Of course, the first hip-hop that really grabbed my attention and had lasting impact on the development of my musical pursuits also debuted in 1988- two polarized, yet definitive anthems of the street- Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back" and NWA's "Straight Outta Compton", both released in '88.
Both were incendiary rants from different angles of the black urban plight. These two records defined in ways the later trajectories of east and west coast aesthetics- NWA began a first person account of Compton gang life, which undoubtedly followed through the Death Row Records catalog- Dre's "Chronic", Snoop, and 2Pac. Meanwhile Public Enemy examined the greater social injustices from their post in suburban Long Island inspiring the socially concerned Native Tongues posse of A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and Leaders of the New School. Sonically, these groups had a looser funkier sound than the paranoid bombast of P.E. and in this way I suppose that you can trace Public Enemy's stylistic influence in the grittier sounds to later come out of the lower boroughs like B.I.G. and the Wu-Tang Clan. I just picked up Boogie Down Production's "Stop the Violence" 12" and while their masterpiece "Criminally Minded" dropped in 87 (this record together with Erik B. and Rakim's "Paid in Full, '86 I consider two touchstones of the development of hip-hop from party jams to "CNN from the street"), it sounds mighty fresh with its dancehall reggae cadences and lasting influence on Blackstar's '98 classic "Definition", which contemplates the violence of the East/West Coast rivalry.
Meanwhile back on the dancefloor, House was in full effect in underground clubs in Chicago rockin to a sound of primitive 808 driven beats produced in southside bedrooms with maybe an older sister lending her gospel- trained voice to the track. This music is classic- for any electronic and dance music geeks, this stuff is absolutely essential to the development of all the dance music to succeed it for better or for worse. Squelchy 303 driven acid house was the groundwork for techno and the early nineties electronica movements, tracks like Phuture's "Acid Jacks" and Armando's "Downfall" have influenced beatmakers for more than a decade- "Rollin and Scratchin" off Daft Punk's '97 debut "Homework" is a prime example of acid house's legacy.
Technically, the height of the American rave era was 1992, so hold onto your glowsticks for a few more years, people. The house scene definitely predetermined rave with its tolerant multi-racial, polysexual scene and seminal club tracks that were still bumping the first time I spent a night in a warehouse in 1994.
Rave was reaching its climax in '88 in the UK, the Acid House movement and the first of two Summers of Love- the same Chicago house records were migrating and being ravenously scooped up by DJ's in London and Manchester, another cultural gift of Chicago to the world and also a fascinating link in the love affair between Midwestern music and Northern English sounds, but that is another essay's worth of discussion. Tracks like Frankie Knuckle's classic "Your Love" mixed snugly with new school Mancunian acid house like A Guy Called Gerald's "Voodoo Ray". I'm excited that the "baggy" sound of Madchester, which I have always held fondly in my heart, a moment when rock bands were eager to seduce people onto the dancefloors inspired by the house music bumping at the Hacienda club (watch 24 Hour Party People!).
The sounds of the Happy Monday's "Wrote for Luck" and their LP "Pills, Thrills, and Bellyaches" has a loose housey ramble that is miles away from the continued post-punk mining of groups that call themselves Nu-rave like the Klaxons. The Stone Roses self titled debut is one of the finest rock albums of the 80's, but was released in 89, another summer of love in the UK, so you'll see what I'm talking about next year. Those guys had style, too, jerseys and trainers and moppy hair.
A bit more restrained than the florescent vomit storm of American rave. 88' did not bring us the sharpest fashion trends of the decade- bright colors are cool in moderation, but do we really want to go out in public looking like DJ Tanner from Full House or little Joey Lawrence from New Kids?
Ironic sweatshirts and Cosby sweaters are one thing, but who remembers the baggy tight-rolled European jeans look- Z. Cavaricci, anyone? How about the hairsprayed foot tall bangs, ladies? The famous Kid n' Play "pump" hairstyle. This is where I start to feel old- having lived through the ups and downs of 1988 once, there are aspects to the past that are not worth remembering. That said, I have been nostalgically digging out those Vision Street Wear, Stussy, and Jimmy Z t-shirts from the boxes at mom and dad's and lovingly remembering the glory days of skateboarding and I would love to rock a Metallica "Ride the Lightning" shirt like M.I.A. in the "Paper Planes" video. It really does feel odd, though, when these cultural relics become hot again, e-bay comodities. So yeah, I was there when... so this is what it feels like to be in one's thirties. Welcome back 1988!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)