Ongoing History Of New Music

We’re going to spend a couple of programs tracing the history of “indie rock” and why music that has come up through these ranks has become to important to not just alternative rock but today’s rock’n’roll in general… Our story is of the records and the artists—but it’s also of the labels and the people behind them…you can’t tell one part of the story and not the other… But what are we really talking about?...what, exactly, is “indie rock?”…tough one, so we’ll have to unpack this carefully… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early days of rock—and we’re talking the 1950s here—the most efficient and cost-effective way to put acts on tour was to bundle them together as a package and put them on the road… In some cases, there would be a common backing band for most of all of the artists…PA equipment—such as it was in those days—was often supplied on site… These became known as caravan tours…guys like Alan Freed, the pioneering disc jockey and Dick Clarke—you know him, right?—took all these acts on the road playing places like theatres and county fairs and wherever else they could find a booking… This package tour approach was pretty common until the late 60s when music business was producing artists big enough to tour on their own and play areas and later stadiums…that’s where the real money was…that and big festivals… But then along came Lollapalooza in 1991…Perry Farrell, singer for Jane’s Addiction, put together a multi-act bill to support what would be the last-ever tour for Jane’s Addiction…the net effect was very mu

No one is born a rock star…well, maybe in terms of their attitude but not in terms of vocation…you gotta have the talent and you need to put in the work if you want to achieve actual rock star status… But that takes a lot of time and a lot of effort…and before you get to the stage where people acknowledge your rock star-ness, there are lots of twists and turns, false starts and dead ends… Later, when you’re rich and famous, these early attempts become part of your archeological record…some of this stuff may be found in shallow graves…the rest may be buried very, very deeply and need serious excavation work… Finding this material used to be hard…tapes were locked away in vaults…other early music on tape was erased, recorded over in order that this tape be reused… Cassettes were placed in shoeboxes and lost in closets…music that was released went out of print and was no longer available for sale… There were fires that destroyed archives…storage sites were wrecked with water damage…and then there were all t

Buying concert tickets used to be easy…you show a show you wanted to see, went down to the box office, plunked down some cash and in exchange were given a couple of stiff pieces of paper with some words on them… When it came time for the show, you presented those pieces of paper to a person at the door who torn them in half—and you went inside to enjoy the gig… It really was that simple—in theory, anyway…it wasn’t, but we’ll get to that… As time went on, buying concert tickets got more complicated…through the mail…credit cards…bar codes… Then the local ticket sellers vanished, replaced by a big mega-corporation…physical box offices started disappearing…the internet came along with online sales…scalpers…the secondary market…bots…and all the while, concerts and touring became big, big, big business… These days, buying concert tickets is really confusing…you still exchange money for admission to gigs, but the experience has very little in common with the so-called good old days… Stay with me…i’m going to g

People often ask me where I come up with ideas for this program…my answer is always the same… you know that feeling when it’s Sunday night and you promise yourself you’ll start on that assignment that’s due the next morning as soon as “the Simpsons” is over?... Yeah, that’s me…every week…and after more than 700 of these one-hour assignments stretching back to 1993, I hit a wall…total writer’s block… I started to panic…there are hard deadlines…I have a contract…I’m expected to deliver another new show…there are radio stations all over the place that need new programming from me…what the hell am I gonna talk about this time when I got nothin’?... I mean, this is the seven hundredth and forty-sev— Wait…show number 747?...that’s the same as the airliner…what about stories of alt-rock and airplanes?... And so I started go back through all my files—and sure enough, there’s tons of stuff on the subject…plane crashes, near-misses, air rage, terrorist bombings… Well, that settles it…show number 747 will be able

I don’t know if you realize this, but the music festival isn’t a modern creation…people have been gathering in fields to hear music for centuries…and in some cases, those original festivals are still happening… Ever hear of Fiera Della Frecagnola?...it started in the village of Cannalonga, up in the mountains in the south of Italy…as far as we’ve been able to tell, the first gig was in 1450…and it’s still happening today… There are other long-timey festivals in Germany, England, India, Latvia…so this isn’t a new thing… The first modern music festival—the thing that would be recognizable to us today—would be Monterey Pop, which was held in San Francisco in the summer of 1967…that led to Woodstock, Glastonbury, Roskilde and a ton of others… But the 1990s was the decade where the festival really came into its own with a series of regular events that reappeared year after year in the same spot—or ones that moved from place to place… Europeans were pretty used to standing in fields in the mud and the rain and

Canada is now the sixth-largest music market in the world…only the US., Japan, the UK, Germany and France are bigger…not bad, considering that we’re living right next door to the biggest exporter of popular culture in the known universe—and considering that unlike Japan, Germany and France, most of our domestic music industry isn’t isolated and protected because of language… I mean, the whole world consumes English-language music…what’s the market for Japanese music outside Japan?...or German music outside of Germany?... Then there’s the matter of population…of those top six nations, Canada, with 36 million people, has the smallest number people…compare that to 66 million in both the UK and France and 83 million Germany… Canada also exports far more music to the rest of the world than we should…every year, the export numbers grow bigger and bigger thanks to stars like Drake, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Alessia Cara, Arcade Fire and a long list of artists that came before: Alanis Morrissette, Sarah McLachlan

One of the great things about the alt-rock revolution of the 1990s was its diversity… The sounds from this part of the rock universe had always been varied…that’s because the idea of “alternative music” was so amorphous…if it was (a) non-mainstream and ignored by most radio stations; (b) a little left of centre in terms of aesthetics; and (c) considered weird by the majority, then it qualified as “alternative” by default, simply because the was no other way to categorize it…and humans love to organize things into piles, right?... Multiple genres thrived in the alt-rock universe…plus there were all the sub-genres and sub-sub-genres and even sub-sub-sub-genres…this mean that if you into alternative music before the 1990s, you were spoiled for choice…there was something for everyone… Then along came grunge, the biggest sound of the decade…it ripped a whole in the music-space-time continuum, opening a hole into this parallel universe, allowing all these sounds to invade the mainstream… And because these sound

The early 90s were an amazing time for music…generation x, a powerful demographic force, reached the age where they were in a position to demand music that reflected their needs and wants and wishes and desires and fears… The biggest sea change came with the rise of grunge, thanks to Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and, of course, Nirvana…but that music was just the kick-start for the alternative nation that came to dominate most of the 90s…. For many, grunge was alternative music with training wheels…those who liked what they heard were invariably led deeper into a culture that had existed outside the mainstream for years…Gen X discovered different flavours of goth and industrial and electronic music…and they also discovered punk…. Punk had always been around…sure, it kinda got burned out at the end of the 70s, but it never died…the Ramones kept touring…bands like husker du were putting out records…and American hardcore established itself as a force to be reckoned with… But punk was still a nich

If we look at the state of rock here in the 21st century, it is no longer the main musical driver of popular culture…hip-hop is king… This doesn’t mean it’s dead, that it doesn’t have a place in our lives, that it isn’t going to be around for decades to come…but if you’re honest, you’ll have to admit that hip-hop has extended its reach into popular culture with the strength and depth that used to belong to rock… And it’s not like rock’s appeal shrank…it’s that other genres have exploded, hip-hop being the genre with the most growth… Now let’s go back to the 1990s, the last decade where rock ruled everything…alt-rock was the thing…but if we dig through what happened in the 90s, we can see how hip-hop not only infiltrated alt-rock but how it was embraced, incorporated, and celebrated… Regions of the alt-rock universe began to evolve…the beats got bigger…the rhymes got tougher and more complicated…the vibe began to change…and it was all pretty good—but not all of it worked out well… What were hip-hop’s effe

There are some things you should never mix...oil and water...nitro and glycerin...tequila and—well, it’s not a good idea to mix tequila with anything other than salt, lemon and maybe some fruit juice… They used to say this about rock and rap music, too...and they were pretty adamant about that… When rap and hip-hop started seeping into the mainstream in the middle 1980s, it immediately polarized people...those who didn’t (or refused) to get it, were aggressively dismissive of what rap brought to the table... “that’s not rap…it’s crap!” …. “this isn’t music…it’s just bad poetry over beats stolen from another record”… It took a few years, but by the time we got into the 90s, hip-hop and rap was becoming a very powerful musical and cultural force…today, it is the genre when it comes to driving culture…after half a century of being in charge, rock has fallen to second place… Not only that, but a chunk of the rock scene was co-opted into hip-hop, creating a new series of hybrid sounds… The original post-punk

I want you to think about fashion for a moment…fashion is one of the most disposable of all the artistic endeavours…much of what’s created isn’t designed to last more than a season…once the season is over, time to toss out all the coture and buy new stuff… But there are cycles in fashion…after a certain amount of time, old styles might come back into favour again…this, in a way, makes fashion a renewable resource… Music is also like that…trends and sounds and styles come along and then disappear…but then ten, fifteen, twenty or more years later, those trends, sounds and styles are resurrected by a brand-new generation… Sometimes the kids rediscover the joys and appeal of a certain style of music independently…or maybe they got into some older records and were inspired by that…whatever the reason, anything to keep from being bored, right?... If you were around in the early-to-mid 90s, you may remember a period when every week seemed to bring along something new and cool…a new band with a new sound and a ne

Up until the 1990s, the section of the rock universe known as “alternative” was all over the place…there wasn’t what anyone could call a defining sound…if it was left of centre, weird to mainstream music fans and ignored by the media, then it was “alternative”... If you were around the late 80s—the decade where the word “alternative” began to be used to describe a certain attitude in rock—you’ll remember that this was an umbrella term for so many different types of artists… If you couldn’t categorize a song or an artist by tossing it into any of the regular buckets, then there was only one other bucket you could use…and it quickly filled up… Singer-songwriters…indie pop artists…industrial bands…groups with synthesizers…goth groups…extra-noisy guitar bands…even rap was alternative for a while in the 80s: it was new, it was weird and it was hated by the mainstream…ergo: alternative! There were so many different sounds and textures and moods and looks that just trying to come up with a definition of “alterna

In 1967 during the summer of love, anything seemed possible…civil rights issues were being addressed…the war in Vietnam could be stopped…drugs and free love were in the air…and women were being liberated… Amongst all this was Jimi Hendrix who became a fan of an all-female rock band from San Francisco called “the ace of cups”… Wait a second…an all-girl rock band?...who wrote their own songs?...who had a chick out front that could shred like a man?...and a girl playing drums?... Even in 1967, that was radical…Hendrix was so impressed by their chops that he invited them to open a couple of his shows…it really did seem like a defining moment… But then the old sexist attitudes took over…women groups did not—could not—rock…it was common sense…self-evident…everyone knew that… The ace of cups gave it a good shot, but by 1972, they’d broken up…and until punk rock came around a few years later, the idea of a female-fronted rock band was considered silly… But punk brought in new egalitarian values…and fans embrace

In a less-enlightened time, women were barely tolerated by the rock’n’roll establishment…they could sing, shake a tambourine and look pretty…but that’s about it…in retrospect, the sexism and misogyny was unbelievable…but back in the day, it was business as usual… Some strong women who broke through…Joan Baez, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Carole King, Janis Joplin…but they were the exceptions… Sexism continued through the early- and mid-seventies…the prevailing “wisdom” was that women just couldn’t rock…it was a biological impossibility, apparently… But then along came punk rock and a sense of egalitarism…the central tennet of being a punk was that anyone with anything to say should be allowed to say it, regardless of musical ability, class, race, religion—or sex… The punk rock of the 70s opened musical doors for women more than any other era in musical history…this doesn’t mean that sexism and misogyny and abuse was over…but it did mean way more strong, powerful female musicians… Slow, steady progress wa

Writing history takes a very long time…sure, you could write down everything as it happens, but that’s really only like writing a diary…you only have a record of events—which is fine…but real history, meaningful history is something more… To understand what happened in the past, more time has to go by so that we can observe the ripples events have the world…it’s only by examining those ripples that we begin to understand what’s happening in the present and what could happen in the future… It’s often helpful and convenient to look at the past by decade…that’s certainly a favourite way to do things with music…in fact, that’s how we like to categorize music history… If I say “50s music,” you know exactly what I mean…if we move to the music of the 1960s, same thing…the names or artists and songs leap to mind, just as they do if I said we’re going to talk about the 70s or 80s… But what about the 1990s?...what comes to mind on that branch of music history?...grunge, Britpop, raves, electronica generation x, hip

How would you like to be remembered when you’re gone?...most people make do with a tombstone or some such other grave marker…maybe a few photographs and other detritus from a life… But maybe you’ve done something exceptional, something that extends beyond just your family and friends…my dad was mayor of my tiny hometown on the Canadian prairies and was instrumental in the development of a tourist area…for that, he had a street named after him…very nice… Others have schools named after them…buildings…airports…whole towns and cities and countries and even continents…North America, for example, is named after an Italian cartopgrapher named “Amerigo Vespucci”…you get the idea… Another way to achieve this sort of immortality is to have something in nature named in your honour…it turns out that this is a great way to pay tribute to rock stars… Sit tight…we’re going to spend the next hour learning a few Latin terms… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He was known by many names over the six decades he made music...and for the last 40-plus years, he was the most discussed, photographed, imitated, worshiped and admired rock star in history... No single rock and roll performer had a more profound an effect on our music as David Bowie...all of today’s best alt-rock bands all have a bit of Bowie in them …and that net can be cast much, much wider…Madonna, Lady Gaga, Prince…the list is endless... He was a singer, a songwriter, record producer, movie actor, stage performer, internet entrepreneur, artist, art critic, fashion maven, wall street investment and gay icon... He has been a trend-setter, a shapeshifter, a cultural mover-and-shaker…he’s Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Halloween Jack, Plastic Soul Man, the Thin white Duke...and now he’s gone…he’s David Bowie—and now that he’s gone, it’s important to recognize all the contributions he’s made to our music… This is Remembering David Bowie, Part 2… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice

The sound of a text coming through woke me up at 2:15 in the morning…what was so important that it couldn’t wait until later?...it was either a wrong number—or it was bad news… It was bad news…a friend in L.A. had just heard some awful information: David Bowie had died… This wasn’t supposed to happen…Bowie was supposed to be one of the immortals, someone who would always be with us….after all, he’d been making music through six decades… And yes, he’d been almost entirely out of sight for a decade, but we knew he was there…he released a surprise album in 2013 to much critical acclaim…and didn’t just release another acclaimed album just three days ago…how could be dead?.... No, there must be some mistake…one of internet hoaxes…but as soon as my computer booted up, I could see that it was all confirmed…David Bowie had suddenly, surprinslgy passed away….and from cancer?...he had cancer?... And so began weeks of mourning all over the world… Look, I realize that if you’re of a certain age, Bowie might be as f

Let’s just say it: Arcade Fire is weird…just about everything they’ve done in their career has been not only unconventional but against the rules… They rarely give interviews…they won’t license their music…they’d rather spend weeks working with the people of Haiti than lounging by a swimming pool somewhere…they won’t even stay on the stage when they perform… Yet whatever they’ve done has worked…junos, Grammy’s, Brits, The Polaris Music Prize…members have had their work nominated for an academy award…humanitarian awards… Critics have fallen all over them for years…they’ve made all the important magazine covers…big name stars all the way up to Chris Martin and U2 and David Bowie have lavished praise on them…and they’re one of the few new rock bands to emerge in the 21st century that is capable of selling out an arena… Okay, so they haven’t sold a gazillion records, but who has these days?...still, they’ve moved several million, which is very respectable…and all those records were made for a small indie labe