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Alternative Rock Week 3
- 1. Popular Music Studies: Alternative Rock Week 3 Development of Alt Rock in the UK
- 2. Technology • Has always had an influence on the development of music, particularly popular music… • Serenade en La • The electric microphone
- 3. Technology • Multitrack recording – Les Paul • Sgt. Peppers • The recording as the ‘primary artefact’ for popular music (Allan Moore)
- 4. Technology • Multitrack recording – Les Paul • Sgt. Peppers • The recording as the ‘primary artefact’ for popular music (Allan Moore)
- 5. Technology • Music recordings can bear greater scrutiny • The recording itself, and process, rather than score • Rock recording merely offers a facsimile of old musical models – musique concrete, rap…
- 6. Alt Rock in the UK • Mod revival – The Jam • New-wave, post-punk, synth-pop… Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys • UK bands more embracing of synths, technology, influence from outside of rock
- 8. Alt Rock in the UK • Core of guitar, bass, drums, but more likely to have extra instrumentation • Textural and atmospheric ides • Alienated, technologically-driven sound vs. clean, rock/folk influenced guitar sound
- 9. Cocteau Twins • Formed 1979 • Signed with 4AD • Ethereal, dreamy sound, created with vocals, guitars and effects.
- 10. Cocteau Twins • Heaven or Las Vegas (1990, 4AD) • Later signed with Capitol and Mercury
- 11. Creation Records • Founded by Alan McGee, Dick Green and Joe Foster in 1983 • Initial release was ‘’73 in ‘83’ by The Legend! • First bands included The Jesus & Mary Chain, Primal Scream…
- 12. The Jesus & Mary Chain • Psychocandy (1985)
- 13. Creation Records • ‘…care less about lyrics and song structure, and more about the sonic texture of the song’.
- 14. Primal Scream • Formed in 1982 • Bobby Gillespie had played drums with The Jesus & Mary Chain, left to focus on this band • First release with Elevation (Warner Bros. Subsidiary)
- 15. My Bloody Valentine • Creation’s next big hit, signed in 1988 • Isn’t Anything (1988)
- 16. My Bloody Valentine • Loveless (1991)
- 17. Creation Records • Largely bankrupt in 1991 • Sony bought 50% of the company in 1992, enabling it to continue.
- 18. khenniga@tcd.ie
- 19. Primal Scream • Screamadelica (Creation, 1991)
- 20. ‘Madchester’ sound • The Happy Mondays (1980-93) • Pills ‘n Thrills and Bellyaches (1990) • The Stone Roses (1983-1996) • The Stone Roses (1989)
- 21. The Stone Roses
- 22. Music Journalism • Writers and DJs are ‘active in the development of ideological rationalizations of popular music.’ • NME, Melody Maker, etc. • John Peel and other DJs
- 23. Britpop • Dominated by two bands: • Blur vs. Oasis • Stylistically, a return to sixties-influenced guitar rock • A reaction to US alt rock and grunge which was gaining huge popularity
- 24. Blur • Leisure (1991) showed influence from both shoegaze and Madchester sounds • Modern Life is Rubbish (1993) was a move towards the Britpop sound
- 25. Blur
- 26. Blur • Parklife (1994)
- 27. Oasis • Signed to Creation in 1993, though markedly different to shoegaze bands like My Bloody Valentine • Definitely Maybe (1993) • Distorted guitars, lack of additional orchestration • Influence of sixties rock bands, post-punk
- 28. Oasis
- 29. Oasis • What’s the Story (Morning Glory)? (1995)
- 30. Britpop…
- 31. Britpop…
- 32. Britpop…
Notas do Editor
- Popular music has been shaped largely by technology for a long time. Tools appear and are utilized by popular musicians to create a new sound or new style. The introduction of the electric microphone in the late 20s/ early 30s led to a new singing style, where singers could be hard softly. This ‘crooning’ was held in serious disregard when it appeared, as being overly intimate.
- Tape recording led to overdubs in the 1950s – Les Paul. In the 1960s, multitrack recording came into its own as a creative form; Sgt. Peppers is largely held as the earliest example of a musical work created via multitrack recordings and editing. Since then – perhaps especially with early Pink Floyd and prog – multitrack recording is a compositional process, not simply a recording one. This has helped to lead to the current situation where the recording is the primary artefact for popular music, not the score. (See Moore, Moorfield) With this in mind, we can analyse and approach alternative rock as a recorded product, into which other sources (scores, live performances, interviews, biographies, etc.) can feed.
- LAST WEEK, WE SAW: Alt rock, in keeping with its definition of itself as ‘outsider,’ generally had a fairly uniform aesthetic. Recordings were not to be made in the glossy, highly-produced style of mainstream pop and corporate rock. Instead, more immediate recordings were valued, especially with a lo-fi, hurried, or rough feel to them. Such recordings were made quickly and cheaply… an anti-technology movement? Yet - Distortion / fuzz pedals? Theberge mentions regarding recording that ‘alternative bands of the 1980s developed an aggressive, lo-fi approach to the recording medium that both rejected the dominant practices and aesthetics of the record industry and played a role in defining these genres, in ideological terms, as more ‘authentic’ than other forms of mainstream pop and rock.’ (12)
- Warner discusses different approaches to analysing pop music – he says that much has been made of social factors, and signifiers – much study of who, and to how, but not what; in other words, the music itself often bears further scrutiny. As the major artefact in popular music, the recording (rather than abstract musical elements) should be explicitly studied – the technology which shapes it – the three-part process of popular music creation. Technology has a ‘special status’ within rock, a symbiotic relationship. 42 - Gracyk actually argues against this, saying that this status of recording is not unique to rock – musique concrete, rap etc. (ii) Rock does not reject or challenge old musical models, but offers itself as a recorded facsimile of them.
- Leading on from The Sex Pistols, and punk bands of the time, the music split in different ways to the US. First, the Jam turned towards ‘mod rock’, which was – in true UK fashion – a revival of the sixties ‘mod’ scene. Highly influenced by sixties music, rock bands like the Who, the Kinks, and some folk/psychedelic influences. The Jam In a similar fashion to New Wave, a more pop version of punk ideas came around, traced – as we did in week one – through bands like Siousxie and the Banshees, The Cure (who were called ‘goth’), and continued as a post-punk/new-wave trend which largely merged with synth-pop.
- I’ve already talked about the likes of U2 – who became international stars during the 80s – and the Smiths, who were hugely important within the UK in carrying the torch for rock and, in a large way, defining what UK alt rock should sound like. The Smiths Used – like the Jam and other ‘rock’ bands – a fusion of post-punk ideas and established or revived British rock ideas.
- Cocteau Twins were primarily the duo of singer Liz Fraser and Robin Guthrie on guitar. Developed some themes of goth rock, and post-punk, in terms of creating a big, textural, atmospheric sound. Primarily built from simple guitar parts and Fraser’s vocals. Treasure (1984) 4AD you might remember from last week, also signed the Pixies despite being a British label. HoLV was arguably one of their biggest successes. 4AD has a complicated history, but remains part of a group of independent labels in the UK which are still active.
- Upside Down is a great documentary about Creation Records
- J&MC were from Glasgow, signed with Creation initially before moving onto a major label deal Took influence from guitar ‘noise’ bands, like Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth. Also espoused the same spaced-out, atmospheric textures of UK bands. Two important personnel on this album – Flood and Alan Moulder, both working with a lot of bands, had input into the sound of the album and were to reprise it elsewhere. Released their first single, ‘Upside Down,’ on Creation, with McGee as their manager, but moved to a subsidiary of Warner Bros. for their debut album release in 1985.
- Ride – Nowhere (1990)
- Primal Scream were one of those bands who went through quite a lot of changes – stylistically, personnel – before finding the sound that worked for them. They released their first full album for Elevation, a Warner Bros subisidiary run by Alan McGee – quite a jangly, clean rock record, not so successful. Second album with Creation, 1989’s Primal Scream, featured a rougher sound with US rock influences.
- Kevin Shields was the major songwriter/composer in the band. MBV started in Dublin, before moving around Europe (Netherlands, Berlin) before settling in London. First album – after some Eps – was released on Creation in 1988, and featured droning guitars, lots of effects, a focus on texture. Vocals were often soft, not forefronted, used as part of the texture. Exhibited a strong noise rock influence, Sonic Youth etc, with plenty of loud songs and distortion at times. This style came to be known as ‘shoegaze’ – dating back to J&M Chain, but focused on the likes of MBV, Ride and similar bands on Creation and elsewhere.
- After their second, and most highly acclaimed, album, MBV signed to Island in 1992, but were never to release an album with them. Shields went into personal and creative meltdown. Plenty of effects and atmospheric production sounds. Shields’ famous ‘glide guitar’ technique, which involved using a reverse echo and holding the tremolo arm of his guitar while strumming, causing a pitch-bend effect.
- Creation was bankrupt after funding Loveless, amongst other mounting debts and McGee’s drug problems.
- Rock developed, as I’ve said, alongside and more willingly influenced by, numerous other musical styles in the UK. The largest influences started coming, in the late 1980s, not from the synth-pop ‘dance’ styles, but from the growing rave culture, particular scenes and clubs based around electronic musical styles and drugs. Primal Scream, having had limited success, were turned onto acid house music by Bobby Gillespie and allowed it to influence their own work, leading to 1991’s Screamadelica (an ovbious homage to psychedlic, psychedelia), which also contained influences from other dance and club sounds like dub. Plenty of samples, a practice unusual for rock bands up to this point.
- Similar overlaps of influence between EDM, acid house, and so forth, into rock bands led to what became known as the ‘Madchester’ sound – a fusion of the sound of indie rock bands like the Smiths (a big influence, also being from Manchester) and these other styles. The Happy Mondays were one of these bands, (with infamous band member Bez as dancer/percussionist).
- The Stone Roses were certainly the key band of the time, though they only released two albums: the eponymous 1989 album, followed by major-label release The Second Coming on Geffen in 1994. A hugely critical acclaimed and influential band in the UK, they never broke in the US – indeed, the Stone Roses, along with Madchester and the general trend for melding rock with dance, sampling, electronic music, was met largely with confusion. Naturally, both bands – and many others – had serious drug problems, which led to problems with creativity and commercial return, which was more of an issue by the early 1990s as alternative rock was becoming the mainstream sound. A line I won’t be following here, as I can’t call it ‘rock’ music, is the various melds of sampling, electronic dance music into genres like trip-hop, which were always very big in the UK throughout the 90s. Massive Attack, Portishead etc..
- The Stone Roses were critically acclaimed, and their influence and stature has only grown in the years since they actually released material. Why? The music press plays an essential part in how we view music, bands and artists. Was a bigger thing in the UK than the US, where four major publications rivalled only the one (RS). Though fanzines such as Maximumrockandroll helped there. Radio DJS such as John Peel were also essential in dictating tastes and giving independent artists a platform for their music. How were these decisions made? Subjectively, rather than objectively – ‘hits’ were different to ‘good music’. Unfortunately, how do you separate the objective from the subjective? How do these ‘surrogate fans’ separate the good from the bad? By personal taste? Or by other, ill-defined criteria? Feeds back to the issue of authenticity. Thompson - John Peel Sessions (inc. Nirvana); the influence of journalists & DJs on reception. Critical Concepts, John Stratton, ‘Between two Worlds’ - A good chapter about the music press.
- What was it? Another largely ill-defined term, applied to a certain cross-section of bands. Stylistically, it was a return to guitar-oriented rock, with the same sixties revivalist ideas that had never really gone away. The likes of glam rock, David Bowie, T Rex, also continued a line of influence. It should also be sais that while the likes of The Smiths, post-punk bands like Joy Divison, Madchester bands, all had a hand in Britpop, there was also a big influence from US alt rock which had begun to cross the Atlantic to mainstream success. Bands like Dinsoaur Jr., Pixies (signed to 4AD), sonic Youth and Nirvana had all received considerable attention in the UK. Britpop was an effort to regain the rock mainstream for native music, and Britpop was the movement that finally cemented independent or alternative rock acts in the UK with mainstream success.
- Blur were signed to Food, an indie label that came under control of EMI in 1994, as a subsidiary label. Though initially happy to show their influences from other current bands and trends, they soon reinvented themselves somewhat by bringing in a more retrospective guitar-pop sound, likening them to the Kinks or similar.
- The Madchester influence was still there by the time Parklife (1994) brought them their defining success. (Girls and Boys) Always happy to use horn sections (very British, always has been), 60s guitar sounds and hooks, the occasional sample or dance beat. They were the upper-middle class band to Oasis’s more working class attitude, always with a touch of humour and cheekiness. Damon Albarn was a performance student, and was conscious of how to put on a show. With later albums, they were happy to bring in a more US-influenced sound, though they struggled to make a big splash in the US at any stage.
- Oasis signed to Creation, and became the biggest hit for that label with their best-selling debut Definitely Maybe in 1993. Unlike Blur, Oasis were solidly focused on the guitar-bass-drum line-up, playing often with distortion, and giving a loud, brash version of UK rock based on the example of the Smiths, the Jam, the Stone Roses and older bands such as the Kinks and the Beatles. Often accused of accentuated borrowing from the Beatles and other bands – Noel Gallagher was always fairly candid about re-using chord progessions, melodic ideas from great songwriters.
- In August 1995, the ‘Battle of Britpop’ moment happened, as Blur’s Country House and Oasis’s Roll With It were released the same week. Really brings in the idea of authenticity as Romantic vs. Modernist – is it more authentic to be innovative and forward-thinking (some of Blur’s later work, their re-invention) or developing from roots within an established tradition (Oasis?) This includes song-writing ‘borrowings’. Using new instrumentation, or sticking to the core of guitar-bass-drums?
- Other bands who fell under the moniker of Britpop included Pulp, who had been going for a long time with numerous personnel changes and minor reinventions. Offering a similar sense of humour and influences to Blur, they had their biggest hits from the album Different Class (1995) Suede signed to Nude, with backing from Sony, in another complicated deal. Pre-Britpop, they were the first big hype band to display a different sound to Madchester, or grunge/US alt – There was also this band called Radiohead, formed way back in 1985, who had a surprise US hit with a song called ‘Creep’ from their debut album Pablo Honey (1993), which eventually got them recognised again in the UK with their second album, The Bends (1995). Numerous Britpop-like influences, though initially borrowing mostly from US acts like REM and grunge scenes (banned from BBC for being too depressing)
- Other bands who fell under the moniker of Britpop included Pulp, who had been going for a long time with numerous personnel changes and minor reinventions. Offering a similar sense of humour and influences to Blur, they had their biggest hits from the album Different Class (1995) Suede signed to Nude, with backing from Sony, in another complicated deal. Pre-Britpop, they were the first big hype band to display a different sound to Madchester, or grunge/US alt – There was also this band called Radiohead, formed way back in 1985, who had a surprise US hit with a song called ‘Creep’ from their debut album Pablo Honey (1993), which eventually got them recognised again in the UK with their second album, The Bends (1995). Numerous Britpop-like influences, though initially borrowing mostly from US acts like REM and grunge scenes (banned from BBC for being too depressing)
- Other bands who fell under the moniker of Britpop included Pulp, who had been going for a long time with numerous personnel changes and minor reinventions. Offering a similar sense of humour and influences to Blur, they had their biggest hits from the album Different Class (1995) Suede signed to Nude, with backing from Sony, in another complicated deal. Pre-Britpop, they were the first big hype band to display a different sound to Madchester, or grunge/US alt – There was also this band called Radiohead, formed way back in 1985, who had a surprise US hit with a song called ‘Creep’ from their debut album Pablo Honey (1993), which eventually got them recognised again in the UK with their second album, The Bends (1995). Numerous Britpop-like influences, though initially borrowing mostly from US acts like REM and grunge scenes (banned from BBC for being too depressing)