Alan Cross: Greatest Moments in New Rock History, #70-61
No technical difficulties tonight.. yay! :)
70. A 1981 R.E.M. gig in a club with a very low ceiling in Nashville. Peter Buck notices a woman with a see-through shirt, and proceeded to go nuts while trying to flirt with her. He was drunk and horny, so was jumping around and generally being insane.. his Fender Telecaster was totally smashed when it made contact with the ceiling.
The show was ruined, and how could R.E.M. go on? Buck had to go to the only place in Athens, Georgia that would sell him a guitar, but it was a used Rickenbacker. As a consequence of this, Peter Buck began to work on picking at the strings instead of just playing three chords like he'd done previously. R.E.M. songs sounded fresher / newer as a result, and changed their sound forever.
69. Through some conglomerate of TV / media / entertainment company merger, the president decided that it would be cool to have a channel devoted only to music. It became MTV instead of TV-1, since the TV-1 moniker was shot down. At 12:01 AM on August 1, 1981, the first clip to air was the Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star.. very appropriate, especially since things have never been the same from then on. There were lots of spinoffs like MuchMusic, MTV-2, VH-1, etc. There was also a new emphasis on good looks and a good image, which made it harder for ugly guys to catch a break.
68. Frankie Goes To Hollywood was one of the bands that benefitted from this new emphasis on good looks. However, Mike Read of the BBC was extremely horrified at the homoerotic overtones he discovered in their song Relax. In 1984, this was a big controversy.. he managed to create one, but couldn’t prevent the song from reaching #1 on the singles charts.
67. In September 1994, the world was still in shock over Kurt Cobain's suicide that past April. Dave Grohl and Kris Novoselic accepted an MTV video music award for Heart-Shaped Box.. they said that not a day went by that they didn't think about Kurt, and thanked the fans for supporting the band.
66. An event that changed the sound of music worldwide: in 1958, Chris Blackwell and his girlfriend were out on a boat ride in Jamaica. It was a nice boat ride, but the boat ran aground on a coral reef. Luckily, nobody was hurt.. Chris offered to see if there was anyone around that could help them. A fisherman offered them a meal and a place to stay for the night. Chris was so touched by the hospitality that he made it a point later on to learn all he could about Rastafarianism.
In May 1962, Chris Blackwell founded Island Records. He went out and found someone named Robert Nesta Marley. Everyone else thought that nobody would listen to the type of music Bob Marley had to provide, but they were wrong.. it was very popular. Definitely changed the sound of music, indeed!
65. Possibly at a marketing meeting in 1978 at an American music label, new wave music was a term thought up to describe punk rock and sell it to this side of the planet. Punk was deemed to be too hardcore, and thus needed a new name for high-energy pop music. Someone in that boardroom must have been a big fan of cinema, as there is a French term for "new wave." Between 1978 and 1984, there were a ton of new wave artists: the Police, Blondie, the Specials, Elvis Costello, etc. Rock needed a way to advance, and this was it.
64. On November 4, 1979: Islamic militants take over Iran's embassy in Tehran, and start a 444-day siege. They empower the Ayatollah Khomeini, who promptly outlaws all rock music as being corrupting on Nov. 23. It's only now that rock is starting to make a comeback. The Clash are never ones to shy away from this kind of controversy.. they make a song called Rock the Casbah about this event.
63. Sept, 10, 1983: Joe Strummer and Mick Jones had long since stopped talking to each other, so the infamous "Clash Communiqué" was released. It ousted Mick Jones from the Clash, as Joe Strummer and Paul Simenon felt he wasn't being true to the original aims of the group. They didn't want to beg him to play guitar in the group anymore, and tried to go on with two new members.
However, that day was the effective end of the Clash as a band. With the two new members of the group, Strummer and Simenon released a new album called Cut the Crap, but the magic was over. The Clash folded in 1985, with little fanfare.
62. March 23, 1979: Jamaican bluebeat is combined with English punk rock to create ska music. There were lots of bands which offered positive energy, and a label devoted to it called Tutone. The Specials and Madness were only two such groups in those days.
(this one would have had more detail had I known how to spell the names of the people mentioned in his blurb on ska music)
61. By 1974, two German musicians had moved away from the traditional ways of music. They were into synthesizers, which were really expensive in those days. Their band was called Kraftwerk, and the title track on their 1975 album Autobahn featured lots of noises made as if you were driving along a highway in Germany. That changed the sound of music, and was also a major groundbreaker... it sounded pretty weird and quirky enough for everyone. It was a major hit for them all over the world.
This all-electronic approach changed techno-pop / ambient / dance music all over the world. The song went to #25 in the US, #20 in the UK, and was generally very well-received anywhere else.
70. A 1981 R.E.M. gig in a club with a very low ceiling in Nashville. Peter Buck notices a woman with a see-through shirt, and proceeded to go nuts while trying to flirt with her. He was drunk and horny, so was jumping around and generally being insane.. his Fender Telecaster was totally smashed when it made contact with the ceiling.
The show was ruined, and how could R.E.M. go on? Buck had to go to the only place in Athens, Georgia that would sell him a guitar, but it was a used Rickenbacker. As a consequence of this, Peter Buck began to work on picking at the strings instead of just playing three chords like he'd done previously. R.E.M. songs sounded fresher / newer as a result, and changed their sound forever.
69. Through some conglomerate of TV / media / entertainment company merger, the president decided that it would be cool to have a channel devoted only to music. It became MTV instead of TV-1, since the TV-1 moniker was shot down. At 12:01 AM on August 1, 1981, the first clip to air was the Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star.. very appropriate, especially since things have never been the same from then on. There were lots of spinoffs like MuchMusic, MTV-2, VH-1, etc. There was also a new emphasis on good looks and a good image, which made it harder for ugly guys to catch a break.
68. Frankie Goes To Hollywood was one of the bands that benefitted from this new emphasis on good looks. However, Mike Read of the BBC was extremely horrified at the homoerotic overtones he discovered in their song Relax. In 1984, this was a big controversy.. he managed to create one, but couldn’t prevent the song from reaching #1 on the singles charts.
67. In September 1994, the world was still in shock over Kurt Cobain's suicide that past April. Dave Grohl and Kris Novoselic accepted an MTV video music award for Heart-Shaped Box.. they said that not a day went by that they didn't think about Kurt, and thanked the fans for supporting the band.
66. An event that changed the sound of music worldwide: in 1958, Chris Blackwell and his girlfriend were out on a boat ride in Jamaica. It was a nice boat ride, but the boat ran aground on a coral reef. Luckily, nobody was hurt.. Chris offered to see if there was anyone around that could help them. A fisherman offered them a meal and a place to stay for the night. Chris was so touched by the hospitality that he made it a point later on to learn all he could about Rastafarianism.
In May 1962, Chris Blackwell founded Island Records. He went out and found someone named Robert Nesta Marley. Everyone else thought that nobody would listen to the type of music Bob Marley had to provide, but they were wrong.. it was very popular. Definitely changed the sound of music, indeed!
65. Possibly at a marketing meeting in 1978 at an American music label, new wave music was a term thought up to describe punk rock and sell it to this side of the planet. Punk was deemed to be too hardcore, and thus needed a new name for high-energy pop music. Someone in that boardroom must have been a big fan of cinema, as there is a French term for "new wave." Between 1978 and 1984, there were a ton of new wave artists: the Police, Blondie, the Specials, Elvis Costello, etc. Rock needed a way to advance, and this was it.
64. On November 4, 1979: Islamic militants take over Iran's embassy in Tehran, and start a 444-day siege. They empower the Ayatollah Khomeini, who promptly outlaws all rock music as being corrupting on Nov. 23. It's only now that rock is starting to make a comeback. The Clash are never ones to shy away from this kind of controversy.. they make a song called Rock the Casbah about this event.
63. Sept, 10, 1983: Joe Strummer and Mick Jones had long since stopped talking to each other, so the infamous "Clash Communiqué" was released. It ousted Mick Jones from the Clash, as Joe Strummer and Paul Simenon felt he wasn't being true to the original aims of the group. They didn't want to beg him to play guitar in the group anymore, and tried to go on with two new members.
However, that day was the effective end of the Clash as a band. With the two new members of the group, Strummer and Simenon released a new album called Cut the Crap, but the magic was over. The Clash folded in 1985, with little fanfare.
62. March 23, 1979: Jamaican bluebeat is combined with English punk rock to create ska music. There were lots of bands which offered positive energy, and a label devoted to it called Tutone. The Specials and Madness were only two such groups in those days.
(this one would have had more detail had I known how to spell the names of the people mentioned in his blurb on ska music)
61. By 1974, two German musicians had moved away from the traditional ways of music. They were into synthesizers, which were really expensive in those days. Their band was called Kraftwerk, and the title track on their 1975 album Autobahn featured lots of noises made as if you were driving along a highway in Germany. That changed the sound of music, and was also a major groundbreaker... it sounded pretty weird and quirky enough for everyone. It was a major hit for them all over the world.
This all-electronic approach changed techno-pop / ambient / dance music all over the world. The song went to #25 in the US, #20 in the UK, and was generally very well-received anywhere else.
Labels: 1994, alan cross, bob, chris, christon, david, death, history, joe, lists, lyrics, music, news, paul, peter, sex, spelling, tv shows, videos
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