Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.05.2007, Side 40

4_REYKJAVÍK_GRAPEVINE_ISSUE 05_007_ARTICLE/MUSIC
The early 90s were not a happy time to be
young. In between communism and Al-Qa-
eda, with a Clinton in the White House and
the apparent End of History, there was little
to be passionately for or against. Even the
80s had had a go at saving the world with
Live Aid, which almost instantly broke off
into many camps for causes closer to home
and verging on self parody; Farm Aid, Ferry
Aid, and various animal rights groups, rather
than the starving millions in Africa.
While they were easily forgotten, the
spokespeople for The Generation That
Couldn’t Find Anything to Say turned to sui-
cide (Kurt Cobain) or Scientology (Beck). In-
stead of “Feed the World,” we had anthems
in the vein of:
“I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here”
Radiohead
“I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now
Entertain us”
Nirvana
or, to put it bluntly:
“I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill
me?”
Beck
While rock laid down its guns or turned them
on itself, the cartoon became the most hon-
est art form. Beavis and Butthead, Ren and
Stimpy, and later South Park and Family Guy
caught the mood. But none more so than
the Simpsons, which simultaneously defined
and derided the 90s. In their Homerpalooza
episode, this brief exchange says it all:
Teen 1: Oh, here comes that cannonball
guy. He’s cool.
Teen 2: Are you being sarcastic, dude?
Teen 1: I don’t even know anymore.
Sex, politics and Rodney King
But who says 90’s music was entirely de-
void of meaning? The Red Hot Chili Peppers’
Bloodsugarsexmagic pointed out that sex
was nice, lest we forget. Ice-T’s Body Count
wanted a kalashnikov in every home (“try to
ban the AK, I got ten of them stashed with a
case of handgrenades”), glorification of vio-
lence masquerading as social commentary
in the wake of Rodney King. Both albums,
though, to put it in 90’s lingo, rocked.
As did Rage Against the Machine, whom
Icelanders got an early taste of, being the
only “current” band, it seemed, to perform
in Iceland in the early 90s. With their angry
but eager political lyrics they sounded like a
lone voice crying in the desert. They were
not, let’s not forget The Disposable Heroes
of Hiphoprisy. But precious few others.
The Last March of the Supergroups
The 90s started with the anticipation of new
albums by U2 and Guns n’ Roses, the stadi-
um-sized duel of the last of the supergroups,
between Bono’s Beatles and Axl’s Stones.
In the late 80s, the bands had strangely
mirrored each other. While Bono still be-
lieved that rock and roll could really change
the world, Axl celebrated unrestrained he-
donism. Both laid claim to global dominance
with their 1987 offerings, The Joshua Tree
and Appetite for Destruction. They were fol-
lowed a year later with stopgap albums that
recycled some earlier material, Rattle and
Hum and GNR Lies. On “God pt. 2,” Bono
flirted with self awareness and sarcasm:
“Don’t believe in riches but you should see
where I live.” Axl also opted for sarcasm, but
without the self awareness: “Immigrants and
faggots/ They make no sense to me/ They
come to our country/ And think they’ll do as
they please”
Supermodels, cigars and Sellafield
When both bands re-emerged in late ‘91
after long studio sessions, U2 had changed.
They had by now apparently embraced cyni-
cism wholesale, throwing off the messianic
complex in favour of supermodels and cigars.
But in fact they were still idealists masked as
self-indulgent rock stars, as the landing at the
Sellafield nuclear power plant proved. While
so many self-indulgent rock stars pretended
to be idealists, this was as postmodern as it
got. As was the Zoo TV tour. Television and
TV preachers, neo-Nazism and the EU, The
First Gulf and the Bosnia Wars, remote con-
trols and phone calls to world leaders: the
early 90s in a nutshell. The companion al-
bum Achtung Baby remains one of the finest
albums of the decade.
“Once there was this rock and roll band
rolling on the streets...”
Guns n Roses, however, had not changed,
barring Steven Adler being fired for his drug
addiction and Izzy Stradlin leaving for lack of
it. Two double albums may sound like over-
kill, but as Bono would put it, “Too much is
not enough.” The mid-section of Use Your
Illusion II should silence any voices claiming
that Appetite was their only good album.
From the country stylings of Breakdown to
that rare moment of self-mockery on Pretty
Tied Up to the relentless grind of Locomo-
tive, the romance of So Fine and the soaring
heights of Estranged, rock n’ roll doesn’t get
much better than this. Until it all fizzles away
at the end, as did the band.
In 1993, both bands released planned EP’s
that grew to full length albums. U2 continued
with their Europop experiments on Zooropa,
a worthy successor to Achtung Baby, where-
as Guns n Roses rehashed old punk songs on
The Spaghetti Incident. By now, it was obvi-
ous which band would survive the 90s and
which would not. The last shots in this sup-
posed duel were in 1995, when U2 released
the Batman Forever soundtrack single Hold
Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me, and Guns n’
Roses the Interview with the Vampire single
Sympathy for the Devil. The Rolling Stones
cover was to be their last release to date. No
one would again lay claim to U2’s title of Big-
gest Band in the World.
King Kurt
While the battle of the supergroups raged,
with bands such as REM and Metallica
seemingly waiting to pick up the respective
crowns of the fallen, Seattle somewhat un-
expectedly emerged as the music capital of
the world. A young man named Kurt Co-
bain, despite his apparent inability to find
anything worth saying or doing, conquered
the world. Nevermind, possibly bettered by
In Utero, is a classic rock album of the sort
that hasn’t really appeared since, every song
anathematic, un-ignorable, life-changing. In
his footsteps followed grunge which, apart
from the odd Pearl Jam album, I motion be
struck from the records.
At around the same time that King Kurt
killed himself, the focus shifted to London
during one of rock’s periodic swings be-
tween the US and the UK. With the onset
of Britpop, I decided to tune out completely
and bury myself in a haze of someone else’s
nostalgia, working my way back through
the Sex Pistols and the Clash, the real Bea-
tles and the Stones, Elvis, Hank Williams,
Woody Guthrie. Even if Pulp’s Different
Class is in retrospect a great album, and
Blur are at times worthwhile, genre kings
Oasis had precious little new to say, which
perhaps makes them the most 90’s band of
them all.
Sarcasm came to an end on the 11th of
September 2001. With the likes of Bush and
Bin Laden devouring nations and Blair’s turn
to the Dark Side, there is now most decid-
edly something to fight against, if still little
to fight for. But, in a couple of years who
knows? With another Clinton in the White
House, we may be able to return to worry-
ing about nothing much at all. And have a
damn miserable time doing it.
The Best Depressing Music of the 90s
Text by Valur Gunnarsson
In the late 80s, the
bands had strangely
mirrored each other.
While Bono still be-
lieved that rock and roll
could really change the
world, Axl celebrated
unrestrained hedonism.