evolution, 1985-2001

When I started getting into music, I focused on the stuff my brother liked. He was born in '73, and was a nerdy dude, so he was into Def Leppard initially. We both liked Weird Al primarily because he "mocked" MJ and Madonna. And we liked Huey Lewis mostly because of Back to the Future. Separately I kind of liked Genesis, but that was as far as pop music went for me. My peers were into Tiffany, right. Ew.

But then, but then, Guns'n'Roses came out when I was 11, and nothing was the same again. GNR and then Metallica and then, and then, Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Oooooh. Initially I didn't care for most of the Grunge scene, and I was still seriously into Bon Jovi - mainly sure, I was into the hair bands that had cute guys, and I preferred Eddie to Kurt.

Anyway, moving on, I was also getting into the Cure and Depeche Mode - especially after Violator, then Songs and Wish. I also caught glimpses of Rave, but only a few, till I graduated high school. Popular music started to fade away from Weezer and back towards Gin Blossoms. There were a few glimpses of coolness, but I mostly stopped listening to guitar stuff from '97-'01. I mentioned this to Reg - oh sure, there was the Radiohead Cult, but I am always wary of cults. Anyway Reg, who was born in '81 in Seattle, had a slightly more parallel music evolution to me, but still too "molded in 3rd Eye Blind." (I like their first record a lot, but you know.) And he agreed that most music of that era was total shit, unless you like Dave Matthews Band or whatever.

[Flashback for a minute - I was in jr. high, incredibly unpopular, and the only girls who hang out with me are either 100lbs overweight, or black*. The former likes metal, the latter likes shit I honestly can't take. R AND B, yall. Color Me Badd appears on 90210. This is what I was recoiling from. Yeah yeah yeah, CMB was just a white band capitalizing on the trend. The trend was very much there, people. I preferred gangsta rap to that shit, like woah. (My brother was into Sir Mix-A-Lot before "Baby Got Back.") The way I grew up, the time and place, you only heard of cool music by a) staying up and watching 120 Minutes, or b) knowing people who moved from big cities. Oil was big enough that there were lots of these people, at least.]

Anyway, I like electronic music a lot, but I was relieved as all hell when 2001 brought back some rock'n'roll.


*I was so dumb I didn't realize that I was being ostracized by the popular kids. Racism was too subtle for me back then.

so what I wanna know is

how come every movie from the 70s is totally great but almost every movie from the 80s is laden with an undercurrent of suck? ok, ok, not EVERY movie, but many dramas. granted I haven't seen many 80s dramas, but that one with Demi Moore and Rob Lowe - not St. Elmo's Fire, which also sucks, but that other one, About Last Night was it? And Less than Zero. And even Wall Street. It's just like, too great of a lack of irony, or something. Or maybe the 80s just were that bad.