It really does seem, at least on the surface, like sort of a crapshoot. From my own perspective, it did sort of seem like the Rites of Spring album came out and then all of a sudden some existing bands did a hard swerve into melody and feelings, and I was a little cynical about that. It seemed to me like Dear You got pilloried because so many bands were getting scooped up by major labels around then. I think it's a great record. But then you've got records like Zen Arcade, or more recently all of Fucked Up's discography from Hidden World onwards or Soul Glo getting absolutely celebrated (and rightfully so). I wonder if it's about perceived sincerity or how organic the change seems.
(And that three-minute clean guitar instrumental is, along with "Every Country's Sun" by Mogwai and "Leave a Clean Camp and a Dead Fire" by Juno, something that goes on every compilation I make for other people.)
Thanks for another great piece of the culture. Is it weird that may friends and I in suburban Nutley, NJ loved the change records from our favorite hardcore bands. Can I Say I enjoy Wig Out and Field Day more? YES I CAN! I still listen to the post New Wind 7 Seconds records with a lot of pleasure and respect. Soulforce is a perfect lp. And I still Stare into the Sun on occasion. The self titled Marginal Man has some gold in it. I digress. We used to call it cheese-core because it had hooks and spoke to feelings but we loved it. And it definitely opened the door to Bay area and Chicago happenings in the early 90s for me. So lets all consider ourselves ok to be free. Liberation is essential for art
Fascinating topic. Specifically why do some crossover/boundary stretching releases work and others don't? How much is gate keeping and how much is just an album that didn't work? How as fans do we support artists in allowing them to stretch and grow but also acknowledge if a release isn't that great? Artists definitely need the freedom to fail and I personally love boundary pushing artists but no question some just fall flat. Great article Norman!
Wow I recently I was thinking about this topic of “repurposing” and “reinterpreting” and how it is not only applies to music but most of human endeavors. Maybe it is part of our nature or behavior of human beings to do this. For example the other day I was reading a biography about Adam smith and it reminded me of the song straight edge by minor threat. In 1776 Adam smith wrote the book “the wealth of nations” not to create a new academic discipline. But other people “repurposed” the ideas in this book and created the field now known as “economics”. Is history circular? (Ian mackaye is known to say he didn’t attend to start a movement. It was just a song)
It really does seem, at least on the surface, like sort of a crapshoot. From my own perspective, it did sort of seem like the Rites of Spring album came out and then all of a sudden some existing bands did a hard swerve into melody and feelings, and I was a little cynical about that. It seemed to me like Dear You got pilloried because so many bands were getting scooped up by major labels around then. I think it's a great record. But then you've got records like Zen Arcade, or more recently all of Fucked Up's discography from Hidden World onwards or Soul Glo getting absolutely celebrated (and rightfully so). I wonder if it's about perceived sincerity or how organic the change seems.
(And that three-minute clean guitar instrumental is, along with "Every Country's Sun" by Mogwai and "Leave a Clean Camp and a Dead Fire" by Juno, something that goes on every compilation I make for other people.)
Thanks for another great piece of the culture. Is it weird that may friends and I in suburban Nutley, NJ loved the change records from our favorite hardcore bands. Can I Say I enjoy Wig Out and Field Day more? YES I CAN! I still listen to the post New Wind 7 Seconds records with a lot of pleasure and respect. Soulforce is a perfect lp. And I still Stare into the Sun on occasion. The self titled Marginal Man has some gold in it. I digress. We used to call it cheese-core because it had hooks and spoke to feelings but we loved it. And it definitely opened the door to Bay area and Chicago happenings in the early 90s for me. So lets all consider ourselves ok to be free. Liberation is essential for art
Thanks. I really enjoyed this piece. Take care.
The equivalent of André 3000's album would be a prominent hardcore singer suddenly releasing an album of ambient music. Has anyone ever done this?
Off-hand the best I can come up with is Moby going from Vatican Commandos to the song "Go." Not quite the same, but he definitely jumped.
I wouldn't exactly call it "ambient," but Dwid from Integrity has Psywarfare, which is a pretty big leap.
Billy Werner from Saetia and Hot Cross currently does DJing and produces electronic music.
Fascinating topic. Specifically why do some crossover/boundary stretching releases work and others don't? How much is gate keeping and how much is just an album that didn't work? How as fans do we support artists in allowing them to stretch and grow but also acknowledge if a release isn't that great? Artists definitely need the freedom to fail and I personally love boundary pushing artists but no question some just fall flat. Great article Norman!
Wow I recently I was thinking about this topic of “repurposing” and “reinterpreting” and how it is not only applies to music but most of human endeavors. Maybe it is part of our nature or behavior of human beings to do this. For example the other day I was reading a biography about Adam smith and it reminded me of the song straight edge by minor threat. In 1776 Adam smith wrote the book “the wealth of nations” not to create a new academic discipline. But other people “repurposed” the ideas in this book and created the field now known as “economics”. Is history circular? (Ian mackaye is known to say he didn’t attend to start a movement. It was just a song)
The history of creation is built on preexisting ideas!
Refused most definitely shook things up in a big way for me with "Shape Of". Completely.
Like Marshall McLuhan said, “thinking is just aligning yourself with pre-existing ideas”