Dead On Arrival, The 90s Revival (Part 3)

Frank Black “Big Red” I wrote something about the Pixies once which even in these reunited times still holds up. Pertinent here is the idea that Frank Black sounded most human and engaged when he was singing about aliens and spaceships: “Big Red”, which I hope you Fluxblog readers all know, is from his second solo album and is a charmingly hooksome song about the colonisation of Mars. It sums up for me the breezier, more joyful side of ‘Alternative’ music in the early 90s.

Alternative music has been criticised, or rather, the idea that ‘alternative music’ exists has been criticised – it was a marketing conceit, a branding exercise that reduced the colorful, creative patchwork of 80s independent music to pigeonholed homogeny. I can see that point, and later in the 90s things did get pretty awful as the bubble burst. But at the same time as soon as Nirvana hit big ‘Alternative’ was inevitable. Post-Nirvana there was a swell of interest in the people who’d been doing ‘that kind of thing’ for ages – what resulted wasn’t always enjoyable but it was interesting, a one-off opportunity for a generation of indie musicians to make commercial music which would be marketed heavily. A grab at the brass ring, in other words. Throwing Muses, Tanya Donelly, Evan Dando, Dirty-era Sonic Youth, Kim Deal, Bob Mould and Frank Black – from my side of the Atlantic it looked in ’92 very much like these people, more-or-less familiar from well-thumbed Melody Makers, had decided to try and make pop music and see where it got them. Mostly it got them nowhere, or back where they started from. But some fun music resulted.

There are two ways Alternative (in its early 90s, Gen X marketing buzz sense) could revive. People making music that rips it off, sure – but the paths these artists trod have hardly been short of walkers since. More interesting maybe would be another indie boom – a new commercial consensus that would lead to the underground heroes of today being given the chance to ‘sell out’. The sounds would be different, but the spirit of ’92-’93 would linger.

(Meanwhile the poll goes on.)