Tunes and riffs
I have spent the last week in Tuscany, Italy and rather than wax lyrical about olive groves, rolling hills, medieval towns, Estruscan tombs and Chianti ‘classico’ I am going to focus on Virgin rock radio. Somehow we found our trips down the autostrada soundtracked by this radio station. It ticked all the boxes – good reception, few ads and tolerable driving music.
So it was all non-stop driving rawk music: Eagles, Nirvana, Floyd, Blink 182, Franz Ferdinand, The Clash, Kaiser Chiefs, Beatles, Manics, The Cure, Bowie, Blur, The Doors, Doobie Brothers, Springsteen, Radiohead, Avril Lavigne and Aerosmith.
Rather like having substantial tracts of my record collection thrown back in my face actually.
But what really diverted my mind away from the Italian countryside / motorway etiquette that I should have been enjoying was just what a load of old tosh rock music is. Of course, we all already knew this but Virgin radio seemed to have a gift for making it especially apparent.
Most of the above bands have spent their careers developing unique market positions with pretty acute political and lifestyle associations. At the most basic level, this is: The Clash are not Pink Floyd, Franz Ferdinand are not Blink 182. All rock bands pretend to hate ‘the man’, some more obviously so (hello Radiohead!).
But Virgin radio, with its lack of DJs, back announcements and ads particularly seemed to elide all context and all political difference. It is all just tunes and riffs. OK, Virgin wasn’t exactly playing Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict, Rape Me or Of Walking Abortion, but neither does it care about Blur vs Oasis, Dylan going electric, Kurt Cobain’s screwed up anxiety or even Don Henley’s coke fuelled Lear jet lifestyle. Rock music isn’t about rebellion or making statements, or even about cultural progression these days. That doesn’t mean anything anymore. It’s all just tunes and riffs.
Tags: music = opinions
November 26th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
A very good point and one I’ve been subconsciously aware of for some time. Now I’m conscious of it, I don’t feel any better.
Went and bought myself the Therapy? Peel Sessions CD recently. You don’t hear any of their stuff spewing out of music shops or radios for some reason, even their poppier stuff. They must have annoyed someone.