My first foray into fully enjoying music began way way way way WAY back when I first started playing video games. Can't really point out the exact year, all I know is I was not very much into modern pop music at age 6 or 7, which was understandable because all that was aimed more at teenagers. At this time kids my age in the late 90's, early 2000's were listening to 'Radio Disney' or whatever albums they swiped from their older siblings or whatever crap they were forced to listen to by their parents like...around the early 2000's 'Kidz Bop' was starting to become a thing. G-rated covers of rated PG music, thank goodness my parents weren't that stupid enough to get me this. My listening time was spent hearing the compressed 64bit sounds of whatever N64 game I owned or rented...well mostly rented because my parents did not want to schill out however much people were selling those game cartirdges. That shows you how way back this was. I would take full advantage of the in-menu music track select which was a feature mainly used in racing games & I was a huge nut for racing games. This was before Steam made it easier to take the soundtrack wherever you go with free MP3 downloads, listening to VGMs at the time was confined to your console in your room. Sometimes you had to just start a game & leave the controller aside just to hear the in-level music because all other genres don't provide a music track feature in the menus. Primitive, right? You better believe I was blasting the volume up to 99 with the song tracks on 'Cruisn' World'. Listening to that now gives me the biggest shot of nostalgia since it's obvious the music people used tons of library sounds, especially that guitar riff that constantly played everywhere from gatorade to jeep commercials. I'll give credit where credits' due, most of those racing games on the N64 were single handedly responsible for my interest in that era of techno, trance & house music. The soundtrack to the first 'Extreme G' goes hard, tons of drum & bass!
Quick tangent here: I hate how modern game reviewers now view the company 'Acclaim' as just a full out shitty video game factory. Sure, they had a terrible track record full of missteps. Aside from that crappy bug game they made for the N64 & Psone, most of their output was great. All those 'Turok'
games were more hits than misses, Extreme G, though it doesn't hold up anymore there's that first person shooter 'South Park' game was something to behold back in the 90's. Those were fine, well made games & I just hate how they are viewed on par with someone like 'LJN'. I will say the output they did when they bought 'Valiant Comics' and turned it to 'Acclaim Comics' was very shitty. Mr. Tomorrow was not their shining light. Such a good concept that failed in every way.
Back to video game music, of course I played other games aside from racing games. Who could forget the awesomeness of 'Goldeneye' on the N64, four player split screen. WE BE KILLIN EACHOTHER IN FOUR PLAYER SPLIT SCREEN! By this point everyone knows the history of this game's creation so we won't waste time with that. Everyone either praises or straight up jokes about the game now because it has been showing its age since 2009. One thing I'm bothered by is these YouTubers who talk about the game (or film) in such nostalgic & glowing terms (Well, besides me everyone jokes about the film or straight up criticizes it), yet never offer opinions on the music. The music very much echoes (for the most part) the sounds of Eric Serra movie. This is even more true when you listen to the songs in an uncompressed form. Just recently someone on YouTube uploaded the decompressed VGOST & they just sound beautiful, very much like you're playing the movie.
Quick tangent here: I hate how modern game reviewers now view the company 'Acclaim' as just a full out shitty video game factory. Sure, they had a terrible track record full of missteps. Aside from that crappy bug game they made for the N64 & Psone, most of their output was great. All those 'Turok'
games were more hits than misses, Extreme G, though it doesn't hold up anymore there's that first person shooter 'South Park' game was something to behold back in the 90's. Those were fine, well made games & I just hate how they are viewed on par with someone like 'LJN'. I will say the output they did when they bought 'Valiant Comics' and turned it to 'Acclaim Comics' was very shitty. Mr. Tomorrow was not their shining light. Such a good concept that failed in every way.
Back to video game music, of course I played other games aside from racing games. Who could forget the awesomeness of 'Goldeneye' on the N64, four player split screen. WE BE KILLIN EACHOTHER IN FOUR PLAYER SPLIT SCREEN! By this point everyone knows the history of this game's creation so we won't waste time with that. Everyone either praises or straight up jokes about the game now because it has been showing its age since 2009. One thing I'm bothered by is these YouTubers who talk about the game (or film) in such nostalgic & glowing terms (Well, besides me everyone jokes about the film or straight up criticizes it), yet never offer opinions on the music. The music very much echoes (for the most part) the sounds of Eric Serra movie. This is even more true when you listen to the songs in an uncompressed form. Just recently someone on YouTube uploaded the decompressed VGOST & they just sound beautiful, very much like you're playing the movie.
Out of most of the platforming games I've played on the system (The system had quite a number), I still say the greatest soundtrack from that genre goes to the one and only....Super Mario 64. The music to the Dire Dire Docks level is still my jam! But aside from that track, there's a ton of other memorable music in that game. The slide music that plays when you gotta race that penguin, the desert music which I always hear whenever I go out on a very sweltering day, that industrial track that plays when you face Bowser in that pentagram stage. So many memorable songs in that still get the acknowledgment today.
You can say video game soundtracks were my intro to enjoying music as a leisure activity, just like comics were an intro to reading for me. Most of the music genres I have enjoyed started from video games, thus brings me to the games with licensed music. Just like everyone ballpark my age, some great punk, metal, rap & ska came into our lives with the help of the 'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater' series of games....well 1 through Underground 2. After Underground 2 that whole franchise just died a sick horrible death due to shit emu screamu & energy drink frat culture, but let's take a look at that first game. Dead Kennedys, Evenrude, Goldfinger, Primus, Speedealer, Suicidal Tendencies, The Vandals, Unsane. Most of those songs were made earlier in the 90's, nearly a decade old when this game was released. You could easily tell because of Primus, this was before they got all hillbilly. The whole soundtrack is just nothing but early 90's awesomeness. This was the culture, the music very much embodied skate culture of the era. The sequel...while there are a few good tracks, it's clear at this point it was less about music that skateboarders embraced & it was whatever was hot at that moment in time being 2000. Yeah, the game turns 20 in September 19th of this year ( I know what I'm dusting off & playing that day). Time sure flew by fast. An issue that was prevalent in the first three N64 games was it was clear the cartridge based version had to compress the songs to where you can hear the obvious moment the song track loops. That's why people preferred the Playstation version of the first three games, perfect CD rips on a CD based video game. I can't think of other games in the N64 library that used licensed music, but the Psone was king when it came to that. The biggest reason why many of those games aren't being remastered as much is because the music is keeping them from re-licensing. There was a game called 'Street Sk8ter' (Yeah, with a '8' spelled in there) that had a ton of obscure punk & ska music I'm FAH-SHO would be a bitch to re-license now. Either this is a rights issue or this is just the anime company not giving a fuck about their archives, but the 1997 'Ghost in the Shell' game was magnificent. I say this might be a rights issue because the game sports a lot of mid-90's techno artists from Detroit & Europe. 'Brother From Another Planet' (who got his start under Detroit's 'Underground Resistance') did the level one music. The tracks go hard in this game, I highly recommend but also the physical copy is difficult/expensive so EMULATE THAT SUCKAH!!!! Aside from royalties & ignorance, I forgot to mention this game was either published or developed by THQ...say what you will.
Also with the Psone there was a lot of in-game music rather than the N64 where the music was made with the console engine Just like the NES, Sega Genesis & SNES. That is why the Sega Genesis has that twangy sound & the SNES sounds has more like an updated midi sound. So we as gamers started to notice the music more on CD systems like the Psone or the PC because the music actually came from a musician with a computer or a full on band/orchestra. That's not to say gamers never noticed soundtracks before, but this was the moment when you started seeing that Japanese otaku approach with video games when people would import the soundtrack from Japan because no record label would put out a soundtrack to a video game. Think back to what I said earlier, listening to music from video games was very much primitive. We didn't start getting a lot of tie-in soundtracks & free CD's with the game purchase until the mid-2000's when otakus were becoming a much bigger demographic. I say otakus because they are the reason why a lot of this became much more mainstream & it all began with the JRPGs & their Day One/Limited Edition releases of games. I think of all those games from 'Atlas Publishing' I saw at GameStop or Target that not only contained the OST in a CD, they also included art books & Behind The Scenes stuff. Once we reached the Playstation 2 & GameCube era of game systems the soundtrack began to mimick movie soundtracks. When you have Harry William Gregson doing the soundtrack to a Metal Gear game, it's clear as day video games were striving to reach the same level as cinema & for the most part that still happens today. Aside from games like 'LA Noir' which have this beautiful orchestral soundtrack reminicent of Jerry Goldsmith's 'Chinatown', we also get this return to classic form with the 8-bit and 16-bit throwback games. We come full circle to the beeps, boops & tchts of those chiptunes.
You can say video game soundtracks were my intro to enjoying music as a leisure activity, just like comics were an intro to reading for me. Most of the music genres I have enjoyed started from video games, thus brings me to the games with licensed music. Just like everyone ballpark my age, some great punk, metal, rap & ska came into our lives with the help of the 'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater' series of games....well 1 through Underground 2. After Underground 2 that whole franchise just died a sick horrible death due to shit emu screamu & energy drink frat culture, but let's take a look at that first game. Dead Kennedys, Evenrude, Goldfinger, Primus, Speedealer, Suicidal Tendencies, The Vandals, Unsane. Most of those songs were made earlier in the 90's, nearly a decade old when this game was released. You could easily tell because of Primus, this was before they got all hillbilly. The whole soundtrack is just nothing but early 90's awesomeness. This was the culture, the music very much embodied skate culture of the era. The sequel...while there are a few good tracks, it's clear at this point it was less about music that skateboarders embraced & it was whatever was hot at that moment in time being 2000. Yeah, the game turns 20 in September 19th of this year ( I know what I'm dusting off & playing that day). Time sure flew by fast. An issue that was prevalent in the first three N64 games was it was clear the cartridge based version had to compress the songs to where you can hear the obvious moment the song track loops. That's why people preferred the Playstation version of the first three games, perfect CD rips on a CD based video game. I can't think of other games in the N64 library that used licensed music, but the Psone was king when it came to that. The biggest reason why many of those games aren't being remastered as much is because the music is keeping them from re-licensing. There was a game called 'Street Sk8ter' (Yeah, with a '8' spelled in there) that had a ton of obscure punk & ska music I'm FAH-SHO would be a bitch to re-license now. Either this is a rights issue or this is just the anime company not giving a fuck about their archives, but the 1997 'Ghost in the Shell' game was magnificent. I say this might be a rights issue because the game sports a lot of mid-90's techno artists from Detroit & Europe. 'Brother From Another Planet' (who got his start under Detroit's 'Underground Resistance') did the level one music. The tracks go hard in this game, I highly recommend but also the physical copy is difficult/expensive so EMULATE THAT SUCKAH!!!! Aside from royalties & ignorance, I forgot to mention this game was either published or developed by THQ...say what you will.
Also with the Psone there was a lot of in-game music rather than the N64 where the music was made with the console engine Just like the NES, Sega Genesis & SNES. That is why the Sega Genesis has that twangy sound & the SNES sounds has more like an updated midi sound. So we as gamers started to notice the music more on CD systems like the Psone or the PC because the music actually came from a musician with a computer or a full on band/orchestra. That's not to say gamers never noticed soundtracks before, but this was the moment when you started seeing that Japanese otaku approach with video games when people would import the soundtrack from Japan because no record label would put out a soundtrack to a video game. Think back to what I said earlier, listening to music from video games was very much primitive. We didn't start getting a lot of tie-in soundtracks & free CD's with the game purchase until the mid-2000's when otakus were becoming a much bigger demographic. I say otakus because they are the reason why a lot of this became much more mainstream & it all began with the JRPGs & their Day One/Limited Edition releases of games. I think of all those games from 'Atlas Publishing' I saw at GameStop or Target that not only contained the OST in a CD, they also included art books & Behind The Scenes stuff. Once we reached the Playstation 2 & GameCube era of game systems the soundtrack began to mimick movie soundtracks. When you have Harry William Gregson doing the soundtrack to a Metal Gear game, it's clear as day video games were striving to reach the same level as cinema & for the most part that still happens today. Aside from games like 'LA Noir' which have this beautiful orchestral soundtrack reminicent of Jerry Goldsmith's 'Chinatown', we also get this return to classic form with the 8-bit and 16-bit throwback games. We come full circle to the beeps, boops & tchts of those chiptunes.
As stated before, video games were a launching pad for me into the world of licensed music, specifically with GTA. The first GTA I ever owned and played was 'Vice City' & I tell you at age 12 that game single highhandedly is responsible for my love of 80's synth and old school hip hop, since the game takes place in 1987. I still remember most of the artists in that game: Mantronix, Mann Parish, Whondini, Cybotron, they were all underground at the time. . It was a time of exploration for me & I was finding myself...to be honest I'm still finding myself. Me & my sisters got our first internet modem so we used that to our advantage in discovering a lot of music & film. Video Games, movies, internet & my older sister were very much instrumental in my tastes. Before this, there were so many outlets that tried so hard to catch my interested, but it didn't work at all. Sure, when I was a child my older sister listened to 'Radio Disney' but in my view that was just background noise & something to pass the time while I played with my toys & she did her arts & crafts stuff. Parents didn't mind, it was just Radio Disney, nothing but harmless pop music like Backstreet Boys. My parents were huge in straight up saying music is bad for people, but I felt their beef was they didn't like that fact that two 1st Generation Mexican kids in America would rather listen to american pop rather than to listen to Pedro Infante. We weren't completely ignorant, me & my older sis listened to Selina. My parents sure played a lot of loud music, but most of the time we didn't complain until you started getting crap like Don Cheto's overplayed parody shit & the Mexican beeping song. Half of you who aren't mexican know what I'm talking about. If you need a refresher, search: 'Mexican Beeping Song' onto YouTube & instantly you'll get the song in the results. It also appeared in 'Grand Theft Auto:V' under the mexican nortenio station. Oh and also Don Cheto is the DJ on that in-game station so we come full circle!
I can only describe two instances when my parents tried hard to either change our tastes or tried to like our 'supposed' tastes in music. First story: 20 years ago (Yea, the year 2000 was 20 years ago. Happy Birthday, Malcom In The Middle!) Burger King used to have a promotional where if you bought a value meal, you could buy one of three CD's titled 'For the Fans' from The Backstreet Boys. The discs included exclusive remixes & live concert recordings of their songs. So my parents schilled out $2.99 for a CD (The blue one), put on the CD while we ate our whoppers at the dinner table. Here my parents were sitting there thinking “We sure are hip parents, aren't we kids?” all while me & my older sister (My younger sister was still one year old) were looking at each other, telling each other through telekenisis “Who the fuck are the Backstreet Boys? Are they Nazis? You into this? No. Am I into this? I don't even know what this is?!!” My older sister was way more into rappers & Brittney Spears back in the early 2000's. She was way more Aliyah & DMX & the camp sounds of Sisqo, remember that Dennis Rodman looking motherfucker?
I can only describe two instances when my parents tried hard to either change our tastes or tried to like our 'supposed' tastes in music. First story: 20 years ago (Yea, the year 2000 was 20 years ago. Happy Birthday, Malcom In The Middle!) Burger King used to have a promotional where if you bought a value meal, you could buy one of three CD's titled 'For the Fans' from The Backstreet Boys. The discs included exclusive remixes & live concert recordings of their songs. So my parents schilled out $2.99 for a CD (The blue one), put on the CD while we ate our whoppers at the dinner table. Here my parents were sitting there thinking “We sure are hip parents, aren't we kids?” all while me & my older sister (My younger sister was still one year old) were looking at each other, telling each other through telekenisis “Who the fuck are the Backstreet Boys? Are they Nazis? You into this? No. Am I into this? I don't even know what this is?!!” My older sister was way more into rappers & Brittney Spears back in the early 2000's. She was way more Aliyah & DMX & the camp sounds of Sisqo, remember that Dennis Rodman looking motherfucker?
So going back to my teen years, I embraced hardcore punk rock because of the emotions I was going through as a teenager. Me & my older sis started from the beginning with Sex Pistols. Nevermind the John Lydon butter commercials here, we just knew the Sex Pistols made some great bangers that were considered inflammatory in 70's Britain. Shouting 'God Save The Queen' was no different, but less crass sounding as shouting “Fuck the President”. We were at the end of Bush's term here. While my sis went more into the direction of Rockabilly & Psychobilly with groups like 'Tiger Army' and 'The Horrorpops' (I got no beef wit those bands, I just don't listen to them alot), I went towards the grungy & gritty with Black Flag, Bad Brains & the early parts of Circle Jerks. My older sister dug it, but it was a whole other story going to school. You would think the punks would open their arms to a kid like me trying to get at the scene, instead I was criticized & called a poser, except for that one chubby punk girl with thick ass glasses. Shoutout to the big beautiful punks. Couldn't really blame them, kid with an Addicts T-shirt & a military flat top haircut. Yeah, I'd call me a poser too, hit 'em with a brick & I'm dancing! My fucking dad forced me to have a flat top all throughout my childhood & you bet I hated it. Come High school freshman year I ditched the militant hair & embraced the shag, that Morpheus shag I rocked. So I knew the Punks were just as conformist & just as bullshit exclusivity based as the other fucking cliques. Y'ALL AIN't SPECIAL but I'll still listen to the music & fucks with the good people.
Quick aside here: I find it funny that there are these 'Punks' that used to go to High School with me now have slicked back hair, trophy wife girlfriends straight out of a mid-2000's Fox sitcom, lives in a house with one of those 'Eat, Pray, Love' signs on their home & easily gets triggered by stuff they would easily shove off as a teenager. Way to stick it to the system.....zoomers? Gen Z? Millenial? Sandwich Genreation? I legit don't know what to call my generation.
Around this time I made trips to the library & raided their CD section. That's when I stumbled upon two film soundtracks that shaped my transition to tween to teen, the soundtrack to the Spawn movie & the soundtrack to 'Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight'. The 1997 Spawn movie sucked balls, but lemme tell you about the soundtrack! Dust Bros, Crystal Method, Prodigy; THE 90's are alive in the late 2000's!!!! Then we get to Demon Knight, a soundtrack that gave me a bulk of the music I listen to today. The first time I listened to Ministry's 'Tonight We Murder' was the day I officially lost my Industrial cherry. Then there's Sepultura with a remix of 'Policia' which was thrashing goodness & of course we get to the insanity that is Melvins with Instant Larry. I was done with listening to Nirvana so I felt there was nothing else to explore within the Grunge genre, that was until Melvins rekindled my need to explore more. Nothing but thrash grunge & a ton of grizzly gibberish being spat on the mic. IT'S WHOLESOME AS FUCK! The thing that pisses me off is listening to the soundtrack gave me visions of where songs like Instant Larry & Tonight We Murder would be placed in the film. Sadly those tracks never appeared in the film when I saw it. For some reason a lot of soundtracks do that either because those tracks appeared in deleted scenes or the fact that it was music made specifically for the soundtrack. Or the more horrible outcome, the songs used to be in the film but were taken out in later re-releases because the studio did not renew the licence. That was a thing in the 90's, sometimes movies would release two soundtracks just to take all our money, one with the licenced music & the other with the original film score.. Also there was the fact that movie studios were in agreement with a bunch of major record labels, thinking if they couldn't make the money back from the film, they can recoup their losses from the tie-in merch. thus included soundtracks. 'Mortal Kombat Annihilation' was a piece of crap film, but the soundtrack was amazing so I wouldn't be surprised if MKA earned most of its cash back from the soundtrack.
Punk, industrial, house music, rap music, film scores & specifically thrash metal filled my ears throughout my teen years. Why else wouldn't that be the preferred soundtrack? Frustration with the failing political party I so stupidly believed in, anger towards school staff & parents are what made those genres speak to me. That was the reason why I wasn't into music that was specifically targeted to my age group. None of the top 10 hits or the party music that everyone else was listening to hit me on the inside. Something about music from the 90's & before were what really spoke to me more than the music of the late 2000's to now. I'll extend my appreciation of music to the early 2000's, there was some solid music at that time that I actually enjoy, 50 cent was really putting out some good stuff at that time & it seemed like by the mid-2000's it all just came tumbling down. I had no desire to listen to what was basically the flavor of the month & sadly in turn that was translated as me not having a desire to listen to anything new. That was not true, but when most of everything new was crappy (Do a jerk) music, there was nothing to latch on to. When old school rap tossed knowledge & a message to its audience while the rap from 2011 became repetitive mumbling, of course I'd lean to the older stuff. That was my mindset, until I discovered newer folks like Tyler The Creator, Odd Future & MF Doom. You got these current rappers who rapped lyrics rather than mumbled that shit, yet at the time they were underground...maybe except for MF Doom but none of these Migos fans knew who MF Doom was. I felt at the time those guys were what was needed within the gnere, especially Tyler's early transgressive stuff. I wasn't hot for his lyrics at the time, but after reading stuff like William Burroughs I kinda grew an appreciation for Tyler The Creator's lyrics. Aside from rap I wasn't into the emo scene. I was a chubby angry kid, were there ever any fat emo kids with melanin? I mostly saw that as a skinny white subculture. Hit me up if you was a thick emo boy. Most of all the other good newer groups were ones I discovered after I ended high school, stuff like Crystal Castles. (*John Wayne Voice) Oh boy, those gals sure know how to make swell music, I tell you HWAT! 'Vietnam' was my joint. I feel like after my tween years I became much more tolerant of other genres. I never really thought I would listen to Cocteau Twins in my twenties. Can't say I have gotten soft in my older age because I'm also listening to noise bands & just off kilter stuff like Diamanda Galas. Gotta counteract the luvy duvy with the creepy dark shit. This is why I can't use my playlist as party music, it will go from Skinny Puppy to some 80's Jpop like 'Seiko Matsuda', then go full circle with Throbbing Gristle's 'I Hate You'. This is why nobody invites Jebus to parties.
Let me just spill some praise for 'The Wu-Tang Clan'. A group like that truly hit me personally. Not only was it just good rap music, but because you have these east coast guys incorporating their love of martial arts & Hong Kong action cinema into their rhymes. While other rappers were viewing their own clique as a gang or a mafia, these guys were viewing themselves as a shaolin clan. I can still remember the music video that sold me on these guys, 'The Mystery of Chessboxing', which is the same title as the movie. That track went hard & made me track down their other albums. I was not disappointed. Coming across Wu-Tang Clan was on par with a kid who just likes butterflies, then on his first day of school he thinks he'll make friends with his interest but is faced with a rude awakening when he's ostracized for liking butterflies. Then he comes across another kid who also likes butterflies so they unite under their hobbie of catching butterflies. That's how it felt coming across Wu-Tang, being the only kid spending weekend afternoons renting kung fu flicks & catching Jackie Chan movies on local TV. It's a special feeling coming across another person who's into the same niche stuff you're into & it's a feeling I still kinda experience today when I go to a comic shop or get stopped by someone who appreciates the specific types of T-shirts I wear. I just got complimented on the 'Basic Instinct' shirt at the bank recently, it's an image of Sharon Stone sitting cross legged during that interrogation scene.
Quick aside here: I find it funny that there are these 'Punks' that used to go to High School with me now have slicked back hair, trophy wife girlfriends straight out of a mid-2000's Fox sitcom, lives in a house with one of those 'Eat, Pray, Love' signs on their home & easily gets triggered by stuff they would easily shove off as a teenager. Way to stick it to the system.....zoomers? Gen Z? Millenial? Sandwich Genreation? I legit don't know what to call my generation.
Around this time I made trips to the library & raided their CD section. That's when I stumbled upon two film soundtracks that shaped my transition to tween to teen, the soundtrack to the Spawn movie & the soundtrack to 'Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight'. The 1997 Spawn movie sucked balls, but lemme tell you about the soundtrack! Dust Bros, Crystal Method, Prodigy; THE 90's are alive in the late 2000's!!!! Then we get to Demon Knight, a soundtrack that gave me a bulk of the music I listen to today. The first time I listened to Ministry's 'Tonight We Murder' was the day I officially lost my Industrial cherry. Then there's Sepultura with a remix of 'Policia' which was thrashing goodness & of course we get to the insanity that is Melvins with Instant Larry. I was done with listening to Nirvana so I felt there was nothing else to explore within the Grunge genre, that was until Melvins rekindled my need to explore more. Nothing but thrash grunge & a ton of grizzly gibberish being spat on the mic. IT'S WHOLESOME AS FUCK! The thing that pisses me off is listening to the soundtrack gave me visions of where songs like Instant Larry & Tonight We Murder would be placed in the film. Sadly those tracks never appeared in the film when I saw it. For some reason a lot of soundtracks do that either because those tracks appeared in deleted scenes or the fact that it was music made specifically for the soundtrack. Or the more horrible outcome, the songs used to be in the film but were taken out in later re-releases because the studio did not renew the licence. That was a thing in the 90's, sometimes movies would release two soundtracks just to take all our money, one with the licenced music & the other with the original film score.. Also there was the fact that movie studios were in agreement with a bunch of major record labels, thinking if they couldn't make the money back from the film, they can recoup their losses from the tie-in merch. thus included soundtracks. 'Mortal Kombat Annihilation' was a piece of crap film, but the soundtrack was amazing so I wouldn't be surprised if MKA earned most of its cash back from the soundtrack.
Punk, industrial, house music, rap music, film scores & specifically thrash metal filled my ears throughout my teen years. Why else wouldn't that be the preferred soundtrack? Frustration with the failing political party I so stupidly believed in, anger towards school staff & parents are what made those genres speak to me. That was the reason why I wasn't into music that was specifically targeted to my age group. None of the top 10 hits or the party music that everyone else was listening to hit me on the inside. Something about music from the 90's & before were what really spoke to me more than the music of the late 2000's to now. I'll extend my appreciation of music to the early 2000's, there was some solid music at that time that I actually enjoy, 50 cent was really putting out some good stuff at that time & it seemed like by the mid-2000's it all just came tumbling down. I had no desire to listen to what was basically the flavor of the month & sadly in turn that was translated as me not having a desire to listen to anything new. That was not true, but when most of everything new was crappy (Do a jerk) music, there was nothing to latch on to. When old school rap tossed knowledge & a message to its audience while the rap from 2011 became repetitive mumbling, of course I'd lean to the older stuff. That was my mindset, until I discovered newer folks like Tyler The Creator, Odd Future & MF Doom. You got these current rappers who rapped lyrics rather than mumbled that shit, yet at the time they were underground...maybe except for MF Doom but none of these Migos fans knew who MF Doom was. I felt at the time those guys were what was needed within the gnere, especially Tyler's early transgressive stuff. I wasn't hot for his lyrics at the time, but after reading stuff like William Burroughs I kinda grew an appreciation for Tyler The Creator's lyrics. Aside from rap I wasn't into the emo scene. I was a chubby angry kid, were there ever any fat emo kids with melanin? I mostly saw that as a skinny white subculture. Hit me up if you was a thick emo boy. Most of all the other good newer groups were ones I discovered after I ended high school, stuff like Crystal Castles. (*John Wayne Voice) Oh boy, those gals sure know how to make swell music, I tell you HWAT! 'Vietnam' was my joint. I feel like after my tween years I became much more tolerant of other genres. I never really thought I would listen to Cocteau Twins in my twenties. Can't say I have gotten soft in my older age because I'm also listening to noise bands & just off kilter stuff like Diamanda Galas. Gotta counteract the luvy duvy with the creepy dark shit. This is why I can't use my playlist as party music, it will go from Skinny Puppy to some 80's Jpop like 'Seiko Matsuda', then go full circle with Throbbing Gristle's 'I Hate You'. This is why nobody invites Jebus to parties.
Let me just spill some praise for 'The Wu-Tang Clan'. A group like that truly hit me personally. Not only was it just good rap music, but because you have these east coast guys incorporating their love of martial arts & Hong Kong action cinema into their rhymes. While other rappers were viewing their own clique as a gang or a mafia, these guys were viewing themselves as a shaolin clan. I can still remember the music video that sold me on these guys, 'The Mystery of Chessboxing', which is the same title as the movie. That track went hard & made me track down their other albums. I was not disappointed. Coming across Wu-Tang Clan was on par with a kid who just likes butterflies, then on his first day of school he thinks he'll make friends with his interest but is faced with a rude awakening when he's ostracized for liking butterflies. Then he comes across another kid who also likes butterflies so they unite under their hobbie of catching butterflies. That's how it felt coming across Wu-Tang, being the only kid spending weekend afternoons renting kung fu flicks & catching Jackie Chan movies on local TV. It's a special feeling coming across another person who's into the same niche stuff you're into & it's a feeling I still kinda experience today when I go to a comic shop or get stopped by someone who appreciates the specific types of T-shirts I wear. I just got complimented on the 'Basic Instinct' shirt at the bank recently, it's an image of Sharon Stone sitting cross legged during that interrogation scene.
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Film composers, let's talk about that! Back in the day it seemed like everyone knew the names Howard Shore, Angelo Baladamenti, Jerry Goldsmith & Eliot Goldenthol. Now, those names are lost in the rush of spectacle imagery & the constant push of trailer blurbs like: “Hey, those producers of this movie were involved in that movie you liked a month ago! That means this movie will be just as good!”
In the 90's, all the way to the 50's, movie music was upbeat, somber, fun, sad, bombastic & just all around loud & recognizable. The film's soundtrack accompanied the imagery in the film & added to the emotional impact you're supposed to feel in specific scenes. When you hear a sad track in an emotionally impacting scene, it really adds to the sadness of the scene. When you hear that badass Rambo theme when Rambo arms himself with a machine gun, that's the moment you tell yourself that Shit's about to get real! I'm not saying there's no more recognizable music in movies, but we start seeing less of the Composer's input & started seeing more of the director's playlist or whatever music the studio/record label wants to push. Then we get to the elephant in the room, the Marvel movies & their film scores. I saw a video on YouTube that full out proved my point that movie soundtracks now are just background noise. It's not just Marvel that's guilty of this, but all of mainstream cinema. Simple question here: The Avengers doesn't count because the video was made before the other Avengers sequels pushed the theme more than the first flick. Can you hum the main theme for the solo Marvel Superhero movies? Hell, I'll even extend this to the DC Superhero movies. Once again, 'Joker' doesn't count because that's a villain & also I heard the music in that recent movie was actually well done. Hum a theme song from any movie made in the last 5 years that isn't a reboot or a sequel because I can already tell some wiseass is going to hum the 'Jurassic World' theme. This is actually something I'd like to hear from some of you. What movie made in the last decade has a recognizable theme?
Email: blacktimepress@aol.com
In the 90's, all the way to the 50's, movie music was upbeat, somber, fun, sad, bombastic & just all around loud & recognizable. The film's soundtrack accompanied the imagery in the film & added to the emotional impact you're supposed to feel in specific scenes. When you hear a sad track in an emotionally impacting scene, it really adds to the sadness of the scene. When you hear that badass Rambo theme when Rambo arms himself with a machine gun, that's the moment you tell yourself that Shit's about to get real! I'm not saying there's no more recognizable music in movies, but we start seeing less of the Composer's input & started seeing more of the director's playlist or whatever music the studio/record label wants to push. Then we get to the elephant in the room, the Marvel movies & their film scores. I saw a video on YouTube that full out proved my point that movie soundtracks now are just background noise. It's not just Marvel that's guilty of this, but all of mainstream cinema. Simple question here: The Avengers doesn't count because the video was made before the other Avengers sequels pushed the theme more than the first flick. Can you hum the main theme for the solo Marvel Superhero movies? Hell, I'll even extend this to the DC Superhero movies. Once again, 'Joker' doesn't count because that's a villain & also I heard the music in that recent movie was actually well done. Hum a theme song from any movie made in the last 5 years that isn't a reboot or a sequel because I can already tell some wiseass is going to hum the 'Jurassic World' theme. This is actually something I'd like to hear from some of you. What movie made in the last decade has a recognizable theme?
Email: blacktimepress@aol.com
My three favorite film soundtracks of all time (Not in any particular order):
-Total Recall: I rewatched this flick in my teens & the film's music is what caused me to go out & hunt for the album. It's full of magic & just all around action music thrills. This is the music that very much made me a card carrying Jerry Goldsmith fan. It was the starter which lead to searching for his other film compositions. I didn't think I would like the soundtrack he did for 'Basic Instinct', but it still has his style around the car chase scenes. Of course this was him doing a straight forward noir so he did a ton of slow tracks. While the director can choke on a razorblade & fuck a cactus, I will not dismiss the music to 'Chinatown'. Goldsmith captures the classic noir sound with that film & also with 'L.A Confidential'. The second best soundtrack would be the music he did for 'First Blood' and the two Rambo sequels. Sadly he did not do the fourth Rambo movie, his last orchestral work was for 'Sum of All Fears' and after that he passed away in 2004. His sound was very much defined when he did the soundtrack for the original 'Planet Of The Apes', a very recognizable score & just continued putting out this stream of consistent & awesome music work. Even though critics hated this movie back in 1989 & even extended their criticism to the music, I loved his work in 'Leviathan', that Alien/John Carpenter's The Thing mashup copy movie. He really knew how to make a great action film soundtrack & the world of action cinema became a much more grim place without him. I was never a fan of that trend in the 2000's where action films used crap Nu-metal like Limp Biskit in shootout & fight scenes. Just earlier I was watching an episode of 'Nash Bridges' & there was a slow motion shootout sequence with a Kid Rock song playing throughout it. That was some panderous shit there. Luckily watching movies like 'Rambo III' and 'POTA' still hold up for me.
-Naked Lunch: This one's a two for one, both Howard Shore & jazzman Ornette Coleman collaborated in the soundtrack for this weird ass movie. You got Howard Shore composing sounds which add more to creating a creepy atmosphere while Ornette's freeform jazz instrumentals just compliment the weird setting & dry wit the film sports. While Howard Shore did some great soundtracks around this time along with 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Cop Land', Naked Lunch was just a beautiful coalescing of both Neo classical & jazz. I still get chills from some of the tracks in this soundtrack. The man still works in Hollywood productions, but I can't recognize his newer works compared to his 90's & 80's work. He did the soundtracks to the 'Lord of The Rings' movies, a far cry from Cop Land or even his eerie work in 'Videodrome'.
La Femme Nikita: I could of gone with the standard choice of 'GoldenEye', but I needed to go with something that just perfectly hits the right feelings from beginning to end. 'La Femme Nikita' does just that, goes from bleak to lighthearted, fun to sad and serious to sexual. Eric Sera knocks it out of the park. He did plenty of film work in the 80's, starting out with Luc Besson (Say what you will about him), but in the 2000's he kinda spread his wings & was working on a bunch of mainstream movies. He did the soundtrack for that awful 'Rollerball' remake. I'll admit, some tracks do sound like him, but by this time he embraced more newer tech so his music had much more of a techno sound. A track like 'Shreflov' sounds very much like Eric Sera, sporting specific sounds in all his music like chanting Russians & that sonar-type sound. Why I chose La Femme Nikita? It's a perfect soundtrack that encapsulates the Neo Noir genre. Aside from Lynch's films, no other neo noir soundtracks from the 90's really came close to capturing that genre's aesthetic.
And last but not least...
-Mulholland Drive: In a choice between Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart & Mulholland Drive, Angelo knocks it out of the park with Mulholland. The soundtrack is the essential Lynchian soundtrack, along with that one insert from Lynch's 'Blue Bob' album. That beginning song with the Mulholland Dr. sign coming into focus perfectly prepares you for this twist riddled, strange & eerie mystery you'll be jumping into. A track that also sticks to my mind is when Betty arrives to LA with this enlightening feeling of optimism & comfort, then throughout the film it's all dark ambient sounds that add to the overall theme of the film. I know Angelo did soundtracks to other movies from other directors, there was that plane crash movie he did in the 90's, but I mostly see him as Lynch's composer. Rather than end the film in a blinding silence after the crazy fuckery we just witnessed, it ends with an eerie remix of the intro song. I already love this movie, I consider this one of the greatest movies of the 2000's & I feel that soundtrack is very responsible for it.
-Total Recall: I rewatched this flick in my teens & the film's music is what caused me to go out & hunt for the album. It's full of magic & just all around action music thrills. This is the music that very much made me a card carrying Jerry Goldsmith fan. It was the starter which lead to searching for his other film compositions. I didn't think I would like the soundtrack he did for 'Basic Instinct', but it still has his style around the car chase scenes. Of course this was him doing a straight forward noir so he did a ton of slow tracks. While the director can choke on a razorblade & fuck a cactus, I will not dismiss the music to 'Chinatown'. Goldsmith captures the classic noir sound with that film & also with 'L.A Confidential'. The second best soundtrack would be the music he did for 'First Blood' and the two Rambo sequels. Sadly he did not do the fourth Rambo movie, his last orchestral work was for 'Sum of All Fears' and after that he passed away in 2004. His sound was very much defined when he did the soundtrack for the original 'Planet Of The Apes', a very recognizable score & just continued putting out this stream of consistent & awesome music work. Even though critics hated this movie back in 1989 & even extended their criticism to the music, I loved his work in 'Leviathan', that Alien/John Carpenter's The Thing mashup copy movie. He really knew how to make a great action film soundtrack & the world of action cinema became a much more grim place without him. I was never a fan of that trend in the 2000's where action films used crap Nu-metal like Limp Biskit in shootout & fight scenes. Just earlier I was watching an episode of 'Nash Bridges' & there was a slow motion shootout sequence with a Kid Rock song playing throughout it. That was some panderous shit there. Luckily watching movies like 'Rambo III' and 'POTA' still hold up for me.
-Naked Lunch: This one's a two for one, both Howard Shore & jazzman Ornette Coleman collaborated in the soundtrack for this weird ass movie. You got Howard Shore composing sounds which add more to creating a creepy atmosphere while Ornette's freeform jazz instrumentals just compliment the weird setting & dry wit the film sports. While Howard Shore did some great soundtracks around this time along with 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Cop Land', Naked Lunch was just a beautiful coalescing of both Neo classical & jazz. I still get chills from some of the tracks in this soundtrack. The man still works in Hollywood productions, but I can't recognize his newer works compared to his 90's & 80's work. He did the soundtracks to the 'Lord of The Rings' movies, a far cry from Cop Land or even his eerie work in 'Videodrome'.
La Femme Nikita: I could of gone with the standard choice of 'GoldenEye', but I needed to go with something that just perfectly hits the right feelings from beginning to end. 'La Femme Nikita' does just that, goes from bleak to lighthearted, fun to sad and serious to sexual. Eric Sera knocks it out of the park. He did plenty of film work in the 80's, starting out with Luc Besson (Say what you will about him), but in the 2000's he kinda spread his wings & was working on a bunch of mainstream movies. He did the soundtrack for that awful 'Rollerball' remake. I'll admit, some tracks do sound like him, but by this time he embraced more newer tech so his music had much more of a techno sound. A track like 'Shreflov' sounds very much like Eric Sera, sporting specific sounds in all his music like chanting Russians & that sonar-type sound. Why I chose La Femme Nikita? It's a perfect soundtrack that encapsulates the Neo Noir genre. Aside from Lynch's films, no other neo noir soundtracks from the 90's really came close to capturing that genre's aesthetic.
And last but not least...
-Mulholland Drive: In a choice between Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart & Mulholland Drive, Angelo knocks it out of the park with Mulholland. The soundtrack is the essential Lynchian soundtrack, along with that one insert from Lynch's 'Blue Bob' album. That beginning song with the Mulholland Dr. sign coming into focus perfectly prepares you for this twist riddled, strange & eerie mystery you'll be jumping into. A track that also sticks to my mind is when Betty arrives to LA with this enlightening feeling of optimism & comfort, then throughout the film it's all dark ambient sounds that add to the overall theme of the film. I know Angelo did soundtracks to other movies from other directors, there was that plane crash movie he did in the 90's, but I mostly see him as Lynch's composer. Rather than end the film in a blinding silence after the crazy fuckery we just witnessed, it ends with an eerie remix of the intro song. I already love this movie, I consider this one of the greatest movies of the 2000's & I feel that soundtrack is very responsible for it.
My playlist has grown into this huge library & it was easier now than it would have been in the early days. Mp3's have really helped a lot & hid my tastes in music from my parents. They would have easily objected on the grounds of they just don't like the sound of it. I won't have time to talk about music controversies, so I'll just say basically every single controversy is instigated because some old fart doesn't like the sound of new music. Also I feel my parents would of made the excuse of pushing Mexican music, thinking I'm just ignorant towards all music from Mexican artists. Here's my opinion & yes this shit is gonna get controversial here to all the people in the know. Selena was the greatest thing to happen since the torta. There's some music from my parent's youth I dig, can't think of most of the names but I know how it sounds. Most of it is from the 70's, my parents were 70's kids & even in the time they became parents they still listened to the then current stuff in the 90's. Here comes the opinion y'all might hiss at, Once selena died, it seemed like the Mexican Record Industry as a whole decided to stop trying. Just like the American record industry, it became about what's marketable & what's popular. I also blame 'Televisa' buying up all of Mexico's entertainment industry, from TV to film to the record industry. I can't think of anything post 1995 that sounds good in terms of Latino music. 'Sigh', don't get me started on Joan Sebastian...all the white folks reading this right now won't know who I'm talking about....Google is your friend. This is when I started seeing all these old hat singers like Joan Sebastian trying to appeal to younger audiences & it just looks like someone's uncle going through a midlife crisis. Just watch that music video on YouTube, I'm pretty sure the thumbnail for that specific video I'm thinking of has him riding a motorcycle in front of a CGI background. You don't need to understand the lyrics, the visuals are enough to drive the cringy point home. There's a rock band called 'Mana' which sold themselves as this boho rock band, by the late 90's & early 2000's they straight up became pop music. So much so the lead singer cut his hair! He used to have long metalhead hair, now he's got some 2007 emo haircut. Then let's get to the elephant in the room (As she recently performed a certain half-time show), Shakira! I can't say she sold out quickly because she still was putting out solid work when she got notoriety in the US with those hips don't lie pepsi commercials. Look at her body of work now, she's just straight pop music. A huge far cry from what she was originally, which would be that sorta Bellydancer/hippy style in the 90's. Then there's a bunch of other musicians & musical groups I just don't care for because it's not for me. I won't bad mouth them, I'm just not interested. Aside from the unique musicians & singers like Rocio Durcall (Damn good singer) the big reason I don't listen to a lot of Mexican music is not because I'm a race traitor or anything, but because I can't find anything to relate to or anything that hits my soul like Rocio or Selena. Most of the industrial, rap music & Hardcore punk I listen to has at least a message to take away from it. I listen to stuff for the sound, you don't need lyrics in order to fully be captured by a song. The instrumentals themselves were more than enough to grab my interest. I just don't like a lot of the current, modern Mexican music. I'm not a fan of the regional stuff, my hatred for narcos would make you think I despise Narco Corridos, but at the end of the day I see them as Mexico's version of Gangsta Rap. They're all bark, no bite, then out of nowhere these musicians get shot because narcos are fucking idiots. I'm still looking for some good ass Mexican music, so hit me up with some recommends.
The whole selling out isn't isolated to Mexican bands & musicians, before I get called out let's take a look at other artists who used to be about the music. I like No Doubt, they had a very punk, ska & late 90's pop feel to them. I describe them as music that would fit the teen scene in late 90's Los Angeles. My older sister used to blast their music a lot in the 2000's seeing as she was infamous for playing the same song every few hours on the hour. Good god, that time she was big into 'The Killers'......fuck outta here with that hipster mustache shit. I don't like 'The Killers'. Aside from the shit music she liked, No Doubt managed to be part of my music mixtape.
“I'M JUSS A GIRLLL IN THE WOOORRRLLDD!!!”
Then what happened in the mid to late 2000's No Doubt disbanded & well Gwen Stefani did her own thing. At first it was not the best, but it was tolerable enough for radio play. There's that one song she did that used the instrumentals to Biggie Small's 'Big Poppa'....and even then that song also used the instrumental's to Isley Bros' 'Between The Sheets' so errbody be using errbody! Not a great classic, but it was tolerable. I didn't know what a 'Holla Back' girl was in the mid 2000's & never got a clear answer to what a holla back girl is now. Do I really want to know what a holla back girl is? So I didn't hate that era of Gwen, oh but I can tell you a certain segment of the population would find issues with her music videos of that era. I'm talking about that video where she was dressed like a LA gangbanger, a chola. I'm surprised Mexican equality groups didn't crucify her for that Virgin Mary bulletproof vest she wore in that one video. Even though it's a cover, I'll admit her cover of Talk Talk's 'It's My Life' was alright. That music video began my love of that classic noir femme fatale archetype. She spends the whole video seducing men & murdering them, I love it!!! Then came that era that is now viewed as Gwen cultraly appropriating the japanese but in the late 2000's nobody gave a damn. I'm talking when she got into that whole 'Harajuku Lovers' bullshit. That was some of the most cringy shit at the time & looking back it's still fucking cringy. Maybe it's the fact my older sister was still a huge fan during this time & she had the MTV on where they constantly aired the behind the scenes featurette for Gwen's tour & her music videos aired non stop. That whole year was nothing but 'Wind it up' and 'Sweet Escape' music videos playing non stop. That shit got old real fast & this was at the time Madonna's ilk was present wearing that constipation leotard. I'd also like to think Gwen kidnapped Japanese schoolgirls just to force them to dance on stage. Just imagine it, Gwen is sitting in some throne with a whip, hitting girls & shouting “Dance monkeys! Dance!!!! Don't make me call the president & launch a third nuke!” Those poor girls, they thought being on tour was going to be all fun & games & maybe even slurpees. Then my young sister was at that age when she wanted to idolize her older sister so she started buying little trinkets & Harajuku Lovers merch. If you think stepping on legos was painful, you haven't stepped on a small marble trinket shaped like a Chibi Gwen Stefani. THAT SHIT HURTED!!! Maybe it was me showing my age or just an early feeling of nostalgic fondness, but I didn't like Gwen's (at the time) newer work. It was a far cry from these 90's teenagers who made rock music & had fun. I know recently she's done reunion concerts, but of course being in LA tickets are like $1k, an arm, a leg & your eternal soul. I like No Doubt, but I'm not willing to spend that much for tickets.
The whole selling out isn't isolated to Mexican bands & musicians, before I get called out let's take a look at other artists who used to be about the music. I like No Doubt, they had a very punk, ska & late 90's pop feel to them. I describe them as music that would fit the teen scene in late 90's Los Angeles. My older sister used to blast their music a lot in the 2000's seeing as she was infamous for playing the same song every few hours on the hour. Good god, that time she was big into 'The Killers'......fuck outta here with that hipster mustache shit. I don't like 'The Killers'. Aside from the shit music she liked, No Doubt managed to be part of my music mixtape.
“I'M JUSS A GIRLLL IN THE WOOORRRLLDD!!!”
Then what happened in the mid to late 2000's No Doubt disbanded & well Gwen Stefani did her own thing. At first it was not the best, but it was tolerable enough for radio play. There's that one song she did that used the instrumentals to Biggie Small's 'Big Poppa'....and even then that song also used the instrumental's to Isley Bros' 'Between The Sheets' so errbody be using errbody! Not a great classic, but it was tolerable. I didn't know what a 'Holla Back' girl was in the mid 2000's & never got a clear answer to what a holla back girl is now. Do I really want to know what a holla back girl is? So I didn't hate that era of Gwen, oh but I can tell you a certain segment of the population would find issues with her music videos of that era. I'm talking about that video where she was dressed like a LA gangbanger, a chola. I'm surprised Mexican equality groups didn't crucify her for that Virgin Mary bulletproof vest she wore in that one video. Even though it's a cover, I'll admit her cover of Talk Talk's 'It's My Life' was alright. That music video began my love of that classic noir femme fatale archetype. She spends the whole video seducing men & murdering them, I love it!!! Then came that era that is now viewed as Gwen cultraly appropriating the japanese but in the late 2000's nobody gave a damn. I'm talking when she got into that whole 'Harajuku Lovers' bullshit. That was some of the most cringy shit at the time & looking back it's still fucking cringy. Maybe it's the fact my older sister was still a huge fan during this time & she had the MTV on where they constantly aired the behind the scenes featurette for Gwen's tour & her music videos aired non stop. That whole year was nothing but 'Wind it up' and 'Sweet Escape' music videos playing non stop. That shit got old real fast & this was at the time Madonna's ilk was present wearing that constipation leotard. I'd also like to think Gwen kidnapped Japanese schoolgirls just to force them to dance on stage. Just imagine it, Gwen is sitting in some throne with a whip, hitting girls & shouting “Dance monkeys! Dance!!!! Don't make me call the president & launch a third nuke!” Those poor girls, they thought being on tour was going to be all fun & games & maybe even slurpees. Then my young sister was at that age when she wanted to idolize her older sister so she started buying little trinkets & Harajuku Lovers merch. If you think stepping on legos was painful, you haven't stepped on a small marble trinket shaped like a Chibi Gwen Stefani. THAT SHIT HURTED!!! Maybe it was me showing my age or just an early feeling of nostalgic fondness, but I didn't like Gwen's (at the time) newer work. It was a far cry from these 90's teenagers who made rock music & had fun. I know recently she's done reunion concerts, but of course being in LA tickets are like $1k, an arm, a leg & your eternal soul. I like No Doubt, but I'm not willing to spend that much for tickets.
N ow these next two, I don't consider on par with selling out, but their sound changed midway & the message didn't deviate too much.
Recently I read Cosey Fanni Tutti's (That's her real name. British name for Pussy Farts, hur hurr hur.) memoirs called 'Art, Sex, Music'. Not only did she talk about her transition from 'Throbbing Gristle' (That's a band name. I can already hear the straights laughing it up) to her 80's work as 'Chris & Cosey'. She talks about how both she with her husband would go on tour to the US with SPK. SPK started out like Throbbing Gristle as in being a industrial noise band. Both she & Chris would always have their instruments registered at customs so they don't have to go through the typical hour long search. Greame Revell from SPK didn't want to go through all that so everytime they made it to the airport SPK always spent an hour or two at the airport having their luggage searched & being questioned because airport security didn't know the difference between synthesizer equipment & weaponry. It was also stated that Revell was an alcoholic & I guess the rest of SPK decided to kick him out due to his drunkedness & just all around lack of preparedness. Lots of stories were told about that guy in that book, but all of that did explain why during SPK's discography it goes from industrial noise to new wave. Revell left SPK & went into making movie music, most notably he did the soundtrack to 'Dead Calm', which also has an SPK song in it. Believe it or not, I actually enjoy their synth work like 'Metal Field' and 'Metal Dance'. There's still inklings of industrial in there despite them being overshadowed by the new wavy club music. Then there's the obvious change in vocalist, replacing Revell was Mary Bradfield Taylor. For starters the sound was different, but at the same time their lyrics were still the same thematically, for the most part critiquing politics & British Pariment. Sure 'Metal Dance' was straight up music you would hear at a disco, but you also had a song like 'White Island' that goes back to the group's political roots telling a sad but true tale of white colonialism.
Now this band got a drastically different sound change & in my opinion I did not like it one bit. If you dug it, fine by me. Despite saying this, every punk rock fan I talked to hated this & that would be when Bad Brains found Rasta & became a reggae band. Look, If finding religion helps you get through the rough spots then I can't hate on it, but you can't forget your roots or dismiss your original sound. It gets worse, on that same album (I may be wrong but it might be on the same debut album) you have all your punk songs that everyone knows like 'Supertouch', then the rest of it is nothing but reggae songs like 'I Love Jah'. There's some good reggae out there (Yellowman), Bad Brains they are not. Some groups change band names in order to fit their new style of music, they didn't. They also should have known that this abrupt change would end with the fans revolting, which is what happened with Bad Brains. According to Henry Rollins, at a concert the fans didn't get the memo that this change from hardcore punk to reggae was permanent to where he said there was a kid crying at the concert.
I don't want to end this with negative selling out stories, so I should talk about a band that never sold out. If I were to put the label 'Cult Music' on a band, that label shall be nominated to French coldwave group 'Martin Dupont'. They began in 1982 (According to Wikipedia), made a bunch of tracks & albums that sold in France & performed live alongside popular punk groups like 'Siouxie & the Banshees'. Then by 1987 they just stopped, nothing new & none of the band members went on to do solo work. It's said one of the band members, Cathrine Loy, left the band just shortly before the disbandment. Most of the coherent info I can get is only from Wikipedia. I tried reading translated articles that supposedly interviewed a few of the group members, but I can't read any of that google translated stuff. Feels like I'm deciphering a metaphor rather than reading an interview. This group did some great stuff, music that very much captured 80's Europe beautifully. It wasn't until 2011 when independent label 'Minimal Wave' grabbed all their masters & re-released all their music in both singles & in a boxed set. You guys don't know how badly I want that box set, but every damn time the label produces new boxed sets they command soooo much....also I don't quite know the exchange rate between the dollar & the pound works since the albums come from the UK. IMPORTS, because America is too uncultured to give great shit an official release in the states! MD is very much a cult band through & through because they didn't reach mainstream status & they ended before they could achieve any of it. I'll admit despite what I said about selling out, I kinda feel bad for them because their exposure in the 80's could have been global & magical. Then again their lyrics were written without any intent for mainstream appeal...like Nirvana. You think Kurt Kobain wrote those lyrics thinking they will get radio play & be used in department store commercials?
As the years pass, more continues to be uncovered about Martin Dupont, just last year someone uploaded a video of them back in the 80's performing in a dingy venue. Just a few years ago a musician by the name of Theophilus London covered one of MD's tracks, 'Take A Look' and he's been quoted by sayign Kanye West introduced their tracks to him. Not a bad cover if you ask me. Then on their 'official' page (I'm willing to believe it's a fan page) there's a picture of all three of the original performers (Including Cathrine Foy) that was uploaded recently. Could it mean there's a reunion in the works? Hope so. Those three have not aged a second & that picture truly made my shit day all the more better.
Recently I read Cosey Fanni Tutti's (That's her real name. British name for Pussy Farts, hur hurr hur.) memoirs called 'Art, Sex, Music'. Not only did she talk about her transition from 'Throbbing Gristle' (That's a band name. I can already hear the straights laughing it up) to her 80's work as 'Chris & Cosey'. She talks about how both she with her husband would go on tour to the US with SPK. SPK started out like Throbbing Gristle as in being a industrial noise band. Both she & Chris would always have their instruments registered at customs so they don't have to go through the typical hour long search. Greame Revell from SPK didn't want to go through all that so everytime they made it to the airport SPK always spent an hour or two at the airport having their luggage searched & being questioned because airport security didn't know the difference between synthesizer equipment & weaponry. It was also stated that Revell was an alcoholic & I guess the rest of SPK decided to kick him out due to his drunkedness & just all around lack of preparedness. Lots of stories were told about that guy in that book, but all of that did explain why during SPK's discography it goes from industrial noise to new wave. Revell left SPK & went into making movie music, most notably he did the soundtrack to 'Dead Calm', which also has an SPK song in it. Believe it or not, I actually enjoy their synth work like 'Metal Field' and 'Metal Dance'. There's still inklings of industrial in there despite them being overshadowed by the new wavy club music. Then there's the obvious change in vocalist, replacing Revell was Mary Bradfield Taylor. For starters the sound was different, but at the same time their lyrics were still the same thematically, for the most part critiquing politics & British Pariment. Sure 'Metal Dance' was straight up music you would hear at a disco, but you also had a song like 'White Island' that goes back to the group's political roots telling a sad but true tale of white colonialism.
Now this band got a drastically different sound change & in my opinion I did not like it one bit. If you dug it, fine by me. Despite saying this, every punk rock fan I talked to hated this & that would be when Bad Brains found Rasta & became a reggae band. Look, If finding religion helps you get through the rough spots then I can't hate on it, but you can't forget your roots or dismiss your original sound. It gets worse, on that same album (I may be wrong but it might be on the same debut album) you have all your punk songs that everyone knows like 'Supertouch', then the rest of it is nothing but reggae songs like 'I Love Jah'. There's some good reggae out there (Yellowman), Bad Brains they are not. Some groups change band names in order to fit their new style of music, they didn't. They also should have known that this abrupt change would end with the fans revolting, which is what happened with Bad Brains. According to Henry Rollins, at a concert the fans didn't get the memo that this change from hardcore punk to reggae was permanent to where he said there was a kid crying at the concert.
I don't want to end this with negative selling out stories, so I should talk about a band that never sold out. If I were to put the label 'Cult Music' on a band, that label shall be nominated to French coldwave group 'Martin Dupont'. They began in 1982 (According to Wikipedia), made a bunch of tracks & albums that sold in France & performed live alongside popular punk groups like 'Siouxie & the Banshees'. Then by 1987 they just stopped, nothing new & none of the band members went on to do solo work. It's said one of the band members, Cathrine Loy, left the band just shortly before the disbandment. Most of the coherent info I can get is only from Wikipedia. I tried reading translated articles that supposedly interviewed a few of the group members, but I can't read any of that google translated stuff. Feels like I'm deciphering a metaphor rather than reading an interview. This group did some great stuff, music that very much captured 80's Europe beautifully. It wasn't until 2011 when independent label 'Minimal Wave' grabbed all their masters & re-released all their music in both singles & in a boxed set. You guys don't know how badly I want that box set, but every damn time the label produces new boxed sets they command soooo much....also I don't quite know the exchange rate between the dollar & the pound works since the albums come from the UK. IMPORTS, because America is too uncultured to give great shit an official release in the states! MD is very much a cult band through & through because they didn't reach mainstream status & they ended before they could achieve any of it. I'll admit despite what I said about selling out, I kinda feel bad for them because their exposure in the 80's could have been global & magical. Then again their lyrics were written without any intent for mainstream appeal...like Nirvana. You think Kurt Kobain wrote those lyrics thinking they will get radio play & be used in department store commercials?
As the years pass, more continues to be uncovered about Martin Dupont, just last year someone uploaded a video of them back in the 80's performing in a dingy venue. Just a few years ago a musician by the name of Theophilus London covered one of MD's tracks, 'Take A Look' and he's been quoted by sayign Kanye West introduced their tracks to him. Not a bad cover if you ask me. Then on their 'official' page (I'm willing to believe it's a fan page) there's a picture of all three of the original performers (Including Cathrine Foy) that was uploaded recently. Could it mean there's a reunion in the works? Hope so. Those three have not aged a second & that picture truly made my shit day all the more better.
I believe this is the best place to end it, despite the many things I've yet to talk about...like the music controversies that began since Elvis' time & ending it on the BS over gangsta rap & Columbine. Maybe next time. For the next Blogbabble I really don't know what will come next, all I know is I gotta comment on this global fuckery we are witnessing. So watch out for that! Eat your balanced meal & get active for 30 minutes, even if you're just walking to a McDonalds or something.
Shut up & eat fruit. On this installment I'm ending it on two post credit songs that got me through the rough patches, enjoy!
Email: blacktime.epress@aol.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BlackTimeEPress/
Twitter: (It's now my own personal twitter joint) https://twitter.com/BlacktimeEPress
Site: www.blacktimepress.com
Shut up & eat fruit. On this installment I'm ending it on two post credit songs that got me through the rough patches, enjoy!
Email: blacktime.epress@aol.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BlackTimeEPress/
Twitter: (It's now my own personal twitter joint) https://twitter.com/BlacktimeEPress
Site: www.blacktimepress.com