20160619 Ice Cream Sundae #38: About grunge and teen music

Hey ,A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I’ve been thinking of taking a summer break from the newsletter. Ice Cream Sundae is probably going to be on some kind of reduced service for July and August. I’ll be sending much shorter stories. Actually today might be the beginning of it. I’ve had a few things on this week and writing the newsletter has been slipping by the wayside. On the plus side I published the conversation I had with Mitch Joel on my podcast this week and this happily correlates enough with a Sundae draft I had kicking around to use it today. Mitch is based in Montreal, heads a digital marketing agency now called Mirum since his agency Twist Image was acquired by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency and the WPP Group. Mitch also has a popular blog and audio podcast: 6 Pixels of Separation – typically at the top of any list recommending marketing related podcasts. He has written several books and speaks regularly at a number of events. It was a fascinating conversation covering a lot of ground from music to current trends in the marketing and creative industry. Before working in marketing Mitch worked in the music industry, interviewing artists and bands in Canada.He also hosts another audio podcast called Groove: The No Treble Podcast, in which he has conversations with the best bass guitar players in the world. Do you remember the grunge music trend? I guess it might have been the hipsters of the early 90s. Mitch mentioned a few bands that he talked to and that I’d already started writing about. I was 12 when Nirvana released their second album, Nevermind. I’d just started my second year in junior high school school after the summer break when I first heard Smells Like Teen Spirit. I was transfixed, absolutely loved it. I had several friends at junior high school starting to dabble in hard rock and I’d already been listening to classics like Pink Floyd, Motörhead and Led Zeppelin thanks to my elder brother and a few friends’ parents. Nirvana was a huge revelation and likely showing up at the right time, as I became the kind teen Kurt Cobain was singing about in their unexpected hit song. It propelled the band from being more or less locally known around Seattle to the top of the charts in late 1991 and early 1992. In France where I grew up it held the #1 spot on the charts that year. The BBC dubbed the song “the perfect encapsulation of Generation X angst and ennui.†I quickly adopted the grungy look. Perfectly suited to a rebellious and know it all teenager: the thick wintery lumberjack over shirt, jeans with multiple torn holes in, Dr Martens shoes (was that part of the outfit, a remnant of punk outfits, or both?), I let my hair grow messy and longer. A few friends were starting to grow their hair and of course I wanted to do the same. It’s branding, really: I adopted the ways of being, clothes, music and positioning of a style I admired and identified with. It really felt like I was choosing to dress and identify with this, though looking back I don’t know that I had much choice. As one of the defining influences of the time it may be more likely to think that grunge would somehow impose itself. It’s fascinating to observe and think about the self-propagation of an idea, in this case and in many others driven by music. A number of brands rode the wave coming from Seattle and developed a number of clothes lines and products to exploit the grunge trend as much as they could, selling “grunge inspired†clothing at a premium. The media hype surrounding grunge is all covered in the 1996 documentary film Hype!. I loved Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Blind Melon and Ugly Kid Joe. I’d found out about the last band listed thanks to “Everything about you†that featured in Wayne’s World – of course an iconic movie of the same time. I think I’ve already mentioned in another Sundae that I used to be able to quote every line of dialogue of the film in order. It’s arguable but I’d consider the grunge and rock bands above part of the good music I listened to. Teenage years are a transitional period in different ways, including the weird kind of music I got excited about.Another hit single that was all over the place shortly after was 2 Unlimited’s No Limit. I hadn’t watched the music video in a very long time. You have to admit the background pinball machine colours and outfits are amazing. The lyrics are complex and profound (not). Is there a limit? No, there’s no limit. No valley too deep, no mountain too high. I get the mountain analogy but I’m not so sure about the depth of a valley being a truly limiting challenge. Obviously I didn’t think about that at 15 year old. Unbeknownst to my rock and grunge musician friends I bought the 2 Unlimited album and prepared to dance at parties. I managed to do the splits at that time. Convinced it would be an awesome party trick I also taught myself to hold one of my legs and jump over it. I didn’t have Youtube tutorials at the time either. It took me more than a few falls before I got it right. I’m not certain how impressive it was when out dancing though I like to believe it was – at least enough to have a circle of people clapping and encouraging me for a few minutes. I got my hands on a few rave and electronic music CDs from my brother that I thought were super cool by virtue of them being appreciated by my big brother, like Ministry of Sound compilations (special in France nobody else had those), UK Dance Anthems mixed by Boy George and Fatboy Slim, that sort of stuff. They turned out to be pretty popular at parties. In France, the first sort of dance parties you get invited to and organise were called “Boumsâ€Of course at some point would almost certainly feature the slow dance from the eponymous movie “La Boum†Reality by Richard Sanderson. Then at some point, probably about the same time 2 Unlimited was released in my case, so I guess at about 15, I was old enough for “Boums†to be considered lame. The word for parties became “Soirée†instead – exactly the same thing but often going on later in the night and featuring more booze. I switched between the grungy lumberjack look and nicer shirts to go out dancing for a while; depending on the group of friends I was hanging out with one evening or another. I’ve always been friends with musicians and people into music more than I am. I enjoy listening to good music though most times I can’t really bothered looking for good music, selecting it, making playlists, etc. I never did a lot of mixtapes – I asked friends do prepare them for me instead. I used to use Spotify a lot and in the past couple of years or so I switched to streaming music on Mixcloud.I can follow DJs and radio sets in a variety of styles I enjoy, they publish curated hour long sets that are really good and feature great musicians – these days I listen to a lot of jazz, classic hip hop, soul, funk and electronic music. I don’t have to think about who the best artists are, I tune in to a playlist and I’m sorted while I work or I write. I’ve mostly outsourced my music selection process. “One less thing†as Forrest Gump would say. I hope you enjoyed reading this week’s edition of Ice Cream Sundae, if you know a friend who might like it too, forward it on to them - or share it on your social networks! Have a great Sunday! Till’ next week. Willem

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