Is there a name for that genre of turn-of-the-90s pop-rock with the positive vibes, huge guitar leads, and gated drums?

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (268 of them)

best episode of quantum leap ever

M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 17 March 2008 18:04 (sixteen years ago) link

Al, there's all kinds of pockets and zips on my pants, and they're way too big for me...

Bodrick III, Monday, 17 March 2008 18:09 (sixteen years ago) link

"In fact, it's great, as there is no other country that has such a great legacy and such a great typical style."

ouch. completely discounting the land mass that gave birth to the blues, and jazz. nice

outdoor_miner, Monday, 17 March 2008 19:39 (sixteen years ago) link

I consider Germany a much more important country in the history of music than the US.

Geir Hongro, Monday, 17 March 2008 20:24 (sixteen years ago) link

hongro may you be a ho that goes forever unsaved

M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 17 March 2008 20:53 (sixteen years ago) link

seven months pass...

I'll never know whether to blame Dom or Geir more for derailing what was previously my favorite thread I ever started.

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 18 October 2008 03:16 (sixteen years ago) link

one month passes...

Also, several years late and not really in the genre at all.... but germane to any discussion of Post-Cold-War Rock: Phil Collins's ridiculously upbeat "Dance Into The Light." We are one world - we have-a one voice!

(The production is closer to the overstuffed world-beat of "Circle of Light" than anything on this thread.)

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 22 November 2008 06:14 (fifteen years ago) link

I thought Skynyrd was anti-Wallace. "Boo boo boo!"

If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Saturday, 22 November 2008 06:30 (fifteen years ago) link

one year passes...

Will anyone ever do like a loving, detail-obsessed revival/pastiche record for this sound?

Doctor Casino, Thursday, 18 February 2010 03:58 (fourteen years ago) link

I saw Dada live open up for Uncle Tupelo on the tour after Anodyne came out. I seem to remember them being pretty good actually, but I don't ever remember hearing one of their CDs.

I don't quite know about the huge guitar part as they were a bit more subdued, but I think Del Amtri's "Kiss This Thing Goodbye" fit into this genre. They got brighters and sunnier as they went on, but I think Toad the Wet Sprocket might fit into this too.

earlnash, Thursday, 18 February 2010 05:17 (fourteen years ago) link

one month passes...

actually I think this blows "Black and White" away...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fquGNHiEG-4

failboat fucking captain (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 24 March 2010 22:26 (fourteen years ago) link

one year passes...

Doesn't really fit at all (more I guess period "college rock" generically) but the vibes are so positive! Like a mellowed-out "Dizz Knee Land."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keRmOs3PqK0

Freddy Jones Band - In A Daydream

Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 4 May 2011 14:12 (thirteen years ago) link

one year passes...

I'm on like three hours of sleep and can't turn it up loud enough to actually hear anything but I'm pretty sure Rod Stewart's "Forever Young" is involved somehow.

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 22 December 2012 15:20 (eleven years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGEe_zpddNI

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 22 December 2012 15:20 (eleven years ago) link

Hrrrrmrmrmr, yeah, I dunno. Much fuller sound than these other things, and no chunky/scratchy rhythm guitar up front. On the other hand, the solo is exactly the kind of legible, arcing sound I hear on these other records, and the clobbering drums come in on the second chorus but good. And overall it's got the same kind of propulsive, "Edge of Seventeen" feeling as some of these.

Great song IMO.

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 22 December 2012 16:53 (eleven years ago) link

1988 and a bit more countryfried but I love Jerry Harrison's "Rev It Up" for this vibe.

Tim F, Saturday, 22 December 2012 17:59 (eleven years ago) link

I like many Rod Stewart songs from this period ("Crazy About Her," "Downtown Train," "Lost in You") but "Forever Young" -- ick. And it hasn't gone away.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 22 December 2012 18:15 (eleven years ago) link

Never heard that before! Yeah, I buy it.

Euler made the "New Country" connection above and I think that whole area would be interesting to explore. In general (and I am out of my depth here) but it seems like country tries to avoid sounding like it was made by studio robots, as a rule - there's the faith/image that at some point there was a hard-playin', tight backing band that gets together and records. So something like Travis Tritt's "T.R.O.U.B.L.E." starts out sounding like it's going to totally be one of these songs; there's a huge thudding WHAMMMO drum like two seconds in - but then the rest of the band shows up and starts to boogie.

At the same time, I think traces of this whole thing may have survived longer in country than anywhere else - rock went through various phases of sludge and wash and guitars-in-the-red, but clean, bright, super-shiny sounds never entirely went away in country. And you have people like Mutt Lange doing their biggest records way later - "Man! I Feel Like A Woman" is totally the heir of this sound, to the point where they decided to do a Robert Palmer pastiche for the video even though it's not actually a "retro"-styled song.

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 22 December 2012 18:16 (eleven years ago) link

(that's an xpost)

I love "Forever Young" - but in the way of a song I remember hearing a fair number of times as a kid and then never again until, like, last week. Where are you hearing it? I must go to different dentist's offices or something.

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 22 December 2012 18:17 (eleven years ago) link

I hear it at least twice a week on A/C and oldie stations.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 22 December 2012 18:19 (eleven years ago) link

Oh yeah -- country is where rock's been at since at least the nineties

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 22 December 2012 18:20 (eleven years ago) link

Wow, had no idea it had any shelf life at all. Crazy how much variety there still is in those things in the Clear Channel age.

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 22 December 2012 18:23 (eleven years ago) link

I think Sheryl Crow's second album had a through-line from this stuff (though the percussion is more '90s americana).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khrx-zrG460

something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 22 December 2012 21:02 (eleven years ago) link

Hmmm, not entirely hearing that one, but maybe someone more up on Mitchell Froom can piece together the arc there?

Doctor Casino, Saturday, 22 December 2012 22:53 (eleven years ago) link

Mitchell Froom's trick is to create "unconventional" sounds in a pop context.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 22 December 2012 22:59 (eleven years ago) link

Belinda Carlisle's hits or Bryan Adams' Waking Up The Neighbours material to thread

Master of Treacle, Sunday, 23 December 2012 05:19 (eleven years ago) link

Teenage Fanclub's "Star Sign" would fit this mold, rite?

Also, perhaps, Jellyfish - "That Is Why", maybe the La's "There She Goes". If it had arrived a few years later, I'd include XTC's "Mayor of Simpleton" (their biggest US hit, despite the lyric about not being able to write a big hit song). If it had arrived a few years earlier, Hootie's "Time".

I've always liked this microgenre, whatever it may be called.

Lee626, Sunday, 23 December 2012 20:04 (eleven years ago) link

Wow, right on about Bryan Adams. "Can't Stop This Thing We Started" and "All I Want Is You" are definitely right in there. Trending a little rootsier but yeah. Will have to dig into the other last couple things, not familiar with 'em.

Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 25 December 2012 17:09 (eleven years ago) link

Would this count?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sOjdusDUzE

MarkoP, Tuesday, 25 December 2012 20:32 (eleven years ago) link

Right on!

Doctor Casino, Thursday, 27 December 2012 01:35 (eleven years ago) link

Richard Marx is one of those guys that was really popular and all over the radio for few years, yet I can't remember any of his songs

Lee626, Thursday, 27 December 2012 09:24 (eleven years ago) link

This was one of those things, no? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCy13kjj13M

DJ Smoove Groothe (staggerlee), Sunday, 30 December 2012 00:42 (eleven years ago) link

Wow, never heard this before. I think it fits. Sounds like another one that started out as a different kind of band and found themselves sounding Post-Cold-War in the studio. Some overlap with the clean-sounding, poppier side of college/alt rock, e.g. Gin Blossoms.

Doctor Casino, Monday, 31 December 2012 21:12 (eleven years ago) link

three years pass...

It's nowhere near the "Joyride" / "Life Is A Highway" sound, but another entry in the "college bands ending up with a way boxier sound than you'd expect" category: The Pursuit of Happiness. "Cigarette Dangles," from 1993, sounds like a total throwback next to the general palette of grunge and "alternative" by that point, especially compared to the 1989 "I'm An Adult Now" and "Hard to Laugh" (as "produced" as those are). Sure, it gets a little less machinic once the bass shows up, and the solo feels "live" - but that whittled-down riff, that loud snare, the flanged backing vocals... weird, weird sound.

Obviously there are a million college/underground bands that got kind of unsympathetic recordings in the late 80s/early 90s, and I wouldn't lump them all in here (esp. as the "That Eighties Drum Sound" thread already gets into this a lot more). Was just listening to Pylon's Chain for example, which is what got me thinking about this again.

DOCTOR CAISNO, BYCREATIVELABBUS (Doctor Casino), Sunday, 23 October 2016 17:55 (eight years ago) link

You know, there were two versions of "I'm an Adult Now"--(or does your specifying date mean you know that?)--& the first was a lot, well, rawer: at least my poseur 16-yr-old self strongly preferred it...

Swag Heathen (theStalePrince), Sunday, 23 October 2016 18:20 (eight years ago) link

The mean streets of mid-80s Toronto; no doubt the authenticity-response was triggered in my still vulnerable, malleable brain...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6zMtTQix28

Swag Heathen (theStalePrince), Sunday, 23 October 2016 18:22 (eight years ago) link

https://youtu.be/J6zMtTQix28

Swag Heathen (theStalePrince), Sunday, 23 October 2016 18:24 (eight years ago) link

One more try; yeah, I don't post here much...

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/J6zMtTQix28?rel=0"; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Swag Heathen (theStalePrince), Sunday, 23 October 2016 18:31 (eight years ago) link

Ha, yeah, I did read that there was an earlier version but foolishly didn't even bother to go look it up and listen to it.

DOCTOR CAISNO, BYCREATIVELABBUS (Doctor Casino), Sunday, 23 October 2016 19:08 (eight years ago) link

it's not 90s, but quite possibly my least favorite song ever is Timbuk 3 - "gotta wear shades" or whatever it's called

brimstead, Sunday, 23 October 2016 19:24 (eight years ago) link

so glad i didn't graduate high school in the late 80s

brimstead, Sunday, 23 October 2016 19:24 (eight years ago) link

*from*

brimstead, Sunday, 23 October 2016 19:24 (eight years ago) link

four years pass...

this is the best genre, are there contemporary bands reviving this sound yet?

Warmed Regards, (Stevie D(eux)), Saturday, 2 October 2021 03:17 (three years ago) link

does U2's "Mysterious Ways" fit this?

Warmed Regards, (Stevie D(eux)), Saturday, 2 October 2021 03:18 (three years ago) link

Redd Kross's brilliant album Third Eye meets the criteria perfectly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad2HWkH7FDY

everything, Saturday, 2 October 2021 03:27 (three years ago) link

I don’t know who Bob Standard is, but good posts ITT. Also, tipsy mothra’s long post re: r&b crossover (“without pushing it too hard…”) is terrific.

juristic person (morrisp), Saturday, 2 October 2021 03:52 (three years ago) link

Don’t think I saw the Cranberries mentioned, but their debut seems pretty obviously to fit the trend… as does R.E.M.’s Out of Time album.

juristic person (morrisp), Saturday, 2 October 2021 03:55 (three years ago) link

(or maybe Buck’s leads aren’t huge enough?)

juristic person (morrisp), Saturday, 2 October 2021 03:56 (three years ago) link

I guess those LPs I just mentioned were more of on the “alt” side of the spectrum, embracing the era’s bright production sounds and positive vibes but with a subtler approach and minus some of the Big Rock moves. They’re only a few degrees to the left of Spin Doctors and INXS, though.

juristic person (morrisp), Saturday, 2 October 2021 04:02 (three years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.