Oasis - Classic or Dud?

I think Creed is a more apt comparison (big, loud, relentlessly self-mythologizing, popular with idiots), but what makes the Pearl Jam analogy work is media complicity. The press hated Creed.

The Black Crowes had a Billboard #1 album and multiple #1 singles.

maybe the Black Crowes do kinda line up...two hit albums followed by an off-putting third. The Crowes doing a Stonesy thing vs Oasis doing the Beatles.

PJ were even bigger but the Black Crowes were a legitimately huge band. It’s splitting hairs on that point.

so dumb

pearl jam ended up being good though, or at least not conservative chauvinist blowhards. they were definitely classic rock but not nationalistic about it. the neil young obsession especially felt kind of expansive and inspired. idk maybe i'm being too generous. they were definitely bloated and heavy at their worst. oasis were so constipated and self-serious about their uk rock heritage. their vibe is more like dumb billy joel to me idk. though now that i think about it, yeah, pearl jam are actually a pretty good analog, i just like pj and hate oasis haha.

10 sold 13 million, Vs and Virology sold 7 million

Shake Your Money Maker sold 5
Southern Harmony sold 2 million

this is not comparable

Both are huge. Black Crowes are still touring 8-10k places despite being uncool now.

Pearl Jam were bigger but otherwise the Black Crowes line up better with Oasis - style, vibe, career and personal arcs.

And yes, they toured together.

black crowes were more of a southern us thing yeah? they definitely weren't big in my neck of the woods.

the british black crowes: reef. and they have a no. 1 album too.

no i'm just kidding not even the black crowes deserve that

it's obvious. Bush are the U.S. Oasis. :)

I can't think of an American equivalent. Oasis scored massive albums and singles in the UK. Black Crowes sold albums in America but have no #1 singles or even top tens.

US Rock bands generally weren't so tabloid-y.

only the uk could sniff its own ass with such gusto

Guns n' Roses would be an acceptable substitute

but please don't waste our precious time with Black Crowes bullshit, they were never close being the biggest band in America

GNR might be the closest equivalent, but their peak was short-lived and they didn't turn hundreds in the US press into gibbering idiots.

was their peak any shorter than Oasis?

also no Oasis album is even close to Appetite

"they didn't turn hundreds in the US press into gibbering idiots."

they got so much ink! they were all over papers and magazines.

and all their extra-musical tabloid stuff was constant for years too.

Pearl Jam wasn’t the biggest band in the US either? They were second banana to Nirvana in their own scene, Metallica were bigger for the ‘90s overall.

Pearl Jam's US sales over 91-93 were bigger than Nirvana's

they didn't turn hundreds in the US press into gibbering idiots

i think this is an important point. often I'm bewildered by UK reactions to various things (music, but also societal shit) and it always comes back to press and how it's portraying the importance of stuff. the US didn't have that, at least for music, in those years. I can see having the music press shove something in your face over and over again telling you it's fooking brilliant all the time would rouse a reaction.

PJ were for a minute the biggest band in the US.

PJ still sell out stadiums in the US.

or, I guess arenas.

a forgettable biggest band. even though they still exist. still forgettable.

no offense to pj fans. god bless you. its kinda like phish at this point.

I went to college in rural Minnesota in the early 90s it was Pearl Jam mania. No one was listening to Black Crowes.

People liked Nirvana but Pearl Jam dominated the dorms and people’s brain space.

boring where did you go to school?

Boring U.

listening to pearl jam in rural minnesota in the early 90s sounds...bleak.

C + C Music Factory was the way to go. Black Box. Snap!

you're bleak!

yeah sure i was having a ball listening to the future! not some musty dusty black & white yowl rock.

https://media.apoplife.nl/en/2021/08/Army-Of-Lovers-1991.jpg

i'm lying. i totally bought a big head todd & the monsters record....

maybe we were having fun in the Midwest and you were clinically depressed listening to Sun City Girls in Connecticut or some shit

i actually bought the second pearl jam record because it was like five bucks on vinyl new. nobody was buying vinyl. i played it once. not my kinda thing. that year i was all about exile in guyville/suede/very/red house painters/heartwork. in connecticut! i moved back there from philly because i was so depressed. then after a couple of years i moved back to philly.

I wasn't the one who started talking shit about where you come from.

feel free to though. connecticut blows.

it just sounded snowy and dark. i'm sure minnesota is lovely though!

everyone huddled around the dorm cd player in their flannel. letting the grunge warm them up on cold nights.

w.m.a. on said second pearl jam album has more in common with good madchester (the can-loving stuff) than the oasis

xpost skot please don't condescend to me or where I grew up, thanks. again, I didn't start any shit with you.

or, I guess arenas.

Pearl Jam is playing two shows at Wrigley Field this weekend (capacity ~41,000).

And two at Fenway Park in two weeks (capacity ~37,000).

Goo Goo Dolls, if they'd broken up, were my first thought.

sorry i didn't know where you grew up i wasn't directing that at you just listening to pearl jam in the early 90s sounded dullsville to me not so much the place although i do think of snowy cold winters when i think of minnesota. and pearl jam are boring. and it was out there in the rural! but i do apologize. it won't happen again. i forget sometimes that people like where they grew up.

xxxpost