mr_crowley
New Member
[Read the full piece here!]
Green Day, Radiohead & Pearl Jam entered their second decade surrounded by strife – September 11th, wars in Iraq & Afghanistan and the murky paths which led there. The Nineties was a decade of perceived control – the endless possibilities of a booming economy, a technological revolution, and a post-USSR unipolar optimism. The 2000s, so far, embodied the loss of control.
They also saw a new rock generation launching reactive, overt attacks against their authorities. “Every time you drop the bomb you kill the God your child has born,” raged System Of A Down. Punkers like NOFX & Rise Against carried the Sandinista torch; Conor Oberst & Bright Eyes carried Pete Seeger’s.
Meanwhile, the elder statesmen held a different tune. U2 & Bruce Springsteen released anthemic, sweeping reflections on 9/11 and the wars, singing with the voice of rock royalty. These works of profound grief & hope rose above individual struggles. When they sang, we heard all of humanity join in.
A decade in, Green Day, Pearl Jam & Radiohead had endured individual struggle. The highs & lows of fame. The rise & fall of alt-rock’s chart dominance. The loss of friends & family. In Pearl Jam’s case, the deaths of nine young fans during their 2000 Roskilde festival performance left them shattered & considering retirement.
And from all this, they plunged into a paranoid world where their control, or the illusion of it, was being lost too.
The 3 albums they released in this era – Radiohead’s Hail To The Thief, Green Day’s American Idiot & Pearl Jam’s Riot Act – reflect this reality. Yes, on the surface, each appears to primarily be a commentary on the instability around them. But at their cores, each is founded on the personal, individual journey one takes through such a world. And all together, they tell a unified story of how we awaken to loss of control, reinvent ourselves to take it back, and, eventually, accept that we cannot.
Thus, the works’ true power lies not in their topical statements, but in their universality.
[Continue here!]
Green Day, Radiohead & Pearl Jam entered their second decade surrounded by strife – September 11th, wars in Iraq & Afghanistan and the murky paths which led there. The Nineties was a decade of perceived control – the endless possibilities of a booming economy, a technological revolution, and a post-USSR unipolar optimism. The 2000s, so far, embodied the loss of control.
They also saw a new rock generation launching reactive, overt attacks against their authorities. “Every time you drop the bomb you kill the God your child has born,” raged System Of A Down. Punkers like NOFX & Rise Against carried the Sandinista torch; Conor Oberst & Bright Eyes carried Pete Seeger’s.
Meanwhile, the elder statesmen held a different tune. U2 & Bruce Springsteen released anthemic, sweeping reflections on 9/11 and the wars, singing with the voice of rock royalty. These works of profound grief & hope rose above individual struggles. When they sang, we heard all of humanity join in.
A decade in, Green Day, Pearl Jam & Radiohead had endured individual struggle. The highs & lows of fame. The rise & fall of alt-rock’s chart dominance. The loss of friends & family. In Pearl Jam’s case, the deaths of nine young fans during their 2000 Roskilde festival performance left them shattered & considering retirement.
And from all this, they plunged into a paranoid world where their control, or the illusion of it, was being lost too.
The 3 albums they released in this era – Radiohead’s Hail To The Thief, Green Day’s American Idiot & Pearl Jam’s Riot Act – reflect this reality. Yes, on the surface, each appears to primarily be a commentary on the instability around them. But at their cores, each is founded on the personal, individual journey one takes through such a world. And all together, they tell a unified story of how we awaken to loss of control, reinvent ourselves to take it back, and, eventually, accept that we cannot.
Thus, the works’ true power lies not in their topical statements, but in their universality.
[Continue here!]
