It’s madKat-JDS again, blogging to you from my expat home in Hong Kong.
Though I do enjoy lots of things about Hong Kong, I would never call this dense, rocky spin-cycle of a place, ‘cutting edge’ or even ‘timely’.
Even though we Hong Kongers like to think we’re hipper than Singapore (not hard to do) and almost as cool as Tokyo (keep dreaming), we’re cultural light years behind most of the world’s hot spots.
So you’ll have to excuse me if I blog on a rock documentary that aired last year, but I’ve only just started watching the excellent BBC series, “The Seven Ages of Rock”.
It’s a look at the music and musicians who’ve defined generations since the 1960s. From Jimi Hendrix to the Arctic Monkeys, the seven shows break down rock in to its defining genres: blues-based rock and art rock of the ‘60s; punk and heavy metal in the ‘70s; stadium rock that started with Led Zeppelin; and the U.S. alternative rock and British indie scenes of the ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s.
For rock history buffs, this series is dead-on. Last week I was treated to phenomenal footage of the gods of Stadium Rock, from Queen to The Police to Bruce Springsteen. Along with the concert clips, the show presented mind-boggling statistics about the sheer size of the stadium audiences buying tickets back then. Who knew that the nondescript guys of Dire Straits – Dire Straits – could make so much money crying about “wanting their MTV”.
And if you need a good laugh, check out the bad (and I mean bad) fashion moments from the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Last night’s episode, “Left of the Dial: alternative rock”, focused on the musical and spiritual friendship between REM and Nirvana and how both bands went from college radio to the sound of American pop.
Even if you’re not a big fan of either band, you’ll appreciate how the program presents the music and its major influences. There’s fantastic concert footage of Mudhoney and Black Flag, along with Henry Rollins’ always-witty sound bites. There’s Scott Litt sitting at a mixing board, deconstructing the vocal tracks on the seminal REM single, “The One I Love”. And there are loads of anecdotes about the making of four of Nirvana’s albums.
Added to that are fantastic interviews with many of the major players of the time: Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe and Butch Vig. I personally enjoyed hearing from The Pixies (the architects of quiet-loud-quiet music-making) including funny as hell comments from Kim Deal, where she reveals they were able to create a groundbreaking sound because they weren’t real musicians.
To many people, Kurt Cobain was the face of alternative rock in the ‘90s, so it’s not surprising the program would focus a lot on the doomed musician. He was equal parts talent and torment. Even though he greatly admired REM and saw how they were able to balance their credibility with mainstream success, in the end he couldn’t deal with fame and its inherent compromises and contradictions.
“Seven Ages of Rock” called Cobain, “the last great rock star”. Stipe and Mills said there were plans for REM and Nirvana to link up creatively and on the road.
Another musical "what if", another rock-n-roll tragedy. But if you want to know where Cobain and his sound came from and where his music resides in the family tree of rock, then this documentary is perfect viewing.
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