I'm watching the VH1 Classic channel. They are doing 2 hours of alternative music videos. Yes, cool. However, it's on a channel that plays music videos of songs from the sixties through the eighties (which is bad enough).

How did the Alternative music scene become classic music? It only occurred 14 years ago. I was a freshman in high school! WTF?  :o

What are your feelings about this?

Tanya

Don't know

Why does CMT Country Music Station play Rock n Roll video's like John Mellencamps Pink Houses?

A lot of questions are based on people's biased opinions and trying to turn them into facts. A lot of the world is that way.

Yeah, I don't get the CMT thing either. Oh well. I guess I should buy my Geritol now  ;)

Tanya

14 years is a long time Tanya. The music I was listening to in high school was considered "old" by the mid 90s, and I was in high school until 1987. Any song older than 10 years old and still enjoying considerable airplay is a classic really.

They actually play early 90's music on my radio station that goes back to 1990-1995.



Howard

14 years is a long time Tanya. The music I was listening to in high school was considered "old" by the mid 90s, and I was in high school until 1987. Any song older than 10 years old and still enjoying considerable airplay is a classic really.


Thanks for breaking it down for me. Maybe I wasn't accepting my age!

Tanya

I'm watching the VH1 Classic channel. They are doing 2 hours of alternative music videos. Yes, cool. However, it's on a channel that plays music videos of songs from the sixties through the eighties (which is bad enough).

How did the Alternative music scene become classic music? It only occurred 14 years ago. I was a freshman in high school! WTF?  :o

What are your feelings about this?

Tanya

I know what your saying, but the problem is with the term “alternative”. It really doesn’t describe the music or artists.

For example, in the (early) 80’s when I was in high school, the Cure, Smiths, Red Hot Chili Peppers, REM were “alternative”. Obviously these bands have a vastly different sound and style to one another, so “alternative” doesn’t do any one any good at describing “alternative” music or the artists that were lumped in to the category.
I worked in a record shop in the late 80’s early 90’s and loved giving people a hard time on this subject.
They’d ask, “Where is your alternative section?”
I’d say, “Alternative to what?”
I mean I’ve yet to be in a record/music shop with an “alternative” section...

Alternative was just a catch all for somewhat popular or underground artists that weren’t getting airplay on the local & typical Top 40 AOR radio at the time. You might of heard “alternative” bands on a college radio stations or WHFS in DC, 91X in Detroit, KROQ in LA, or on MTV’s 120 minutes (remember that?) in the 80’s, but not much anywhere else (in the US anyway). I guess in years before the 80’s people used the term “progressive” which is no better, but helps describe the less then conventional direction of the music.

As we got into the 90’s a lot of these bands became very popular and broke out big time, now they were pop mainstream and selling millions of copies of albums. It became difficult to describe any artist as alternative when it’s getting the same airplay as the other pop artists of the day. What was so “alternative” about the band and the music then?

Oldies or classic rock as a description of music is just as bad, once some tune is popular enough or played enough it can eventually become an Oldie.
It’s all up to the program director of the station to make the call; it’s just got to be something that was popular enough, familiar enough and comfortable with their listening audience.

But I know what you saying though, it makes my hair turn gray, feeling really old to hear a early U2, Smiths, or Cure tune from the 80’s on an oldies station.... Still waiting for Public Enemy or NWA’s “F*** tha Police” to show up on an oldies station. Not holding my breath though. ;)

I know what your saying, but the problem is with the term “alternative”. It really doesn’t describe the music or artists.

For example, in the (early) 80’s when I was in high school, the Cure, Smiths, Red Hot Chili Peppers, REM were “alternative”. Obviously these bands have a vastly different sound and style to one another, so “alternative” doesn’t do any one any good at describing “alternative” music or the artists that were lumped in to the category.
I worked in a record shop in the late 80’s early 90’s and loved giving people a hard time on this subject.
They’d ask, “Where is your alternative section?”
I’d say, “Alternative to what?”
I mean I’ve yet to be in a record/music shop with an “alternative” section...

Alternative was just a catch all for somewhat popular or underground artists that weren’t getting airplay on the local & typical Top 40 AOR radio at the time. You might of heard “alternative” bands on a college radio stations or WHFS in DC, 91X in Detroit, KROQ in LA, or on MTV’s 120 minutes (remember that?) in the 80’s, but not much anywhere else (in the US anyway). I guess in years before the 80’s people used the term “progressive” which is no better, but helps describe the less then conventional direction of the music.

As we got into the 90’s a lot of these bands became very popular and broke out big time, now they were pop mainstream and selling millions of copies of albums. It became difficult to describe any artist as alternative when it’s getting the same airplay as the other pop artists of the day. What was so “alternative” about the band and the music then?

Oldies or classic rock as a description of music is just as bad, once some tune is popular enough or played enough it can eventually become an Oldie.
It’s all up to the program director of the station to make the call; it’s just got to be something that was popular enough, familiar enough and comfortable with their listening audience.

But I know what you saying though, it makes my hair turn gray, feeling really old to hear a early U2, Smiths, or Cure tune from the 80’s on an oldies station.... Still waiting for Public Enemy or NWA’s “F*** tha Police” to show up on an oldies station. Not holding my breath though. ;)




Thanks for the great explanation. Have you seen High Fidelity? I can see you in that shop. You record snob!  ;D

As far as NWA and Public Enemy goes, it's part of our reportoire as far as music is concerned. It will show up. I was joking the other day with my fiance how we'll be dancing to "OPP" by Naughty by Nature at the retirement home.

Tanya

Before you know it Christina Agulera,Lil Kim,Missy Elliott,Mario Winans, & Beyone will all become classic jams 15 years from now.By the year 2020. ;D



Howard

Before you know it Christina Agulera,Lil Kim,Missy Elliott,Mario Winans, & Beyone will all become classic jams 15 years from now.By the year 2020. ;D



Howard


That may not be a good thing! Eww!

Tanya

That may not be a good thing! Eww!

Tanya



Oh Really? It's pretty possible!  :D



Howard

Before you know it Christina Agulera,Lil Kim,Missy Elliott,Mario Winans, & Beyone will all become classic jams 15 years from now.By the year 2020. ;D


I knew there was a reason to look forward to the future.  ???  ;D

I knew there was a reason to look forward to the future.  ???  ;D



Well,that's the future for ya!  ;D


Howard

I'm watching the VH1 Classic channel. They are doing 2 hours of alternative music videos. Yes, cool. However, it's on a channel that plays music videos of songs from the sixties through the eighties (which is bad enough).

How did the Alternative music scene become classic music? It only occurred 14 years ago. I was a freshman in high school! WTF?  :o

What are your feelings about this?

Tanya
The way I feel is this: I called one of the local "Oldies" stations in 1994 and asked why they had for years, only played stuff up to 1973....the guy told me they didn't consider anything newer than 1973 to be an "Oldie"....I called that same station last year and they said that now they won't go past 1975...so I guess for a song to be a classic it runs like "Soap Opera time"...meaning for a Nirvana song to become an "Oldie" It'll have to be somewhere past the year 2025 ::)

BTW...what's so bad about videos from the 60's through the 80's....I LIKE them  ???:-\\ :-[

Before you know it Christina Agulera,Lil Kim,Missy Elliott,Mario Winans, & Beyone will all become classic jams 15 years from now.


No they won't. Most of those artists will barely be even remembered in five years from now, never mind 15.

BTW...what's so bad about videos from the 60's through the 80's....I LIKE them   ???:-\\ :-[


Oh no, sweetheart, I'm not raggin on these videos. I am an avid watcher of this channel. It just struck me as a surprise that they had two hours devoted to music of the early nineties that's all.

Tanya