Nirvana Bump Bizkit Off Dial: Ladies And Gentlemen, Meet "Classic Alternative"

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by AKA, Feb 3, 2004.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. AKA

    AKA Senior Member Thread Starter

    Nirvana Bump Bizkit Off Dial

    "Classic alternative" radio brings back the golden Nineties


    By Damien Cave
    Rolling Stone

    A hot new radio format -- "classic alternative" -- has hit the FM dial. Stations in Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta and Seattle have started to replace the rage rock of the past few years with early-Nineties nostalgia. Limp Bizkit, Korn and Godsmack are out; Nirvana, the Pixies and Pearl Jam are in.

    There's new music, too: "The mix is sixty percent new, forty percent classic," says Keith Dakin, assistant music director at Boston's WFNX, which made the switch last March. Bands gaining airtime tend to have a retro sound. The Strokes, Death Cab for Cutie and Jet are favorites. "[It's] music that Gen X can relate to," says Garett Michaels, program director at San Diego's KBZT. "It just ain't Puddle of Mudd."

    KBZT is credited with starting the trend. On November 11th, 2002, the station converted from an Eighties format to old and new alternative rock. By spring, its ratings had topped San Diego's veteran modern-rock station, 91X (XTRA). Other stations took notice. Programmers at 99X (WNNX), in Atlanta, Seattle's the End (KNDD), Live 105 (KITS), in San Francisco, and Los Angeles' Indie 103.1 (KDLD) say that they were inspired in part by KBZT. They also say that they're responding to audience demand for less Nineties hard rock and more variety.

    But that's only half the story. Part of classic alternative's appeal is economic. In September, the beer industry -- which spent $18.3 million in 2002 on radio ads -- declared it would buy time only on stations with an audience that's seventy percent age twenty-one or older. "That's the money demographic," says Sean Demery, program director of Live 105. "All we do is sell twenty-five to thirty-four."

    Interestingly, the country's biggest radio broadcaster, Clear Channel Radio, lacks a classic-alternative station, and it has no plans for one at present. To some, the new format is nothing more than a placeholder. Says Chris Williams, program director at 99X in Atlanta, "When rock is this year's hip-hop, I don't think we'll need it anymore."

    (January 30, 2004)
     
  2. Damián

    Damián Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Spain now
    I'm old. :(
     
  3. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I think this is the beginning of the end for the classic rock of the 60s and 70s on the radio.

    Next up, classic rap stations.

    Times are changing!
     
  4. Paul K

    Paul K Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Grant, this is the endnote for rock period. Finally all periods have been repackaged!

    Yecchhh!!!
     
  5. Roland Stone

    Roland Stone Offending Member

    As the rate of nostalgic consumption increases while its cycle decreases, it will, like a snake eating its tail, eventually become the very thing it devours, causing an instaneous feedback loop by which new music will debut on oldies stations, and we will be comforted by the familiarity of music we are hearing for the first time.
     
  6. Stateless

    Stateless New Member

    Location:
    USA
    I'm not a very nostalgic person, but I'd much rather hear old Nirvana than new Limp Bizkit. Well, I'd rather hear almost anything than Limp Bizkit. :laugh: I think it's just harder to be original these days as so much has been done before. Even the new bands that people seem to like according to that article are retro.
     
  7. JWB

    JWB New Member

    You guys are misunderstanding.

    It's not a "nostalgia" thing. It's a "rock" thing.

    Rock stations aren't becoming "90's alternative" stations. They are simply playing more REAL rock music...and abandoning the pre-packaged modern garbage they've been playing as of late.

    The 90's alternative rock scene was treated by the radio, and the media, as a passing fad. So, as fads changed, so did these station's formats.

    90's alternative rock fans tend to be REAL rock music fans, while fans of "nu metal/rap-rock" stations tend to be teenagers/college students who have no taste for, or appreciation for, actual "rock" music...and get all their musical info from what is currently being peddled MTV.

    Now, there has been a big backlash against "rock" music stations for playing too much pre-packaged MTV garbage and rap-rock, and not REAL rock music....so a lot of them are (wisely) returning to the way it used to be...realizing that the 90's rock scene was not such a passing fad after all.

    A lot of these "rock" stations are getting phone calls from people....play some Pearl Jam!...play some Soundgarden!...play some Nirvana!...play some REAL rock music...no more of this generic, rap-rock sh@*!

    And that's what's happening.

    It's all about "rock music". What is good "rock music"? That's what these stations are trying to figure out.

    Forget about all the "retro" business.
     
  8. Chris M

    Chris M Senior Member In Memoriam

    What JWB said....
     
  9. Michael St. Clair

    Michael St. Clair Forum Resident

    Location:
    Funkytown
    90s alternative saved my interest in rock.

    While there was a lot of music I liked in the 80s (Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Police, REM, B52s, some others), as a whole I think the early 90s were better.

    And I'm not talking about grunge, I'm talking about the whole diverse scene. Everything from Nirvana to the Pixies to the Beasties to Blind Melon to Cracker to Weezer to Green Day.

    The early 90s was a very good time for music, IMO. Rock music.

    Yeah, I miss it. And I grew up in the 70s.
     
  10. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Have we in the forum saved all the uncompressed stuff for history?:laugh:

    Honestly, you know what I miss? Turning on my favorite radio station on saturday night and hearing stuff like "Your Move" by Yes, "Dance With The Devil" by Cozy Powell, "Thank You Falettinme Me Mice Elf Agin" by Sly & the Stone Family, and "Frankenstien" by the Edgar Winter Group. You just can't do that anymore without hearing the 80s stuff mixed in with it. That is one of my favorite time periods for rock, the late summer of 1973 and early 1974.
     
  11. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I agree! Queenchryche, Nirvana and "Plush" by Stone Temple Pilots was the stuff that got me back into rock. But, I think it started to breakdown when record companies hired twentysomethings and signed all kinds of alternative bands. Some were good, some not. Weezer and Live come to mind as being among the better ones, IMO.

    Never understood Alice In Chains, though.
     
  12. Mike B

    Mike B Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    As I think back on the early 90s (when I was in high school), Alice is the band I now think of as the strongest. I like them at the time but was a Pearl Jam freak. Now, if I go back and listen to one of those bands, it will be Alice. They have that dark heavy gloom that all these nu-metal bands are trying (and failing) to replicate.

    I always knew there would come a time when my music would be come "classic" or "oldie." Now that time has come.
    I need a drink.
     
  13. Roland Stone

    Roland Stone Offending Member

    Warning! Very contrary opinion:

    I think Nirvana, Pearl Jam and grunge was the first big band/scene where I thought, "I am too old for this ****." My friends loved it, but I found it humorless, self-pitying, and adolescent in all the worst ways. To me, it seemed the aural equivalent of one of those spoiled suburban kids determined to remain sullen and anti-social now matter how many toys Mommy and Daddy throw at him.

    I found the aesthetic enjoyable for the duration of Nirvana'a breakthrough singles, especially in the context of the MTV music surrounding them, but found it unbearable at LP length. Not to mention all the Seattle clones that filled the marketing vacuum, some of which, including Pearl Jam, managed to get bigger than Nirvana, sort of like Herman's Hermits outselling The Rolling Stones or The Beatles.

    It was the first time I really checked out of whatever everyone else was listening to, but because friends loved it, I heard a lot of it, amplifying my apathy into genuine irritation. Because it was so omnipresent, I remember the Seattle scene as a real nadir, along with disco, which did have the excuse of being danceable.
     
  14. CardinalFang

    CardinalFang New Member

    Location:
    ....
    I was spoiled by WNEW in New York during the mid to late 70s. Granted, I was in kindergarten then, but I heard so much amazing music... I owe it all to my older brothers.

    Anyway, we came to Ohio and there were two rock stations: WCOL and WLVQ (now known as QFM96). WLVQ had chimes going in the background when the DJ spoke. They played deep cuts off LPs... they even played a lot of "New Wave" music on Sunday nights, and we got to hear the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, and Talking Heads.

    You can find nothing like that now, except on college radio.
     
  15. Michael St. Clair

    Michael St. Clair Forum Resident

    Location:
    Funkytown
    And even that may fade. The legendary WOXY in Oxford, OH has been sold to corporate interests. I don't blame the owners, though...you work really hard for something for a long time, you deserve a payday.
     
  16. CardinalFang

    CardinalFang New Member

    Location:
    ....
    One of the best college stations I've ever heard is in Charlottesville, VA. I don't recall the call letters, but it seems to be a community-oriented station, rather than a true college station. Anybody can get a slot, as long as they aren't full. A friend used to do a show on there and he had total freedom.

    This thread crap brought to you buy the letters K, H, and the number 7. ;)
     
  17. joelee

    joelee Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Houston
    Even college radio is boring these days. The DJs try to be hip and play experimental stuff that has no meaning. The DJs try to put out a message that they're on top of cutting edge music. Well this cooler than cool attitude excludes some great music that doesn't get played on the airwaves.

    Joe L.
     
  18. Mike B

    Mike B Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    ???
    So... they're playing obscure music, preventing the airing of music no one knows?
     
  19. tjluke68

    tjluke68 New Member

    Location:
    NJ
    I was joking a few years back when Ministry and Nine Inch Nails would eventually become 'oldies' or something similar...

    :shake:
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine