I had to smirk when I read this article about how once Nirvana exploded with tons of sales, the record labels went scouring for similar bands. At the time, many people seemed to treat that action like it had never been done before, but it had. I lived through the record companies doing it the previous time - I call it "the Los Angeles hair metal explosion" that followed the success of Quiet Riot's "Cum On Feel the Noize" in 1983ish. Soon after that, Dokken, Ratt, Poison, LA Guns, BulletBoys, and other CA bands emerged. Not to be outdone, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, and Britny Fox emerged from the East coast.
Nowadays, there is an authentic disdain for many of those bands. What irks me is when people grumble about how those bands were not talented. I never agree with those statements. Granted, Poison's "Talk Dirty to Me" is not Chopin, but neither is AC/DC's "Back in Black" or Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love." The point is that those aforementioned bands that grew to popularity in the 80s metal movement were musicians. White Lion's Vito Bratta constructed awesome guitar riffs; Ratt's Warren DeMartini did as well.
Usually what happens is that fans who make generalized statements about an entire genre of music didn't grow up listening to it. That's why I think I have more patience with those bands than with the 90s Alternative / Grunge movement. In 1991, I was a senior in college and by spring 1992, Nirvana was a 'thing' that was followed by Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam. I can wholeheartedly deny ever spending as many hours with Soundgarden's "Louder than Love" as I spent with Ratt's "Out of the Cellar" and that's really okay. Alternative / Grunge bands were just too trippy for me - too out there. I wanted Pearl Jam to make tunes like "Even Flow" and "Alive" instead of "Jeremy" (which I still consider to be an awful tune) because that was what I was used to hearing from bands. Smashing Pumpkins didn't do anything for me until they released the tune with the "Today is the greatest day" lyrics; I'd deny I ever purchased "Siamese Dream" but it came with the CDs I purchased in Indy from the fireman - can't say his name.
Continued in Part II
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