Where Have All the Good Bands Gone?

This year the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame has inducted several musical acts that are undeniably, absolutley deserving of the honor. Those acts inducted that I consider classic are Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and The Sex Pistols. Blondie, Miles Davis, and Herb Alpert were inducted but I don't care. This made me think about the bands from my generation that will someday be inducted.

My generation was the grunge generation. The killer of hair metal, the bringer of flannel, and the era of moody drugs addicts that actually knew how to sing. Not every grunge band will get into the Hall of Fame, and honestly who cares who gets in the hall of fame. The point is not the induction, it's the fact that they were important bands that meant something to people. If you had to pick out those bands, I thinks the list would be as follows: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, and the Smashing Pumpkins. I know the Pumpkins weren't grunge and Imight get some shit for putting them in there but I love them. They were all amazing, they were all important to a generation. And Pearl Jam are still making music that means something to me and a lot of people. This led me in another direction of thought; what bands matter now.

What band that is still together has that sense of meaning or talent that will make them classic. I can think of a few that will probably get into the Hall of Fame: Radiohead, Dave Matthews Band, Green Day, and maybe the Foo Fighters, and probably one or two others that I'm forgetting and will get yelled at for not listing. But these bands have been together for over ten years each. After those bands came the rap metal bands: Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, the Deftones, Papa Roach...the list goes on. I liked all of these bands at one point or another (I still love the Deftones) but classic is not word that will ever describe these bands. So I sat there (actually laid there in bed at 2 am when I couldn't sleep) and thought about what new band could mean something in another ten, five, or even two years. The answer: not one. I can't think of one band that I think will make another two albums that people will know about, nevermind have the staying power to be considered more than a passing musical fad. It's actually pretty sad when you think about it.

This generation's music is all based on a fad. The emo kids and hardcore kids that think Fall Out Boy and Hawthoren Heights are the greatest ever (and there are some people that probably do think that) will move onto to some other band in a year or two. Even My Chemical Romance, who in my opinion put out one of the best albums of 2005, most likely won't be that popular 2 albums from now. I guarantee they peeked with Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, and now its going to be a downhill slide.

I also realize that everyone has their own bands that are important and personal to them. Some unknown or minimally know band that makes great music, because I have a few of those myself. But the era of great bands that define a generation this is not. Or maybe it is and I just don't like the era. Whatever.

Song Everyone on Earth should listen to repeatedly until they die:
Murder by Death - "The End of the Road"