Paste Magazine
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Another music magazine, do we need it? Well this one is called Paste and so far its pretty cool.
http://www.pastemagazine.com/
Paste caters the the 30-40 year old crowd that still likes music but can't stand the nu metal and other junk that floods our airwaves. The bands that we sung along with thru our teens and 20s and are still around barely get mentions unless they are on a big reunion tour. Well Paste has entered the frey with a mag that will focus on our favorite aging rockers. In the current issue, you got articles on Bob Mould, Son Volt and well not that they are an old band but Death Cab For Cutie. There are a ton of cd reviews, most on artists Spin and Rolling Stone would never print.
Remember back in the 90s for those of you in the Detroit area, the radio station "The River"? Well this was a concept that kinda took a wrong turn and ended up lame. At the beginning it was a station of good vintage alternative with a mix of adult alternative. It then morphed into the coffee house music, everything acoustic or roots rock. The alt country would fit in perfect but this is a bit gritty for radio so it was never included. Anyways the station faded and Detroit is left with more or less crap for radio. This station was supposed to be for the Gen X crowd who wanted something different but was overtaken by a bunch of Tom Petty wannabees. One fault was the complete absence of anything that rocked. It didn't need to play Metallica but something with a guitar would be nice.
I have done some thinking and Alt Country is kinda the new adult alternative, nearly every aging rocker finds a way to incorporate this sound into theirs. This is good, there needs to be more of an emphasis on this genre, its the voice of Generation X. We are all getting older and can only handle so much guitar rock and since Kurt Cobain is no longer here to carry that torch, the Alt Country sound has taken over. We still love our rock but forgoing the screaming vocals I think most people are ok with.
Getting back to the Paste mag, it focuses on the indie scene, another thing Gen X'ers still like. As a whole, Gen X doesn't care for conformity and what the music industry decides is the flavor of the month. They grew up on rebellion and counter culture, all generations did so in some fashion but I think ours was different. Gen X'ers are still into music and not just summer reunions, they want to grow old with their artists and still see shows at smoky downtown clubs. We are not interested in shelling out hundreds of dollars per ticket like the baby boomers are doing, we expect our bands to charge a decent price. U2, is probably the worst out of our generation in this for tickets but there are plenty of other acts who are conscience of this and work to limit the price.
Present day alternative is not indie, its mainstream which sets the current generation apart from Gen X. I think what is different with the alternative scene of the Gen X crowd is that it wasn't the mainstream music and the voice like previous generations. There were many genres of music at the time and Alternative didn't rein supreme until the early 90s. The older artists that are still around remember those days and build on that mentality with their current music. Paste does a good job giving these artists another shot at the spotlight while introducing credible up and coming bands.
btw, I am not saying DCFC are credible, they just happen to be in this mag and on the cover. I will admit it, I am a DCFC hater and do my best to trash them when I can.
A great online station to listen to your favorite music is Woxy Vintage. Check out www.woxy.com and click on the vintage section, you will find the best of the 80s and 90s alternative scene.
Posted by mardenhill 8/11/2005 02:20:00 PM
