MovieChat Forums > 1991: The Year Punk Broke (1992) Discussion > How good we once had it.. Where are toda...

How good we once had it.. Where are todays Alt/Rock heroes?


Everytime i watch this film i feel upset and frustrated and sad that we no longer have an Alternative Rock scene as brilliant as this as shown in "1991: The Year Punk Broke". When i compare it to todays music scene it really gets me down. It feels as though theres no hope for the future of good rock music.

What do we have today? Its all awfull indie rock bands like "Razorlight" and "Arctic Monkeys" along with a thousand other bands copying them and there image. If its not that its god awfull style over content dross like "Towers Of London" or "Selfish *beep* trying to be the new "Sex Pistols" The music press and record companys don't want good rock bands, they just want next years "Bloc Party" because they make a quick buck off them.

I'm only 23 years old and i've not bought a new record by a modern band in about 5 years. Some of you might think i'm not looking hard enough for good new music but i really can't find a band that speaks to me in the same way that "Nirvana" "Dinosaur Jr" or "Sonic Youth" or "Kyuss" and many many others like them did and still do.

I can't be the only one who feels this way. I've heard indie hipsters saying the "Pixies" were a Metal band.

Thats a sign of how bad its got.

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I agree that there is a lot of s*** out there but you don't have to act like everything is bad, and I think you really aren't looking and you are condemning a bunch of good music (I also hate the Arctic Monkeys so don't think I'm attacking you). Think about it this way; Sonic Youth is indie trash too, if everything indie sucks then bands like sonic youth and velvet underground must suck because they weren't on major record labels. And if Nirvana were still around do you think it would be as good or as "meaningful", grunge died. I'm not saying it's a good thing what happened to K.C. or anything against Nirvana but do you really think they had staying power to keep them running all the way through today? Half of the success of Nirvana is the legendary status Kurt was given after his death. What about Alternative bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers who continue to put out new and innovative rock. Or Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters, who just put out another album that is sure to snag a few grammys. Ultimately, I would have to say stop listening to the radio if you don't want to hear garbage and go out, find some reviews of some bands you might be interested in and give it a shot. Or a lot of '90s bands are still putting out great material. I suggest going through Rolling Stone and looking past the bull they have to review and check out the things their pannel really seems excited about. I just don't think you have any reason to complain that there isn't good music out. There is bad music out, but that isn't the only music.

Peace Son

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ye totally agree :( i'm also twenty-three and i feel like i've been born one decade later and missed all the good stuff :(. i dont know if its me being melancholic or the nineties were such a pleasant time to live... there was rock music on TV and not some people dressed in fallen shorts wearing ugly chains rapping about murders and whores, people wore squared shirts and ripped jeans and nobody didnt care. there was no world wide internet access anytime all the time and people still felt like certain things were not entirely up to them and had some quiet time when they were not overflowed by information... the other night i watched some talk show from the beginning of the nineties, imagine, and i saw people in the audience, in their funny hairdos, sincerely going like "oh *beep* really reacting to the stuff istead of just clapping when the board says 'applause'... and that goes to everything, rock music too, everyone's closing in and going digital...
i like the arctic monkeys, they acrtually do not sound like most of these bands, why put them in the lot? their songs have some energy. but yeah, razorlights sucks, and they suck live.
so, is it just my imagination? or was everything one degree more raw and unrefined
almost... twenty years ago?

i'd give i dont know what to see the pixies live in concert.

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thats one very literate comment by me :):):)

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I don't have a real problem with the arctic monkeys, its more the bands that jumped on their band wagon and most things post libertines. Arcade Fire are a decent band but i refuse to except them as the most radical thing in the mainstream.

Regarding the first reply, i understand that Nirvana wouldn't be the band they are today if it wasn't for Kurt's death. Same goes for Jeff Buckley and Elliot Smith and loads more. Nirvana's place in rock history is perfect as they ended at top of there game, they never got round to recording a poor album.

All those bands like dinosaur jr, nirvana, mudhoney etc! had sonic youth's blue print of what could be achieved on the underground rock scene.

Even girl rock bands were better back then. Babes in toyland, Hole, L7, Bikini Kill to name drop the obvious ones. Femanist politics aside those bands still had some great songs that still hold up well today.

That said i suppose we have no choice but to except that we'll never see their like again.

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actually i think arcitic monkeys appeared later in the story... to me it had already started getting annoying around the time of franz ferdinand... and all the
the's bands like the hives and the whatever-whats. but maybe in the states was different, if you're from the states.

have you actually seen these bands back in the day?

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I'm from the UK. Nah! not back in the day. The only band from that crop that i would of been able to see when they were present would of been The Smashing Pumpkins who are like one of my 5 fave bands ever.

I've seem Pixies twice on the reunion tour and hope to catch Dinosaur Jr this year. I met Krist Novosellic when The Melvins played in Manchester in november 2006. He was playing bass in Flipper that night. Sadly i couldn't get into the gig.

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smashing pumpkins actually do not consider themselves as part of the lot. they came from a different place musically and geographically, and they said it themselves. i just read that in the wikipedia article on them, i was trying to figure out who's playing with them now because i have a chance to see them now in germany... so dinosaur jr. too, although in another city, and the pixies are also coming in parts :) frank black and then the breeders... now i get the chance to see them coz im originally from bulgaria and bands that are not from the mainstream hardly find an audience there... so finally, 18 years later... a whole new generation has the right to vote!

otherwise i saw sonic youth in istanbul and i could not believe it... living antics :) i thought i was in a dream.

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actually, in the smae article there's some sort of criticism for the pumpkins from dinosaur junior. a huge part of the scene thought they were 'adapted' for the mainstream and desperate for commercial success. but they are in my top 5 too, even more our generation than the other :) its a shame that they broke up, and the pixies too, it seems that there's some sort of irreparable schism that has taken place between the members which is such a pity :( they dont think about us at all!!! i read some pretty bad reviews for the reunion tour but im sure it cant have been that bad :) its the only thing that we can have anyways...

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This is off topic Miss psykes, but as long as you're going to muse on nostalgically about the recent past then I'll have to correct you on some things.

The ninties was actually the first decade of the internet (starting at about 93/94), and issues of information overload and people having no down time were big during the time--and even before the ninties (I guess the issues just got bigger from there). So don't fret about that too much, we can learn to deal with it.

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man i remember the pixies opening for corrosion of conformity in 86.

get it right. they were metal from the acoustic ballad onwards!

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Music is better than ever, as long as you arent looking in the mainstream. Bands like HONEY RIDE ME A GOAT, SCISSOR SHOCK, EXTRA LIFE, ZS, CAROLINER, etc. are redefining music as we know it.

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pre·ten·tious: characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.

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arctic monkeys are amazing... that is all.

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