I’ve been thinking about Logan Roy’s burn of his kids: ‘You are not serious people.’ Glory to the people who get it done with humor. The irony is so many that take themselves seriously are inconsequential (celebrity) V those with real power and influence that abuse or squander it.
Great article. I think I was a junior when this came out. We used to drive around in my friend's red 5.0 liter Mustang with this song blasting while headbanging, especially at red lights. Mostly just to perform for everyone else at the red light. Love Weird Al, too. Used to watch VH-1 all the time on cable. Thanks for the nostalgia and the insight, I didn’t know that about Victoria Jackson. SNL back then, too!
100%, the way I understand it. In a way, it was better than "alternative" - alternative to what, exactly? To mainstream music? That could describe an awful lot of things, but they meant a very specific subset, I think.
Labels are kinda silly, but hella useful if you're trying to sell something!
I've always understood Alternative to be exactly like you said, an alternative to mainstream Top 40 radio-friendly stuff. My older sister was super into Alternative. The Cure, The Smiths, DM, Petshop Boys, New Order, etc. I know I don't need to explain it. It was more sensitive than Rock, which was sex, drugs, rock n roll and whining about daddy and girls and anger. Not to be confused with Country which was the same whining but slower and with an accent. Alternative was the precursor to what came to be labeled as Emo about 20 years ago. I think maybe dudes with eyeliner and nail polish, probably black, sweaters with sleeves that were too long, etc were the image. Cousins to Grunge but less smelly. Or smelly-looking. Funny how someone can appear as though they stink.
Anyway. Not sure where I'm going with this. Other than back to the kitchen for a 2nd cup of coffee.
Ha! I'm with you on the coffee (though I'll have to wait for tomorrow AM). I hear this very much!
"Emo" was a subset of punk to me, circa 1995. It was all crybaby "emotional" stuff I wasn't at all into back then, and... crap, I guess I'm still not, though nobody means that any more when they say "emo."
I love a lot of music from the 80s, but I think that "alternative" bucket we both know so well is the place where I'll dive the deepest when I go back in my memory.
Yeah, I'm with you on the emo stuff. Wasn't my thing either. Didn't love the pumpkins back then. Nor was I into Slayer or Megadeath etc. I liked Metallica. But I also saw the other kids who were into these bands and I knew I wasn't really that, either. Ah teenagerdom.
Funny enough, I very much got into Slayer, but not until I was 19 or 20, when I had at least begun to refine my sense of irony. The best thing about Slayer is people who take them 100% seriously, and I do NOT wanna mess with that magic formula! Oddly, Metallica resonated with me much earlier, as a younger teen. I got mad at them when they released the black album and have never forgiven them.
Weird Al picked up the musical comedy torch lit by Stan Freberg in the 1950s and kept going by Allan Sherman in the 1960s. All of them understood that creating comedy through music is based on timing (the link between both) and the incongruous space between the expected and the unexpected. And there lies the secret to the enduring appeal of their work.
But where Freberg abandoned the art to go into advertising and Sherman was felled at a young age due to health problems, Al has just kept on going. And he seems to be more popular now than he was when he first emerged in the 1980s.
I’ve been thinking about Logan Roy’s burn of his kids: ‘You are not serious people.’ Glory to the people who get it done with humor. The irony is so many that take themselves seriously are inconsequential (celebrity) V those with real power and influence that abuse or squander it.
With great power comes great something something Stan Lee wisdom. Unfortunately, Stan's quote is only aspirational.
Great article. I think I was a junior when this came out. We used to drive around in my friend's red 5.0 liter Mustang with this song blasting while headbanging, especially at red lights. Mostly just to perform for everyone else at the red light. Love Weird Al, too. Used to watch VH-1 all the time on cable. Thanks for the nostalgia and the insight, I didn’t know that about Victoria Jackson. SNL back then, too!
BTW is it true that grunge was more of a label imposed on the new music at that time, by those outside Seattle, rather than a self-described moniker?
100%, the way I understand it. In a way, it was better than "alternative" - alternative to what, exactly? To mainstream music? That could describe an awful lot of things, but they meant a very specific subset, I think.
Labels are kinda silly, but hella useful if you're trying to sell something!
I've always understood Alternative to be exactly like you said, an alternative to mainstream Top 40 radio-friendly stuff. My older sister was super into Alternative. The Cure, The Smiths, DM, Petshop Boys, New Order, etc. I know I don't need to explain it. It was more sensitive than Rock, which was sex, drugs, rock n roll and whining about daddy and girls and anger. Not to be confused with Country which was the same whining but slower and with an accent. Alternative was the precursor to what came to be labeled as Emo about 20 years ago. I think maybe dudes with eyeliner and nail polish, probably black, sweaters with sleeves that were too long, etc were the image. Cousins to Grunge but less smelly. Or smelly-looking. Funny how someone can appear as though they stink.
Anyway. Not sure where I'm going with this. Other than back to the kitchen for a 2nd cup of coffee.
Ha! I'm with you on the coffee (though I'll have to wait for tomorrow AM). I hear this very much!
"Emo" was a subset of punk to me, circa 1995. It was all crybaby "emotional" stuff I wasn't at all into back then, and... crap, I guess I'm still not, though nobody means that any more when they say "emo."
I love a lot of music from the 80s, but I think that "alternative" bucket we both know so well is the place where I'll dive the deepest when I go back in my memory.
Yeah, I'm with you on the emo stuff. Wasn't my thing either. Didn't love the pumpkins back then. Nor was I into Slayer or Megadeath etc. I liked Metallica. But I also saw the other kids who were into these bands and I knew I wasn't really that, either. Ah teenagerdom.
Funny enough, I very much got into Slayer, but not until I was 19 or 20, when I had at least begun to refine my sense of irony. The best thing about Slayer is people who take them 100% seriously, and I do NOT wanna mess with that magic formula! Oddly, Metallica resonated with me much earlier, as a younger teen. I got mad at them when they released the black album and have never forgiven them.
Today, the only "Weird AI" we get is when large language models hallucinate odd facts or go off the rails.
We still get Al!
https://youtu.be/y0ZoX4dBvwk
Weird Al picked up the musical comedy torch lit by Stan Freberg in the 1950s and kept going by Allan Sherman in the 1960s. All of them understood that creating comedy through music is based on timing (the link between both) and the incongruous space between the expected and the unexpected. And there lies the secret to the enduring appeal of their work.
But where Freberg abandoned the art to go into advertising and Sherman was felled at a young age due to health problems, Al has just kept on going. And he seems to be more popular now than he was when he first emerged in the 1980s.
He remains an inspiration. Please, please let no terrible negative news about Weird Al come out!