I am so glad I wasn't the only one that hated all that late 90s garbage. I also thought to myself "is this good? Should I be listening to this? Why dont I like this?" Thank you for saying what needed to be said.
Around '97 I think there was a mandate that the song "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia be played 30 times a day for 8 or 9 months straight on every radio station. Remember???
This was one of the best video's you ve done as far as information on the 'entertainment'" world we live in.! Everyone age 20 to 60 should watch and study this video! Thank you.
You crack me up mate , but you preach the absolute truth ! I grew up on 70’s rock , I got into the punk & grunge but after that I was lost / bewildered and went back to the vinyl of the 70’s and my grunge cd’s and have stayed there ever since like a grumpy old dinosaur 😂😂🦖I probably need to leave the cave and check out the new music . I really enjoyed your post . Thanks & Cheers
Have to agree. It ended with Creed. I heard that and cried. I knew it was finally over for all of us, and then I saw a kid wearing a Limp Bizkit t-shirt and knew there was no going back. I solely got into working Classic Rock radio from that moment on and haven't looked back.
My personal 5 life-changing album disappointments were Eric Clapton's "From the Cradle" (1994), the "Armageddon" soundtrack (1998), Britney Spear's "...Baby One More Time" (1999), U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (2004), and Guns'n' Roses' "The Spaghetti Incident" (1993).
Listen to "83" by John Mayer. He agrees that was a good year. I changed the same time you did, 88, but i got into alternative. MTV 120 minutes became my bible. There were a few bands like Gene Loves Jezebel, that were my bridge from pop / rock to alternative. 83-88 i was a metalhead, but then i went Soul Asylum ( way before Runaway Train), 10k Maniacs, Hothouse Flowers, Husker Du. PS, BonJovi New Jersey does have " love for sale", obscure track that saves the album lol
Yarling: Cher on a 45 slowed to 33.3 lol perfect. Funny and educational. Nice twist on the topic👍🏻 Luckily we had a good alternative station here that did not play Creed etc. 95X was right across from my house and I would hang out at the station when I was bored. Cool people that ran that station then! But yeah by 97/99 even that place was playing crap.
1. Blue Oyster Cult --Agents of Fortune 2. Ultravox -Vienna 3. Elvis Costello and the Attractions--Armed Forces 4. Pulp--Different Class 5. Ladytron --Witching Hour Those be mine And 6. The Smithereens---Especially for You
Surprise twist of an enlightening post-mortem of what-the-heck happened to music late 90's forward. You connected all the dots and ,yeah it all DID change our listening lives. It DID send us all looking elsewhere, backwards, & I just switched off radio forever. Growing up it was ALWAYS playing-The car, the house, backyard, walkman ...then, yeah no thanks. The 80's eclectic pop phenomenon is unrepeatable. You may not like every flavor of ice cream, but it's great to have options beyond vanilla or poop.
I appreciate very much this take on the concept because if I think about "life-changing" albums, they wouldn't all necessarily be albums that I think particularly highly of anymore. One that comes to mind is Emerson Lake & Palmer's 'Works, Volume 1' - maybe the ultimate in British 'art-rock' pretentiousness. But at the time I discovered it (circa 1983), it knocked me out. I was expanding my horizons beyond the radio at the time - not that everything on the radio was bad, back then you could still hear the Beatles on AOR stations - and I was discovering how much there was out there. So saying it was "life-changing" is not the same thing at all as saying I think it's one of the greatest albums ever made. Rush's 'Moving Pictures' would probably top my list because it was the first rock album I owned and I became a Rush fanatic for several years thereafter - but today, though I still like the album very much, it wouldn't go with me to the proverbial desert island.
I was glad when I started earning my own money to buy records. Imagine a 14 year old girl who loves rock n roll getting Art Garfunkel and Judy Collins for her birthday and Christmas 😆 life changing indeed!
this is a very good explanation. i think the same thing happened to me in 99. so i stuck with my man Beck who kept making great stuff that defied format
'Shit, you know me!' and very happy that I do. Brilliant video! Would love more insights into your life in radio if you ever feel so inclined to share. Thanks for a great half an hour!
great video, laughed hard. That Chipmunks/Beatles record man I feel your pain. Excellent point you made about the consolidation of ownership in radio. Also good observation about the nineties. I always think of how great the nineties were but really it was the first half of the nineties that I like. Seventies is much the same.
I don't blame you for not listening to the crap you had to play to keep your job. It says a lot about you that you quit because of it. - good things I don't think any music actually changed my life. I was a bubblegummer - if that's a word - until I heard 'The Doors Strange Days' in '67 that for me was a whole new realm of music. Got to admit I was 17 in 1967 - OK on with my life - When I was still inside my mom I listened to her play the violin and her father played the piano. So I was strangely drawn to classical music especially the violin - I did not know why until mom told me about what I heard before I was born. - and so I go on and on - you keep up the good work good news good life
I jumped off the bon Jovi wagon after slippery when wet came out. My sister would play my slippery when wet and 5150 records till the grooves wore off. Used to come home and those two albums were always on my turntable and out of their sleeves because my sister pirated my turntable when I wasn't around. (I still listen to 5150 although I prefer dave era VH).
You're absolutely right about music in the mid to late 90's. It's like all the record companies dropped only giant steaming piles of shit! I hear some people complain about how theres no good music being released today and dont disagree with them. There is a lot of great music being made but you have to actively seek it out because you will never hear it on commercial radio.
My mom bought me the Swan She Loves You so I wore that out then she got me the Chipmunks/Beatles and that’s how I learned the other Beatles songs. I loved it and still have it. Fair condition at best. Lana Del Rey is on a major label but she definitely isn’t commercial corporate pop. She’s alt pop imo. I think of her as a popular indie artist 🧑🎨
TOOL, Helmut, Meshuggah, Aphex Twin, Bjork, Tricky, Portishead, Ministry, Prodigy, Mr. Bungle, Melvins, Swans, Slpatterheds, SOAD, Massive Attack, FNM... There was stuff that got us trough the mid/late 90s and got airplay. The underground was killing it nasty rap, noise, 2nd wave BM, unmusic, lots of expermimtal electronica, ambient music, great score work for film... Anything but Osasis.
A little off topic, but when you mentioned The Black Crowes horrible sounding vinyl record I immediately thought of a review of the latest Billie Eilish record by Michael of the In Groove. That was one of the funniest reviews I've heard, and he wasn't trying to be funny. As an audiophile, he was angry!! Its worth a watch....he just put it up in the last couple of weeks. And I'm happy to say there was no Chipmunks sing the Songs of The Beatles for me (although there was the Chipmunk Christmas album....perhaps just as bad!!) I enjoy your channel!!
Fountains of Wayne Utopia Parkway, Bernard Butler - People Move On, Verve - Urban Hymns, Edwyn Collins - Gorgeous George, New Radicals - were some late 90s albums i loved
You mentioned Woodstock '94...It's interesting that Woodstock in '69 in the moment, felt like a triumphant victory and reason to believe more crazy creative stuff would come, but it really marked the END of a great era. The same can be said about Woodstock '94...maybe not the absolute end, that would be summer '95. Woodstock '94 = Cool (but the end of an era). Woodstock '99 = Lame
I'm gonna show my age and then get you to hate me. First my list. Alice Cooper-Love it Death. Deep Purple-Machine Head. Lynyrd Skynyrd-Pronounced. Iron Maiden-Number of the Beast. Powerwolf-Preachers of the Night. Now time to piss everybody off.Grunge sucked Cobain sucked Vedder sucked whining life is terrible boo hoo😢The only 2 bands from that period that I liked were Alice in Chains and Soundgarden because they were actually metal bands with great singers .Grunge, Numetal, Techno🤢
Happy September birthday, belated birthday! Read somewhere that Bon Jovi is worth 380 mm versus Jimmy Page 70 mm, unreal. Let me give you some Nicholas Cage Creed kung fu karate chops!!!
Days of the New does get a bad rap. I used to think they were just another late 90's pearl jam wannabe band but they rock. 1st and 3rd albums are so good. Dirty Road, man goosebumps every time.
*Sees Robert with a Creed CD in the thumbnail. Me: "Fasten yer seatbelts, this is gonna be good..." Limp Bizkit is kind of "so bad it's good" in my book. As for Nu Metal, I think Deftones were exceptional. They don't even really call themselves that. They were a pretty creative lot. I think their music was not just "all for the nookie." (And I know Creed were not Nu Metal, but Nu Metal was mentioned.)
Bands like Matchbox 20 and Tonic gifted "yarling" to mainstream radio and still today is the standard platform of FM rock in Australia. Also the amount of talent shows like "Australia's Got ahem Talent" still pushs "Yarling" as the standard vocal affiction of these dudes with top knot ponytails and beards singing soulfully overexpressively and playing their acoustic guitars like a pained romantic troubadour.
I walked into a HMV in the 90s and that Creed album was on the listening post, i listened to it, i liked the sound of the guitars so i bought it right there n then. Later realised what i had, its now in a box somewhere in the garage. I agree, Linkin Park are awful, they played at a festival i was at and i was putting my fingers in my ears to try to avoid hearing them, ive never understood the appeal of that band and people who should know better still to this day try to tell me that Linkin Park are good.
I think you're absolutely right regarding the political aspect of music. Heck, you could even argue that companies started "censoring" back in the early '70s. The Vietnam Era had musical groups that wrote songs against the war. Eventually, new types of music were promoted to get your mind off the war ... think soft rock and disco.
I was a 1960s-1970s kid, but some of our experiences were similar. Seeing LP shapes under the Christmas tree, writing down the radio Top 40. I gotta hand it to you working in radio in the 1990s. I can't imagine. By that time I was long done with radio playlists and went my own way with roots rock/alt country.
That terrible late '90s stuff that you discuss, I used to call that "false grunge." Candlebox, Puddle Of Mudd, stuff like that. And the singers with the "Vedder-syndrome," so awful. Now I know why they were always on the radio; they were forced on us basically - yuck!
I started out buying that shit . It was a social bond with radio and my "so called " friends".I loved Elton John,and when he said he was gay,radio dropped him like a hot potato . After years of buying every fuckin thing (Boston,Fleetwood Mac, shit-I even bought Olivia Newton John , the Fuckin Eagles,Doobies,Steely Dan-Help ! ) THEN THERE WAS.....elvis costello,& within a couple yrs I thru out all the shit ( including elton) and aquired taste and discretion . Now I listen to bird calls , tapp dancing and cats fucking,thank god !
This guy is hilarious! Here’s mine. Big Country The Crossing, Rush 2112, Midnight Oil Diesel and Dust, Michael Hedges Live on the Double Planet, INXS Kick
This was great! One of my first records was actually Chipmunk Punk, except I actually liked it.🤷♂️ Thanks for the heads up on the Shake Your Money Maker vinyl. I had it on my list of wants, but I guess I will stick with the cd.
Although "The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits," seems to insult your preference, the 1964 lp sold fairly well. it's considered the first Beatles tribute album. Released in September 1964 during Beatlmania it peaked at # 15 on the Billboard lp chart and remained on the chart for five months. "All My Loving b/w Do You Want to Know a Secret"" was released as a single. Engineer Dave Hassinger won a Grammy for best engineered recording. Creator Ross Bagdasarian (aka David Seville) consulted the Beatles about the planned album, and they were supportive of his idea. . The Chipmunks were created in 1958 and remained popular, thanks to an animated cartoon show.
Pretty sure they based John Cusack's character in High Fidelity on you. I went to HS from 94-98 so I experienced all of this. When I went to college Ska bands were everywhere and rock fell off a cliff.
OMG. I was 8 when the Beatles were on Sullivan and I wanted Meet the Beatles so bad, but the parents said no and compromised with that Chipmunks Lp. My intro to them ! I feel your pain. I still have mine, my kids loved it.
Among my friends group I was the only one who said Creed sucked when they fist came out. Even at 10 or 11 years old I knew they sucked ass, and all my friends at the time made fun of me for not liking them. We were in the back of my friend's uncle's work van (no seat belts, or seats) after making $10 each for cleaning up a construction site. Creed came on the alternative station and they all sang along. I made a face, protested and made my dissent known. I'm glad I stuck to my guns and in the long run it turns out I was right. Now I'm a vinyl collecting pompous asshole music snob and proud of it!
As soon as you said that your approach was going to be records that changed your life not necessarily for the better, I was hooked. Thanks for the humor, and for sharing your first-hand experiences. By the way, I like the New Jersey album, but I get where you're coming from 😅!!
I had to check out the song he talks about at 21.30 - 'Outside'......it is by Staind - (Imagine calling your band 'Staind'! That tells you all you need to know about their music). It IS as awful as Robert describes- and Fred Durst.....wow.....the cringe factor is stratospheric; He ACTUALLY says to the crowd "I'm feeling those lighters" as people hold them up in R'n'R cliche hell........ BUT - peoples tastes are different and you have to let them enjoy awful music if they think they like it; and some people in the comments under the video say how much it means to them, or how it was played at a friends funeral. Life, and music taste, is complicated.
As I attempted to explain in the video I don't think it's as much about taste as it is having something continuously forced upon you at a very impressionable age. The fact that it hasn't stood the test of time at all seems to support this.
Yamo wanna know # 5 now...Shall I venture a (most likely wrong) guess? Sure, why not. Here 'tis: Steve Miller Band-Children O' The Future...How'd I do?
You're always original Robert and a breath of fresh air in a crowded field. Rock criticism has lost some of its cutting edge and there's an awful lot of terrible music out there deserving of your scalpel. Thanks for the entertainment while you wielded the knife ! All the best.
Hilarious episode! I totally agree with the early nineties vs mid to late nineties except Pavement, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Butthole Surfers, Sublime, Blues Traveler, Lisa Loeb, and Oasis. That "Hard to Handle" remake the Black Crowes did adding the horn section is awful.
Noticed that same boat passing by back then. But going to record stores in the mid late 90s . I discovered The Blues Exposition, Pussy Galore, Drum and Bass music, Tricky, Metalheadz, Bjork even though you probably knew about Sugar Cubes. Portishead; Prodigy. Come on. There was other music. Being an American kinda sucked back then. Looooong Stories. Look in between the plastics
We had a similar upbringing...My father once bought me, when I was very young, the Best of Bobby Vinton...I was, like you a huge Beatles fan, and he heard me say that I couldn't stand things like Bobby Vinton, so he made it his mission to buy me something he knew I didn't like.And this was simply because he wanted to call me an ungrateful child.....mission accomplished....And I agree on your take: Doesn't have to be positive to be life changing....I was certainly ready for the new sounds of '77 because I couldn't have hated Led Zeppelin or corporate rock more....Peace and Love,Terry Tutor
You make that vocal style sound like mr.ed. lol. Alot of country artists use this style now too. Ever heard the term cookie monster metal? That heavy metal where they basically gargle.
Hey you need to re-think your opinion on that Chimunks album. Their re-working of Beatle hits making them their own. Hendrix's tried to copy their sound while recording "All Along The Watch Tower". Great harmonies, unique time signatures, arpeggios, like no others, the coda on "She Loves You". Maybe you're forgetting that the R.I.A.A. had to start a new category for children's music after this was released and due to the phenomenal sales this was the first album to earn the prestigious "Tin" award. How dare you dismiss this record. Hell the next thing you know you'll say is "Pet Sounds" is junk.
I remember when my favorite radio station (Rev 105 in Minneapolis circa 1995) got taken over by some corporate operation. Never really listened to commercial radio after that. Love what you do. Creed and the Chipmunks…incredible stories.
17:48 - The enemy of my enemy is my friend 😁. I share your utter disgust with that vocal style and used to do the exact same imitation you do when explaining to people why I hated it. It's this exaggerated singing style that's _supposed_ to convey emotion, but it sounds completely fake and forced to me. I just couldn't listen to Creed or any other band that sang like that.
Thanks man. I look forward to your video's. The 5 albums that changed my life are. 1) Beatles White Album 2) YES Fragile 3) Wings over America & Frampton comes alive 4) Pink Floyd The Wall 5) Tom Petty Full Moon Fever. I could rally do up to 20 albums that changed my life. But these 5 have and still do change the way I listen to music these days. Thanks again man, Peace and Love......
Hey Robert, Being from st. louis whats your opinion of kdhx? The days before the internet kdhx was a great way to hear new and different types of music since they played so many types of music that you would never hear on commercial radio. And what's your opinion about what's going on over at kdhx these days?
I have the 2021 pressing of the black crowes album. It has a 30th anniversary sticker on it. It sounds fine to me. I've had this album on cassette originally and still have it on cd.
Entertaining, educational, funny , inspiring, inteligent so real and with no ego to feed.
Whenever you see "180g vinyl" on a hype sticker, it's like when DVDs has no features and just promotes the "interactive menu."
Yes!
I always called it Peanut Butter Music.🥜
It sounds like the lead singer just ate a big ol spoon of peanut butter before hitting the stage!
The chipmunks story is classic, it's funny yet so sad, lol. I can relate!
It's videos like this that made me a subscriber to your channel. Funny...and informative. Excellent!
Thanks!! I appreciate that.
I am so glad I wasn't the only one that hated all that late 90s garbage. I also thought to myself "is this good? Should I be listening to this? Why dont I like this?" Thank you for saying what needed to be said.
Around '97 I think there was a mandate that the song "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia be played 30 times a day for 8 or 9 months straight on every radio station. Remember???
This was one of the best video's you ve done as far as information on the 'entertainment'" world we live in.! Everyone age 20 to 60 should watch and study this video! Thank you.
You crack me up mate , but you preach the absolute truth ! I grew up on 70’s rock , I got into the punk & grunge but after that I was lost / bewildered and went back to the vinyl of the 70’s and my grunge cd’s and have stayed there ever since like a grumpy old dinosaur 😂😂🦖I probably need to leave the cave and check out the new music . I really enjoyed your post . Thanks & Cheers
Have to agree. It ended with Creed. I heard that and cried. I knew it was finally over for all of us, and then I saw a kid wearing a Limp Bizkit t-shirt and knew there was no going back. I solely got into working Classic Rock radio from that moment on and haven't looked back.
My boy had PTSD after the chipmunks album 😂
My personal 5 life-changing album disappointments were Eric Clapton's "From the Cradle" (1994), the "Armageddon" soundtrack (1998), Britney Spear's "...Baby One More Time" (1999), U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (2004), and Guns'n' Roses' "The Spaghetti Incident" (1993).
This was just perfect. So well done. Hilarious! 😂
Thanks!!
Hilarious but truthful. Keep ‘em coming! 😅
Darn I was hoping a k tel would be on your list. Great video. It's JJ after recovery I changed my handle.
Sure KTel was around when record companies wouldn't put out compilations like KTel did.
Listen to "83" by John Mayer. He agrees that was a good year. I changed the same time you did, 88, but i got into alternative. MTV 120 minutes became my bible. There were a few bands like Gene Loves Jezebel, that were my bridge from pop / rock to alternative. 83-88 i was a metalhead, but then i went Soul Asylum ( way before Runaway Train), 10k Maniacs, Hothouse Flowers, Husker Du. PS, BonJovi New Jersey does have " love for sale", obscure track that saves the album lol
What a fantastic video rovert rovert Robert have a wonderful day also happy first day of June ❤😊
Yarling: Cher on a 45 slowed to 33.3
lol perfect. Funny and educational. Nice twist on the topic👍🏻
Luckily we had a good alternative station here that did not play Creed etc. 95X was right across from my house and I would hang out at the station when I was bored. Cool people that ran that station then! But yeah by 97/99 even that place was playing crap.
Dude..."Chipmunks play the Beatles hits" had me howling 😂
1. Blue Oyster Cult --Agents of Fortune
2. Ultravox -Vienna
3. Elvis Costello and the Attractions--Armed Forces
4. Pulp--Different Class
5. Ladytron --Witching Hour
Those be mine
And 6. The Smithereens---Especially for You
That's an interesting harmonica contraption on the Chipmunks album cover.
And the guitar shapes are pretty futuristic, too.
Surprise twist of an enlightening post-mortem of what-the-heck happened to music late 90's forward. You connected all the dots and ,yeah it all DID change our listening lives. It DID send us all looking elsewhere, backwards, & I just switched off radio forever. Growing up it was ALWAYS playing-The car, the house, backyard, walkman ...then, yeah no thanks. The 80's eclectic pop phenomenon is unrepeatable. You may not like every flavor of ice cream, but it's great to have options beyond vanilla or poop.
Exactly! Someday, I'll do a video more in depth.
I appreciate very much this take on the concept because if I think about "life-changing" albums, they wouldn't all necessarily be albums that I think particularly highly of anymore. One that comes to mind is Emerson Lake & Palmer's 'Works, Volume 1' - maybe the ultimate in British 'art-rock' pretentiousness. But at the time I discovered it (circa 1983), it knocked me out. I was expanding my horizons beyond the radio at the time - not that everything on the radio was bad, back then you could still hear the Beatles on AOR stations - and I was discovering how much there was out there. So saying it was "life-changing" is not the same thing at all as saying I think it's one of the greatest albums ever made. Rush's 'Moving Pictures' would probably top my list because it was the first rock album I owned and I became a Rush fanatic for several years thereafter - but today, though I still like the album very much, it wouldn't go with me to the proverbial desert island.
You bring such great perspective and context to our American rock music history. Always interesting...and much of it hysterical! Keep it up!
I was glad when I started earning my own money to buy records. Imagine a 14 year old girl who loves rock n roll getting Art Garfunkel and Judy Collins for her birthday and Christmas 😆 life changing indeed!
Girlfriend and Superunknown are my life changing ones.
this is a very good explanation. i think the same thing happened to me in 99. so i stuck with my man Beck who kept making great stuff that defied format
at work we renamed a table the Nickleback conference room. the table you used when all other choices were taken
'Shit, you know me!' and very happy that I do. Brilliant video! Would love more insights into your life in radio if you ever feel so inclined to share. Thanks for a great half an hour!
great video, laughed hard. That Chipmunks/Beatles record man I feel your pain. Excellent point you made about the consolidation of ownership in radio. Also good observation about the nineties. I always think of how great the nineties were but really it was the first half of the nineties that I like. Seventies is much the same.
Thanks for your Storytelling, I loved it. 🎉
I don't blame you for not listening to the crap you had to play to keep your job. It says a lot about you that you quit because of it. - good things
I don't think any music actually changed my life. I was a bubblegummer - if that's a word - until I heard 'The Doors Strange Days' in '67 that for me was a whole new realm of music.
Got to admit I was 17 in 1967 - OK on with my life - When I was still inside my mom I listened to her play the violin and her father played the piano. So I was strangely drawn to classical music especially the violin - I did not know why until mom told me about what I heard before I was born. - and so I go on and on - you keep up the good work good news good life
You should totally do a full video on late 90s butt rock
I jumped off the bon Jovi wagon after slippery when wet came out. My sister would play my slippery when wet and 5150 records till the grooves wore off. Used to come home and those two albums were always on my turntable and out of their sleeves because my sister pirated my turntable when I wasn't around. (I still listen to 5150 although I prefer dave era VH).
😂 Always entertaining. I gotta say though, late 90's music was a goldmine compared to the absolute trash that's popular nowadays. 😬😜
I can hear Alvin singing Yesterday already!
You're absolutely right about music in the mid to late 90's. It's like all the record companies dropped only giant steaming piles of shit! I hear some people complain about how theres no good music being released today and dont disagree with them. There is a lot of great music being made but you have to actively seek it out because you will never hear it on commercial radio.
That's one reason I watch UA-cam videos with real music fans giving tips on new music.
So, you're saying you won't be attending the Winger, Creed, 3 Doors Down, Puddle of Mudd concert in St. Louis this weekend? 😮😂😔
Wildly entertaining, Robert! Thank you so much!
My mom bought me the Swan She Loves You so I wore that out then she got me the Chipmunks/Beatles and that’s how I learned the other Beatles songs. I loved it and still have it. Fair condition at best.
Lana Del Rey is on a major label but she definitely isn’t commercial corporate pop. She’s alt pop imo. I think of her as a popular indie artist 🧑🎨
TOOL, Helmut, Meshuggah, Aphex Twin, Bjork, Tricky, Portishead, Ministry, Prodigy, Mr. Bungle, Melvins, Swans, Slpatterheds, SOAD, Massive Attack, FNM... There was stuff that got us trough the mid/late 90s and got airplay. The underground was killing it nasty rap, noise, 2nd wave BM, unmusic, lots of expermimtal electronica, ambient music, great score work for film... Anything but Osasis.
A little off topic, but when you mentioned The Black Crowes horrible sounding vinyl record I immediately thought of a review of the latest Billie Eilish record by Michael of the In Groove. That was one of the funniest reviews I've heard, and he wasn't trying to be funny. As an audiophile, he was angry!! Its worth a watch....he just put it up in the last couple of weeks. And I'm happy to say there was no Chipmunks sing the Songs of The Beatles for me (although there was the Chipmunk Christmas album....perhaps just as bad!!) I enjoy your channel!!
Fountains of Wayne Utopia Parkway, Bernard Butler - People Move On, Verve - Urban Hymns, Edwyn Collins - Gorgeous George, New Radicals - were some late 90s albums i loved
Bon Jovi sounded so hardcore to me in 1988, granted I was only 8. I thought they were 'Punk'
You were 8. You get a pass. Lol
You mentioned Woodstock '94...It's interesting that Woodstock in '69 in the moment, felt like a triumphant victory and reason to believe more crazy creative stuff would come, but it really marked the END of a great era. The same can be said about Woodstock '94...maybe not the absolute end, that would be summer '95. Woodstock '94 = Cool (but the end of an era). Woodstock '99 = Lame
I'm gonna show my age and then get you to hate me. First my list.
Alice Cooper-Love it Death.
Deep Purple-Machine Head.
Lynyrd Skynyrd-Pronounced.
Iron Maiden-Number of the Beast.
Powerwolf-Preachers of the Night.
Now time to piss everybody off.Grunge sucked Cobain sucked Vedder sucked whining life is terrible boo hoo😢The only 2 bands from that period that I liked were Alice in Chains and Soundgarden because they were actually metal bands with great singers .Grunge, Numetal, Techno🤢
Happy September birthday, belated birthday! Read somewhere that Bon Jovi is worth 380 mm versus Jimmy Page 70 mm, unreal. Let me give you some Nicholas Cage Creed kung fu karate chops!!!
Thanks! Bon Jovi will be mentioned in an upcoming video.
The other thing about the early 90s...bands like REM, U2, The Cure, etc. were still pretty cool. Heck even Megadeth was good in the early 90s.
Days of the New does get a bad rap. I used to think they were just another late 90's pearl jam wannabe band but they rock. 1st and 3rd albums are so good. Dirty Road, man goosebumps every time.
Remember “Chipmunk Punk”? It was brutal… their version of “Refugee” was brutal. Of course, I bought it.
*Sees Robert with a Creed CD in the thumbnail.
Me: "Fasten yer seatbelts, this is gonna be good..."
Limp Bizkit is kind of "so bad it's good" in my book. As for Nu Metal, I think Deftones were exceptional. They don't even really call themselves that. They were a pretty creative lot. I think their music was not just "all for the nookie." (And I know Creed were not Nu Metal, but Nu Metal was mentioned.)
Deftones were an exception, they were more melodic. Also, they weren't a corporate concoction.
Bands like Matchbox 20 and Tonic gifted "yarling" to mainstream radio and still today is the standard platform of FM rock in Australia. Also the amount of talent shows like "Australia's Got ahem Talent" still pushs "Yarling" as the standard vocal affiction of these dudes with top knot ponytails and beards singing soulfully overexpressively and playing their acoustic guitars like a pained romantic troubadour.
That's really sad. It's somewhat died out in the U.S.
Triple M is yearling central here in Australia
I walked into a HMV in the 90s and that Creed album was on the listening post, i listened to it, i liked the sound of the guitars so i bought it right there n then.
Later realised what i had, its now in a box somewhere in the garage.
I agree, Linkin Park are awful, they played at a festival i was at and i was putting my fingers in my ears to try to avoid hearing them, ive never understood the appeal of that band and people who should know better still to this day try to tell me that Linkin Park are good.
I think you're absolutely right regarding the political aspect of music. Heck, you could even argue that companies started "censoring" back in the early '70s. The Vietnam Era had musical groups that wrote songs against the war. Eventually, new types of music were promoted to get your mind off the war ... think soft rock and disco.
We had very similar childhoods, we could be brothers
7:42 my thoughts exactly! Early 90s got better but anything from 1997 on is just scrap IMO.
My friends and I would call the late 90s faux-vedder vocalizing " MUHFERBER"...
I was a 1960s-1970s kid, but some of our experiences were similar. Seeing LP shapes under the Christmas tree, writing down the radio Top 40. I gotta hand it to you working in radio in the 1990s. I can't imagine. By that time I was long done with radio playlists and went my own way with roots rock/alt country.
Amazing take on this subject. Music that turns us off can also help to turn us in new directions!
Your impression of Aaron Lewis is spot on! The first Days of the New record is great though.
That terrible late '90s stuff that you discuss, I used to call that "false grunge." Candlebox, Puddle Of Mudd, stuff like that. And the singers with the "Vedder-syndrome," so awful. Now I know why they were always on the radio; they were forced on us basically - yuck!
I started out buying that shit . It was a social bond with radio and my "so called " friends".I loved Elton John,and when he said he was gay,radio dropped him like a hot potato . After years of buying every fuckin thing (Boston,Fleetwood Mac, shit-I even bought Olivia Newton John , the Fuckin Eagles,Doobies,Steely Dan-Help ! ) THEN THERE WAS.....elvis costello,& within a couple yrs I thru out all the shit ( including elton) and aquired taste and discretion . Now I listen to bird calls , tapp dancing and cats fucking,thank god !
This guy is hilarious! Here’s mine. Big Country The Crossing, Rush 2112, Midnight Oil Diesel and Dust, Michael Hedges Live on the Double Planet, INXS Kick
This was great! One of my first records was actually Chipmunk Punk, except I actually liked it.🤷♂️
Thanks for the heads up on the Shake Your Money Maker vinyl. I had it on my list of wants, but I guess I will stick with the cd.
I think it's been reissued again and the newer one supposedly sounds better.
Although "The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits," seems to insult your preference, the 1964 lp sold fairly well. it's considered the first Beatles tribute album. Released in September 1964 during Beatlmania it peaked at # 15 on the Billboard lp chart and remained on the chart for five months. "All My Loving b/w Do You Want to Know a Secret"" was released as a single. Engineer Dave Hassinger won a Grammy for best engineered recording. Creator Ross Bagdasarian (aka David Seville) consulted the Beatles about the planned album, and they were supportive of his idea. . The Chipmunks were created in 1958 and remained popular, thanks to an animated cartoon show.
Pretty sure they based John Cusack's character in High Fidelity on you. I went to HS from 94-98 so I experienced all of this. When I went to college Ska bands were everywhere and rock fell off a cliff.
I forgot about the Ska bands
Good Grief you’ve disparaged the name of my childhood bands…..but I’ll be thinking of you when I’m watching creed and three doors down in November 😅
OMG. I was 8 when the Beatles were on Sullivan and I wanted Meet the Beatles so bad, but the parents said no and compromised with that Chipmunks Lp. My intro to them ! I feel your pain. I still have mine, my kids loved it.
Among my friends group I was the only one who said Creed sucked when they fist came out. Even at 10 or 11 years old I knew they sucked ass, and all my friends at the time made fun of me for not liking them. We were in the back of my friend's uncle's work van (no seat belts, or seats) after making $10 each for cleaning up a construction site. Creed came on the alternative station and they all sang along. I made a face, protested and made my dissent known. I'm glad I stuck to my guns and in the long run it turns out I was right. Now I'm a vinyl collecting pompous asshole music snob and proud of it!
Me too!
Laughed so hard during this rant. You should take this out on the road!! Brilliant!😂
As soon as you said that your approach was going to be records that changed your life not necessarily for the better, I was hooked. Thanks for the humor, and for sharing your first-hand experiences. By the way, I like the New Jersey album, but I get where you're coming from 😅!!
I had to check out the song he talks about at 21.30 - 'Outside'......it is by Staind - (Imagine calling your band 'Staind'! That tells you all you need to know about their music). It IS as awful as Robert describes- and Fred Durst.....wow.....the cringe factor is stratospheric; He ACTUALLY says to the crowd "I'm feeling those lighters" as people hold them up in R'n'R cliche hell........
BUT - peoples tastes are different and you have to let them enjoy awful music if they think they like it; and some people in the comments under the video say how much it means to them, or how it was played at a friends funeral. Life, and music taste, is complicated.
As I attempted to explain in the video I don't think it's as much about taste as it is having something continuously forced upon you at a very impressionable age. The fact that it hasn't stood the test of time at all seems to support this.
Yamo wanna know # 5 now...Shall I venture a (most likely wrong) guess? Sure, why not. Here 'tis: Steve Miller Band-Children O' The Future...How'd I do?
I've had that album for years.
My parents got me Chipmunks In Low Places cassette one year 😂 And I'll tell ya, I plagued that thing until the wheels came off.
That was one of the first CDs I ever got. Liked it at the time, but then I was like 12 years old.
You deserved the Chipmunk album since the future you hates Nickelback. At least that’s what
My wife said. You can argue with her I won’t
I would rather hear the Chipmunks album over Nickelback.
You're always original Robert and a breath of fresh air in a crowded field. Rock criticism has lost some of its cutting edge and there's an awful lot of terrible music out there deserving of your scalpel. Thanks for the entertainment while you wielded the knife ! All the best.
Thanks!! I appreciate that.
Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park ROCK and fred durst is hilarious grunge is pretentious, tho i like fugazi and folk music so LOL dont judge me
Limp Bizkit was fine as a novelty act.
21:03 damn you made me spill my drink.
Hilarious episode! I totally agree with the early nineties vs mid to late nineties except Pavement, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Butthole Surfers, Sublime, Blues Traveler, Lisa Loeb, and Oasis. That "Hard to Handle" remake the Black Crowes did adding the horn section is awful.
Thanks! The horn-adding was a record label thing.
That Bon Jovi album is like bad medicine. There ain't no doctor that can cure its disease.
Agreed, 1997- the year the music died.
Yep. I tuned out in the Late 90’s and went back hunting music from the 70’s
Noticed that same boat passing by back then. But going to record stores in the mid late 90s . I discovered The Blues Exposition, Pussy Galore, Drum and Bass music, Tricky, Metalheadz, Bjork even though you probably knew about Sugar Cubes. Portishead; Prodigy. Come on. There was other music. Being an American kinda sucked back then. Looooong Stories. Look in between the plastics
Local Columbus Ohio bands. First!
My favorite band is the Beatles. Though I don't think I would have liked the Chipmunks singing there songs.
Hahaha, he's holding up a Creed album in the thumbnail
We had a similar upbringing...My father once bought me, when I was very young, the Best of Bobby Vinton...I was, like you a huge Beatles fan, and he heard me say that I couldn't stand things like Bobby Vinton, so he made it his mission to buy me something he knew I didn't like.And this was simply because he wanted to call me an ungrateful child.....mission accomplished....And I agree on your take: Doesn't have to be positive to be life changing....I was certainly ready for the new sounds of '77 because I couldn't have hated Led Zeppelin or corporate rock more....Peace and Love,Terry Tutor
Buying something I don't like just to able to call me an ungrateful child..... that's very relatable.
You make that vocal style sound like mr.ed. lol. Alot of country artists use this style now too. Ever heard the term cookie monster metal? That heavy metal where they basically gargle.
Yes, it just sounds comical.
Hey you need to re-think your opinion on that Chimunks album. Their re-working of Beatle hits making them their own. Hendrix's tried to copy their sound while recording "All Along The Watch Tower". Great harmonies, unique time signatures, arpeggios, like no others, the coda on "She Loves You". Maybe you're forgetting that the R.I.A.A. had to start a new category for children's music after this was released and due to the phenomenal sales this was the first album to earn the prestigious "Tin" award. How dare you dismiss this record. Hell the next thing you know you'll say is "Pet Sounds" is junk.
The Chipmunks Sing The Beatles Hits. 😂😂😂😂 I’m so sorry.
Me too. Lol
I remember when my favorite radio station (Rev 105 in Minneapolis circa 1995) got taken over by some corporate operation. Never really listened to commercial radio after that. Love what you do. Creed and the Chipmunks…incredible stories.
17:48 - The enemy of my enemy is my friend 😁. I share your utter disgust with that vocal style and used to do the exact same imitation you do when explaining to people why I hated it. It's this exaggerated singing style that's _supposed_ to convey emotion, but it sounds completely fake and forced to me. I just couldn't listen to Creed or any other band that sang like that.
11:44 how about "Nookie" and "Break Stuff"???
They're a novelty act and should have never been treated as anything but that.
that was a good one.
when I'm scratting through records and cd's here in England the charity shops are rammed full of nu-metal CD's.
Thanks man. I look forward to your video's. The 5 albums that changed my life are. 1) Beatles White Album 2) YES Fragile 3) Wings over America & Frampton comes alive 4) Pink Floyd The Wall 5) Tom Petty Full Moon Fever. I could rally do up to 20 albums that changed my life. But these 5 have and still do change the way I listen to music these days. Thanks again man, Peace and Love......
Hey Robert, Being from st. louis whats your opinion of kdhx? The days before the internet kdhx was a great way to hear new and different types of music since they played so many types of music that you would never hear on commercial radio. And what's your opinion about what's going on over at kdhx these days?
I used to listen to KDHX in the early 90s but then I moved to Springfield to start a radio career. What going on there now is a travesty
Outta curiosity, when you temporarily left radio and went back to school…. What was the plan? What was the replacement career gonna be?
I was thinking about website design.
@@RobertFithen ahhhh ok… well then you chose wisely to return.
Hey Robert. You showed some Beat Farmers albums in a recent episode. Would you be willing to sell?
I live 2 miles from Riverbend Records.
I'm not sure, I havent' had a chance to hear them yet.
@RobertFithen they are terrible 😁
:51 same!!!!
3:23 was it Stretch Armstrong???😂😂😂😂
That was one of them.
13:15 Believe it or not, WKRP in Cincinnati predicted that in one of their episodes
I've seen it a few times. It centered around automation, too.
I have the 2021 pressing of the black crowes album. It has a 30th anniversary sticker on it. It sounds fine to me. I've had this album on cassette originally and still have it on cd.
So bad