Early 90's and throwback music in general...

Throwback as a scene: Larry Tee Gets Rich
I remember when electroclash was blowing up in Williamsburg. Art school dropouts and Montreal refugees suddenly found themselves able to afford gear and software that catered to old-school dance music. Everyone equipped themselves with VST 808s and soft synths and went to work. Manufacturers soon gave anti-laptop purists retro looking Microkorgs, Electribes, and myriad "groove box" options to choose from, all of which contained emulations of popular 80's drum machines and patches. Production and writing often took place at the same time, a result of the speed and user-intuitive nature of step sequencing. This led to a punk-rock-esque DIY style of churning out electro EPs for the white-label hungry DJs at Luxx.
Most artists whose style emulates that of another era (in this case, the 80s) insist that what they do is not consciously throwback music, rather, they insist that what they create is simply influenced by what they grew up on and that there isn’t any purposeful camp or kitsch intended. Predictably, the mainstream media (and certain local moguls) got a whiff of what was going on in Berlin and New York, assigned it genre defining nomenclature (I would’ve personally gone with “Art-tronica”), and started pumping out the compilations. In New York, as we all know, when something is popular enough that three hipsters know of its existence, two of those hipsters have a social duty to be SO over it. For a culture where individuals define themselves by what music, movies, and books they like, success and popularity are the worst things that can happen to an artist they hold dear.

Back to Integrity
So it all died and became the subject of ridicule, and the 2000s pushed on. Environmental and political issues suddenly didn’t allow us to enjoy the escapism of money, success, fame, and glamour. We wanted--no, needed--substance in what we listened to, read, and so on. The cycle continues. Integrity to escapism and back again. Look at your average Levittown baby boomer. Then look at their hippie kids. You see where I’m going. Yuppies living the hedonistic, line-snorting lives now stereotypical of Reagan’s booming economy.
Then came the 90s. Racial and gender equality became prominent themes in fashion (tribal, big shoulder pads on women's suits, etc.). Environmental issues were right on the tip of everyone’s tongue just as much as they are in today‘s climate-conscious society. Notice how every other generation seems to get on so well with one another? Grandparents and grandkids seem to relate, I don’t know, a little better? Common enemies lie in the generations between. Throwbacks seem to occur just as much out of a solid “NO!” to the current era as they do out of an artist or band‘s love for an era so chronologically distant from their own. Musicians seem to be more comfortable going back to the styles that they grew up for the simple reason that things were less complicated as a kid (generally). Music was simply enjoyed, not deconstructed, compared, and critiqued. The music of our youth was not only the foundation for what we grew to know first as music, but also a safe place. Very comfortable territory to create in, especially if you’re a musician.

More! More!
After electroclash, we started to see other artists continue to even more accurately reproduce the 80’s electronic sound. Maybe to drive the point home before the Tweens discover Ableton and start remixing Aqua. Something keeps bringing people back to that era. The same machines were being used off the dancefloor in television and film scores, further planting seeds in the heads of our generation that wait to be realized as nostalgia with the right Pavlovian trigger. Even before electroclash, artists like Beck ("Get Real Paid") and Les Rhythmes Digitales were making obvious their ability to tap into and re-create the recurring themes that made a track sound, well... 80s. The Parisian art-collective Valerie have pretty much nailed it, and the visual design of their flyers and album covers only drive their point home. Great job! Now we can lay it to rest. Stick a fork in it. Right? Maybe?

Catching Up
So what to throwback to now? Nineties dance? Fashion trends these days seem to already have a big head start. Have you noticed the surge this year in the application of neon red nail-polish? You'll see, now that I've said it. Sneaker designs have jumped on the bandwagon as well, and I’m sure you’ve noticed the trend in HUGE letters on T-shirts with prominent, sometimes socio-political messages. Very referential to Cross Colors, but more... white. The designs of Carri Mundane and KT&Paul would fit into my personal nineties throwback canon (despite my tendency to make assumptions about the integrity of kids wearing patterned hoodies. Grrr. I’m working on it…) even if the music supported by said designs does not.
The short lived “Nu-Rave” crap (I would’ve personally gone with “Glow-beat“ or “PLUR-step”) didn’t really exemplify what I remember being important about early 90s dance music. Yorke-esque ambiguity in the lyrics of these artists was perceived in the media to be a nod to the psychedelic aspect of early rave. I remember the lyrics of the rave tunes I grew up with (if they weren’t just pre-time stretching chipmunk samples) as being simple and direct, sometimes with a political or social message. Usually a back and forth between an MC (who were usually rather unskilled by today’s standards, but with a message nonetheless) and a diva belting out the chorus. Shit, most “Nu-Rave” music wasn’t even electronic dance music as much as rock bands with AN synth.

Exploit This
If magazines like NME are turning their attention toward styles of music being produced in the vein of 90s dance music, I find more interesting the more mainstream tunes influenced by British rave and early Detroit techno. Once the media got their inevitable whiff, producers galore leapt at the chance to get on the top 40 with a dance single. No longer an underground genre, the dance music of the early nineties turned the trends and recurring elements of house and techno (originally existing due to the fact that early house and techno artists used basically the same equipment) into clichés. 909 snare fills, rhythmic piano jingles, orchestra hits, and BIG punchy kicks are what I tend to think of first. The stuff that our generation heard on the radio in ‘93 and ‘94 will still get any drunken dance floor hootin’ and hollering when a DJ knows what they‘re doing. Drunk frat kids get into the nostalgia factor. There’s the familiarity, and the undeniable knowledge that everyone else in the club knows the songs too. Trashed hipsters get into the irony of throwback music.

“This song is so LAME! Play it! PLAY IT!”


At the end of the day, even the mainstream dance tracks of our youth were as much about pure energy as the underground sound that influenced them. Christ, just look at the song titles. I think that we’re all ready for a revival, and I’m surprised that more artists aren’t interested in making tunes in this style. There’ve been REMIXES, oh yes, there have been remixes galore of more hit dance song from the early nineties that you can shake a neon stick at, none of which do anything but surround cut-up vocal samples with the modern, side-chained production you hear everywhere nowadays . No disrespect to the artists, as I love what most of them are doing with their original music, but these remixes seem like a gimmicky attempt to manufacture nostalgic-but-original floor savers. Where’s the activism? The message? Think about the way that we live today. I know that, if the nineties style catches on and gets its own fun amalgamated genre name, that I’ll be one of the first ones sulking.


“God! Can’t someone just create something ORIGINAL for a change? I was listening to that kind of stuff when these kids were IM-ing each other the answers to their homework!”


I think, though, that it would be a greater crime if we didn’t see this thing through. Yes, it might be as much a flash in the pan as Electroclash and Nu-Rave, but at least we’ll have pumped out some fodder for future generations to throwback to.



MC Sar & The Real McCoy - It's On You
This is basically a Real McCoy demo (pre-O-Jay, with MC Sar), right before their international success with "Another Night". I dug the bedroom-studio quality of the track. It's like meeting Madonna in Greenwich Villiage in 1979 and having her ask you for help her out with rent.



Culture Beat - I Like You
Culture Beat are best known for "Mr. Vain", commonly thought to be a La Bouche song in these mislabled post-Napster days. Soft vocals on the female side. A more innocent take on crushes, or fancy.


Dre Skull and MC Juiceboxxx - Center Stage

Milwaukee based MC Juiceboxxx and Dre Skull are the only artists that I know of who are tackling the early nineties production style that I think should be everywhere right now, but isn't.




Circles
My friend London recently had her spoken word lyrics put to music by a couple of Providence dudes. We performed a darker, different version of this one last week at Tazza's open mic deal. Weird experience. I pulled out all stops on this version and got all the early ninties out of me (used enough orchestra hits on the "Shut Up, Get Down" remix). As you'll see, in the end, I just had to be me.