Word: punk
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...exchange is typical of these two partners, who in many ways are opposites. Ray is tough and outspoken and has a growling, devilish singing voice. Saliers is quiet and reflective, and her vocals are high and angelic. Ray says she's influenced by punk bands like the Sex Pistols; Saliers prefers Joni Mitchell. The two never write songs together, and for weeks at a time they drift apart to their separate circles of friends. But something connects them. The children of professional parents, both are 30, Atlanta natives and graduates of Emory University. They have known each other...
...pairing as, say, Dan Rather and Connie Chung. Cash is a contemporary of Elvis Presley's and was once the host of a network variety show. Rubin is a hairy, ripped- jean-wearing studio virtuoso who has produced platinum albums for rappers like Run-D.M.C. and for the punk-funk band Red Hot Chili Peppers. As it happened, their different backgrounds didn't matter, for Cash and Rubin agreed on the most important thing: the sound they wanted. All you hear on American Recordings is Cash's guitar and his deep, sonorous voice. This...
...combo and John Lennon (Ian Hart) was its soul. Paul McCartney (Gary Bakewell) and George Harrison (Chris O'Neill) only whined and purred, respectively, while Lennon and Sutcliffe did the heavy lifting. John, you see, was Liverpool's own angry young man and the sole creator of this proto-punk, ur-grunge band (don't you love revisionism?). And Stu, preening moodily, was John's closet love god -- before a brain tumor drove Stu mad and killed him, thus establishing his credentials as a rock Rimbaud...
This is not music for the squeamish -- or even the optimistic. Meshing the angry nihilism of punk and heavy metal with the synthetic sheen of techno, The Downward Spiral is a 14-song, 65-minute howl of somebody falling into the void. What keeps it from being just another nauseating exercise in shock rock is the intelligence and creative force behind its dire sound. On March of the Pigs, for example, layers of shifting static are suddenly broken by a lyrical piano riff that blooms like a flower through cracked pavement before the wall of noise crushes it again...
...Cobain expressed his disdain for the glory of rock culture: "...at this point in rock history, Punk Rock (while still sacred to some) is, to me, dead and gone." In 1994, Cobain made himself dead and gone, while overcoming the cliche of accident with the violence of willful destiny. In a land swelling with nihilism, perhaps Cobain's' bang highlights our whimpers--past and present...