The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing

Bobbie Gentry: AN ATTEMPT TO SOLVE ONE OF AMERICA’S GREATEST MYSTERIES

Thepointis,formostpeopleR.E.M.hadtheirbreakthroughsuccesstwoyears ago when Out of Time, their seventh album (not counting the collected b-sides on Dead Letter Office or the anthology called Eponymous), made it to Number One on the Billboard charts. But to me, the band was successful beyond the point of no return when the girl who lived next door to me my freshman year, someone called Libby,whohailedfromGreenwich,Connecticut,declaredR.E.M.tobeherfavorite band on earth and played her collection nonstop. With just a wall to separate us I got it all—a steady diet of Murmur before breakfast, Reckoning at dinnertime, and FablesoftheReconstruction lateintothenight.SincethatcouldmakeeventhemeekestamonguslongforsomeBlackSabbath ,therehardlyseemedtobeanyreasonto getintothebandmyself.LongbeforeanyR.E.M.albumswentgoldorplatinum,the band’somnipresenceonthecollegescenemadethemasmuchanoppressiveforce inbookwormcirclesasthe“mainstream”musictheyweresupposedtobean“alternative ”fromwastotherestoftheworld. Listening to R.E.M. also seemed to be a first step toward declaring yourself amemberofsomestrangespecial-interestgroup,orbecomingacategoryinsome marketing expert’s demographic study that would report that you, say, bought clothesattheGap,droveasolar-poweredcar,livedinSeattleorSantaFe,ateTerra Chips,drankRollingRock,subscribedtoUtneReader,andwouldbelikelytopurchasereusablediapersonceyoustartedhavingbabies .Orsomethinglikethat.All thisistosaythatR.E.M.’smusicbecamepopularaboutthesametimethatastandardized ,commercialnotionofanalternativelifestylewasdeveloped,sothatall the bric-a-brac and bohemian touches that college students invented for themselves , and thought were just theirs, actually became something that could be bought at a shopping mall anywhere in America. For me, it was a sorry enough thing that without even trying I had paisley-patterned tapestries on my ceilings and walls, took courses in poststructuralist literary theory, spent afternoons attendingEricRohmerdoublefeaturesatthenearbyrevivalhouse,tendedtodate men with long hair who wanted to be filmmakers—all of this was stereotypical enoughwithoutaddingtheR.E.M.imperativeintothepicture.Bettertolistento Bruce Springsteen and be thought of as a mall-rat from New Jersey (then again, thatamountstoslumming,awholeothercliché)thanfallanydeeperintoearthycrunchy collegiate reverie. Andjustasanalternativelifestylebegantopickupsteamasastatementthat couldbeexploitedcommercially(hence,youweresuddenlyabletobuyjeanswith holes already punctured in the knees, or to purchase fishnet stockings with runs alreadysnaggedupthesides),youcanmapoutthedevelopmentofcollegeradio fromaminorandmostlyignoredstudentendeavortoanactualgrowthindustry. BecauseR.E.M.becamerockstarsviathesupportofcollegestations,recordcompanies suddenly realized that promoting at the university level was a marketing technique worth trying. Student disc jockeys tend to be passionate about music, 286 THE OXFORD AMERICAN 1SMIRNOFF_pages.qxd 8/27/08 10:43 AM Page 286 they’re willing to talk up new bands that they’re hot for, and they’re an excellent toolforcreatingaband’sbuzz.Theiraudiencemaybesmall,butifyougetallthe college-radiolistenerstogether,you’vegotagroundswell—enoughpeopletoget analbumonthecharts.R.E.M.hadbuiltitselfuptomulti-platinumstatusthrough gradual and incremental growth, and had maintained a base of deeply loyal fans throughout,mainlybecausetheirfollowingbeganatthegrassroots.UsingR.E.M. asamodel,recordlabelsrealizedtheimportanceofartistdevelopmentandslow growth. They realized that the big hype might sell a million albums once but it won’t build a band for a long-term career. It seems reasonable to say, then, that R.E.M.’s success taught some record labelsafewhonorablelessons.Butitalsoskewedtheterm“alternative”todefine a new branch of commercial music with its own set of standards and indicators thatdefiedthenormtocreateanormofitsown—usually,anythingthatmightbe describedas“quirky”or“abrasive,”orboth,couldqualify.Whilealternativemusic had always happened by accident—a band would discover somewhere along the way that they just didn’t fit into any pre-existing categories—suddenly “alternative ” itself became an anti-category category: Record labels set up alternative departments,andevenbandsthathavebecomeutterlymainstream—likeR.E.M. and U2—can still be found on the alternative charts. Because of R.E.M., the oddball music that used to just barely subsist on the margins of pop-music culture is nowmarketedasaggressively,andexpectedtoselljustaswell,asMichaelBolton. All of this would be fine, except that what works for R.E.M. is not likely to workformostother“alternative”bands.Despitesomestrangenotiondeveloped somewhere out there that R.E.M. is offbeat and different, in truth the band has alwayscreatedajingle-jangle,guitar-basedprettinessthatissimultaneouslysweet andedgy,mixingthelushRickenbackerfolk-rockoftheByrdswiththedark,dour alienationoftheVelvetUndergroundtoproducemusicthatisreallyquitecatchy. Playing off a guitar arpeggio and staccato drum beats that make a song sad and boppy at once is a really great idea—but it’s not one that is difficult for an audiencetograsp .Infact,oneofthemostenjoyableaspectsofR.E.M.isthatthemusic combinessomanypre-existingelementsofthemusicalvocabularythatit’salways instantly familiar and easily digestible. It was R.E.M.’s ability to sound like a pop band and still address an audience of hipsters that set them up for the kind of success they are now enjoying (just lastyear,Nirvanausedthesameformula:highlylikeablepopsongscombinedwith a grungy bad attitude). If R.E.M. became the ultimate college-radio band—and along with U2, they most certainly were the underground airwaves’ strongest crossoversuccessstory—whatitmainlyservedtoprovewasthatcollegestudents arebasicallyconservativeandconventionalintheirmusicalproclivities,andthat afteryearsofasteadydietofpunkrock—orofcacophonous,screechy noisemusic ofoneundergroundmovementoranother—theywereprobablyquitepleasedto BOOK OF GREAT MUSIC WRITING 287 1SMIRNOFF_pages.qxd 8/27/08 10:43 AM Page 287 findthatsomethingasmelodiousandpleasantasR.E.M.couldnowbepassedoff as alternative. Bythisaccount,ifsoundalonewereallthatcounted,R.E.M.couldhavewon me and millions of other people over years ago. Even though I never much cared...