pearl jam boycotted their vitalogy tour because of disagreements with ticketmaster. i’m not sure of all the details, but they did not tour because they felt that ticketmaster were charging too high a fee (or something), and that the fans were being ripped off by having to pay so much to see pearl jam. that was why they didn’t tour - they were concerned with the monopoly ticketmaster had on the live music industry in the u.s. although the outcome was disastrous and resulted in people unable to see pearl jam, the band acted out of their desires to see their fans getting value for money.
they then proceeded to tour for their no code album, the next release after vitalogy.
the live albums you refer to were a series of ‘official bootlegs’ the band released to prevent bootleggers charging ridiculous prices for poor quality recordings of pearl jam shows. as pretty much every pearl jam show is bootlegged in some form, the band figured that the best way to drive the bootleggers out of business was to officially release recordings of all their shows. they have done this, to their own financial loss.
both of the instances you mentioned, darian, were out of respect and consideration of their fans, unlike metallica’s ‘we’re mulit-millionaires already, but we don’t want anyone getting our music unless they shell out the actual cash for it’ attitude.
Try Moby’s remix of the James Bond Theme. Playing it won’t make you look like a dork, although other factors involved may.
My off-the-wall suggestion for a band that’ll be around in 20 years is The Cowboy Junkies. They’re a family band, and have been going strong for 10-15 years, without any kooks like Michael Jackson, and probably will continue to fill ampitheatres for another 15-20.
I hope Radiohead and Tool can do it, but I think they’ll bother implode in about five years.
Well Darian, I don’t think I’ll be able to do much to change your opinion, but I’ll explain my own a bit. (Who was it that said “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture?”)
First off, Vitalogy was mostly crap, pure and simple. Even as a die-hard Pearl Jam fan, i can’t argue there. Four good songs on the album, IMHO, and the rest (especially Bugs) was just nails on chalkboard. (That would be Betterman, Nothingman, Corduroy (sp?), and Immortality, by the way).
But every album before and since then has rocked my world in it’s own way. Do I wish they would rock out like Evenflow once and a while? Sure, but I’d rather they change style than stagnate <cough> Blink 182 <cough>. (Same goes for Metallica by the way, and every band that’s hailed as “classic” now. Beetles, Rush, Tull, Queen, Zeppelin, etc.)
gex gex hits the nail on the head about the touring thing and the bootlegs. Pearl Jam cares more about their fans and their music and less about “Being rock stars” than any other band I’ve heard of. You don’t hear about Eddie Vedder dating Christina Aguilera or Jeff Ament trashing hotel suites. They don’t make videos, they don’t have fashion lines, they don’t sell their music to car commercials. They’re exactly what a band should be about IMHO, making music, branching out creatively, and caring about the people that let them do all that without a day job.
Well, gex gex and gonzoron, thank you both for clearing up the facts about Pearl Jam for me. My opinion about their music still stands, but at least my information about them stands corrected. Thanks!
Now, the thing about the evolving musical style is something I always appreciated about Metallica. Up until ReLoad, every album was different. But ReLoad was basically Load II, which did upset me. I am concerned about Metallica’s future, but I do think they’ll be around for a while yet. As long as they’re not touring when they’re 60.
There’s a lot of ‘classic rock’ from my generation (graduated high school in 1980) that frankly is way over-rated, and a lot more great stuff that should be rediscovered but probably won’t. What about Husker Du? The Replacements? Lloyd Cole? Camper Van Beethoven?
And do we really need to listen to more Bon Jovi? Yeesh. Popular does not often equal quality-look at Backstreet Boys. Then again, Talking Heads are fairly popular in certain classic rock stations (or at least, ‘Burning Down The House’ is). Who would’ve figured Talking Heads or REM would have become popular, mainstream bands twenty years ago?
Well, I hope in 20 years people are still listening to Stereolab, Guided By Voices, Apples In Stereo, Morphine, etc. But they probably won’t. ‘Classic’ rock in 20 years will probably be exactly what you hear on the radio today-lots of Pearl Jam, Metallica, Beck and so on. Hope you really like it-I got sick of the Police about twenty years ago…
I think that Dave Matthews Band will be around because of their cult like following, another band that I am pulling for is Rusted Root, even though they arn’t on the radio that much.
I am looking at my old Rolling Stone collection and seeing one thing in common. Many poplular Bands were declared the “band of the 80s or the Band of the 90s” are not being heard from any more. I do think that much of this pop stuff will not be heard that much 20 years from now.
My nominations are:
DMB
Rusted Root
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Red Hot Chilli Pepers
Nine Inch Nails
Fatboy Slim (if not for music, for the vid’s at least)
Man, Fatboy slim is one thing I just don’t get. If I hear praise you one more time I’ll claw out my eardrums with a rusty potato peeler.
Unfortunately, renigademaster I don’t think we will ever be free of the pop crap. Listen to an eighties station and you’ll see. What was then pop crap is now retro. Eventually there will the 90’s preservation society on TV with a guy in full baggypants, tommy shirt, skater atire hawking “Songs of the Boy and Girl bands” CD’s. There’s no escape. Even Vanilla Ice get’s played occaisonally today. There’s no escape.
darian00, Yes Reload was essentially Load II, but that was kinda the point, hence the name. S&M had to have given you a little confidence at least, though. I’m more worried about James being in rehab and who’ll they’ll get to replace Jason.
No. Pop will die. I mean when was the last time you heard The New Kids On The Block played with any frequency.
In about a year or two this fad will die and hopefully we will hear a return of music to the radio (maybe I ill even start to listen to it again).
As for what music from today will be around in 20 years I say undoubtedly the Dave Matthews Band: even when you remove the “Crash-heads” from the fold the number of people devoted to this music is more than I think even they realize. (For example: on the Summer 2000 Tour they were without the support of an album or publicity and yet managed to sell out 60-75000 seat venues night after night). I’m actually waiting for the day radio stations start playing their more esoteric “old” stuff because a lot of great music that doesn’t fit into the top 40 pop genre was overlooked in its first go around.
Hey, good to see my favorite neo-punks Rancid getting some respect. Now they aren’t as important as The Clash, but they are still a damn fine punk band. Funny that you should mention The Clash, because I hear a lot of Clash influence in Rancid’s stuff. More particularly, I hear a lot of Joe Strummer influence.
Even though the Greatful dead are done now, i think there music and culture will stick around for a long time. I was just at a hippie wedding this weekend and there were some Dead fans there with their little kids. The one girl was only about 5 or 6 and she already loved the dead because her parents played them so much.
I think the Deads music is accompanied by a certain lifestyle which will be around for a very long time.
Beck will stick around for a while I’m sure.
G Love and the Special Sauce will last for a while i think.
Government Mule may last…some of them are pretty old though.
Phish.
Howyadoin, Band that will still be touring/recording:
I’m not really a fan, but I can’t imagine the traveling Phish circus going away anytime soon, assuming nobody pulls a Shannon Hoon (sp?).
Band that will still be played on the radio:
Call me crazy, but I think Lenny Kravitz’ stuff has a classic sort of quality.
-Rav
Yes, a zombie but worth a reply after 24 years just to judge how accurate the Dope is on predicting things. Appears to be 50/50 judging from this post.
At the time I would not have predicted Eminem being around 20 years later.
I hate to break this to you, but they’re still pretty popular, though not at the same level that they were at in 2001.
Though they haven’t had a single make the Billboard Hot 100 list since 2012 (and haven’t been in the top 40 since 2005), they still make the top 10 on the Adult Alternative list, and their last two albums made it to #1 (2018) and #5 (2024) on the Billboard Album chart.
