Is Nostalgia Killing Us? - Music Edition

The word "nostalgia" or "nostalgic" was originally used as an insult, like you were stuck in the past, preoccupied with old wounds, out of touch with the present and anachronistic. It comes from the Greek words nóstos meaning "homecoming" and álgos meaning "pain" or "grief." We no longer use it this way though. It is often used as a positive word, looking finely onto the past. For example, some people are nostalgic for the 1980's or the 1960's. Some people look upon the past with rose colored glasses forgetting what it was really like. 

Nostalgia for the 80's is one of those things that I cannot figure out. The 80's sucked and one of worst things about the 80's was the music. I was one of those people who thought that good old rock n' roll was dying. The music industry almost always has been segregated, mostly for marketing reasons. There is black music, white music, Californian music, Southern music, etc. Then the 1980's brought us College Rock. College students were listening to bands like The Smiths, U2 and Bronski Beat. A lot of rock fans didn't care for this music and current music coming out wasn't to their liking.  Corporations and MTV was doing a number on the industry.  The band Heart had gotten perms, ZZ Top went PG-13 and even the Grateful Dead had a top 40 hit. This brought about a new market: the classic rock station aka nostalgia.

The first classic rock radio station was founded in 1980 in Cleveland and a wave of them rolled across the country, playing album rock from the 60's and 70's and ignoring anything new. The mid-80's for me,  within the Boston airwaves, it was WZLX for classic rock and the Providence station WBRU for college rock (aka alternative rock) which was out of Brown University. This is how nostalgia kills; the sound that defined the 60's and 70's died in the 80's because there wasn't a market for it.

Something great happened in the 1990's. Technology came along and made it a lot easier to be independent. What we now know as indie rock grew out of the ashes of the 1980's crapfest. Here came Radiolab, the Pixies, Nirvana and Pearl Jam etc. It was now possible to start your own band and not have a record label. You could have a recording studio in your den. It was all about control. No more corporate people dictating sound and image. 

I am talking to you, now, classic rock listeners. We want you back. Rock n' roll, new rock n' roll is back and has been great for quite some time. It may even be better than ever. So ...

If you love Steely Dan, check out the band .moe. 

If you love Pink Floyd, I suggested you try Porcupine Tree.

If you like They Might Giants, I suggest Cheekface. 

If you like the Velvet Underground, I prescribe The Feelies

If you like Van Halen, check out Eddie's son Wolfgang's band, Mammoth

You like Bob Dylan ... Joe Pugg

Cat Stevens ... Old Man Luedecke

Here is a list of over 100 bands and solo performers you can check out. They are all 21st century artists, some more rock and than others, but I love them all. 

Bands:

Alabama Shakes

Alberta Cross

Arctic Monkeys

Assembly of Dust

Avett Brothers

Blue Merle

The Bottle Rockets

Bonnie Light Horsemen

BROS

The Burning Hell

The Buttless Chaps

Caamp

Cage the Elephant

Carbon Leaf

Cheekface

Cracker

Dangermuffin

The Decemberists

Deer Tick

Drive-by-Truckers

Dylan in the Movies

Eels

The Feelies

The Felice Brothers

Fembots

The Flaming Lips

The Fruit Bats

Great Lake Swimmers

Gov't Mule

The Guggenheim Grotto (aka Storyman)

Guster

The Handsome Family

Hey Rosetta!

Hiss Golden Messenger

The Hold Steady

Hurray for the Riff Raff

Iceage

Iguana Death Cult

Immaculate Machine

Kaiser Chiefs

The Kills

The Killers

Low Cut Connie

The Lumineers

Mammoth

Milk Carton Kids

Modest Mouse

.moe

The Mountain Goats

Mother Mother

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

The National

Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers

Noah and the Whale

Ought

Parquet Courts

Peter Bjorn and John

Phoenix

Porcupine Tree

Portugal the Man

Ratboys

Rodrigo y Gabriela

Si*Sé

Slightly Stoopid

Son Volt

Southern Culture on the Skids

Spearhead

Spoon

The String Cheese Incident

The Strokes

Sugarcult

Taken By Trees

Tedeschi Trucks Band

Timber Timbre

Trampled By Turtles

TV on the Radio

Vampire Weekend

The Walkmen

The War on Drugs

Watchhouse (aka Mandolin Orange)

Weather Station

Ween

Westside Cowboy

Whiskeytown

Whitehorse

Widespread Panic

Wilco

The Wood Brothers

Individual Artists:

Ryan Adam

Courtney Barnett

Andrew Bird

Brandie Carlyle

Reina del Cid

Mike Doughty

Ani Difranco

Lucy Ducas

Jimmie Goodwin

Jason Isbell

Sarah Jarosz

Noah Kahan

Corb Lund

Laura Marling

Larry McMurtry

Father John Misty

Harley Poe

Kevin Morby

John Moreland

Grant Lee Philips

Joel Plaskett

Joe Pugg

Josh Ritter

Aliston Russell

Raphael Saadiq

Bob Schneider

Todd Snyder

Regina Spektor

KT Tunstall

Sharon Van Etten

Kurt Vile

Leif Vollebekk

M. Ward

Jack White

Keller Williams

Rachael Yamagata