A Trip to Garden Grove

When I was a junior at Purdue University, I took an African-American literature class. Purdue is a very, very diverse university, but at the time, African American students were a very small percentage of that diversity. After growing up in a predominantly white community, I was excited to take a class with students from all walks of life. The professor was tough but engaging. She also had a sense of humor and was open to discussing very sensitive topics in a constructive manner. During one of the lectures, she simply asked if racism still existed in our society. A very blanket, general question, but one that garnered some major silence in the small classroom. I remember that we had one Purdue basketball player in our class (he happened to be African-American). He was the brave one that spoke up - knowing that he would be challenged by the professor. He responded that he did not feel that younger generations perceived race to be important. His reasoning - television and musical influences. He cited MTV, BET, HBO, etc. He explained that so much of our generation's influence came from the media - not news sources, but entertainment sources. For one moment our professor was speechless. The media of the 90s was a melting pot of cultural influence. I could not have agreed with him more.

Posts up to this point have had a really broad focus. I've covered years, genres, and trends, but I want to highlight one album that I feel really defined my current musical genre loves. A melting pot of an album that can really be classified into many genres. It's also fitting that this album came out right before I began high school. Everything from the songs, to the lifestyle, to the drama behind scenes really set into motion my high school years and beyond. The album I am speaking of is Sublime by Sublime. Their third and final studio album with their full cast of characters.

Every time a song from this album comes on, especially in a group setting, you can look around the room and see its influence. People mouthing the words and bobbing their heads. It's an amazing mix of punk rock, reggae, ska, dancehall, hip-hop, and dub. Everything that the 90s exuded. I remember getting into Bob Marley and reggae after this album. I remember looking up what Santeria was on Microsoft Encarta (haha). All of the videos associated with the songs are iconic. I remember singing the songs with the team on the back of the football bus coming home from games. It seemed to dominate my freshman year and is an album I continue to go back to over and over. I wanted to be those guys. I wanted to move to California and live that carefree, Animal House lifestyle that they portrayed. It would be later on that I would find out that there was a lot going on with the band behind the scenes and why they never released another album with this crew. Bradley Nowell, the lead singer, would die shortly after from a heroin overdose. A common theme in the 90s. Nowell was even ejected from the recording of the album before it was finished because of his addiction. One of those times as a kid when you realize that some of the people you look up to aren't as perfect as you think.

I would later get into the other Sublime albums. This one is just so iconic to me for many reasons. It blended everything I loved into one compact disc. I'm instantly transported back in time everytime I listen. I'm a huge Jack Johnson fan and his cover of the band's song Badfish is one of the reasons it is my favorite song. I used to teach English and would have my sophomore students complete a 90s research project. The only reason I got one student to turn in his project was because he liked the band and the historical events behind the song April 29, 1992. I think he later dropped out, but I got that assignment out of him :). He made the connection.

That Purdue basketball player was right and is still right. We can become better people with broadened influences. We can exhibit one message to the world through many different lenses. Thank you to Sublime and crew for doing that for me.

Your Dad's Music

When I was in 7th grade, I can remember three events shaping my awareness and fondness for classic rock.

1. The death of Jerry Garcia
2. Woodstock '94
3. Forrest Gump soundtrack

1. Jerry Garcia's death made me aware that the Grateful Dead actually existed. To that point, the only way I was able to associate the band with its music was the drug references on the song Casey Jones. We had a little record store in town named Sound Cellar. It was a store way ahead of its time. It sold records, incense, hacky-sacks, paraphernalia and most importantly - Grateful Dead shirts. It was a bit like a haunted house - you did not want to go in it because you weren't sure what was in there (or that you'd come out), but you had to see for yourself. It seemed like every kid had a Grateful Dead shirt. Every kid had one because they were cool. The artwork on those shirts still mesmerizes me. I wish I could have the same graphic designer do all of my school stuff. Anyway - I just remember Jerry Garcia's death set off a domino effect of tie-dye shirts and hemp necklaces. There was one rule - you had to know some Grateful Dead songs to actually wear the shirt to school. Being a poser was not tolerated or allowed socially. It wasn't so much about the Dead's music as it was looking the part. It was like my school had turned into Dazed and Confused (obligatory Alright, Alright).  

2. Woodstock '94 was huge (obviously not as huge as the original), but what made it huge was radio and MTV. It was everywhere. I have talked in previous posts about the rise in popularity of alternative rock and this was very evident at Woodstock '94. The larger point is that it brought into my existence the performers at the original Woodstock. I was curious. I was suddenly asking my mom to let me buy Led Zeppelin's IV and Jimi Hendrix CDs. I remember that we had a comprehensive social studies unit on the Vietnam War, but it was the music that got all the attention. I have always said that popular trends usually hit public schools a year or two after they have actually been trendy - well, this one happened to be 25 years in the making. 

3. The Forrest Gump soundtrack. A great movie with an even better soundtrack. It has sold over 6 million copies. It wasn't all heavy classic rock, but a nice mixture. It had Elvis, it had The Doors, it had The Beach Boys, it had Fleetwood Mac. Bands that I had not heard of, but began to explore. I'm sure there was a major resurgence in the soundtrack's featured artists’ album sales in 1994/1995 purely due to this soundtrack alone. A mini music-Renaissance. This soundtrack had me asking questions about the artists - namely from my dad. When I was in middle school, I rode to school with my dad every morning. It was not a long drive, but long enough for me to remember. We used to listen to Bob and Tom every morning on 92.3 out of Fort Wayne (when it would come in). Back then, Bob and Tom seemed to play more music - namely classic rock. Bob and Tom know their music. Whenever there was a segment that was inappropriate on Bob and Tom, my dad would jokingly ask me to cover my ears (I went through the motions). It then lead me to ask him questions about the songs and the artists - did you like them growing up and so on. 

I still listen to Bob and Tom every morning. 

Fresh Prince and a Satellite Dish

I grew up middle class during a time when being middle class offered you a pretty comfortable lifestyle. My family was by no means rich, but we never wanted for much. This is probably a similar story to many people growing up in the 80s and 90s. One luxury that my family always had was...satellite tv. It was a non-negotiable with my dad. I knew about HBO way before any elementary school kid should. My dad was a satellite savant. We are not talking about the small dish that we are accustomed to nowadays, but a beast that looked like you were trying to contact life on another planet. I remember having some kind of paper guide for the box that came with the dish, but you essentially had to know the right "galaxy" code to pick up any kind of programming. ESPN may be on channel 24 on Galaxy G4. You'd punch in this information and then the satellite dish would actually rotate to the correct position. The only way to fix the dish was to get parts from Radio Shack - back when Radio Shack was predominately for ham radio nerds :). I remember moving houses when I was 7 and my dad actually brought the satellite dish and the equipment with us to the new house. I think he actually installed it himself. I caught on to the navigation of this system this pretty quickly. My parents did not have a ton of rules on TV, but there were programs that my mom was not a fan of and would make me turn off immediately. Some of the programs I remember were - Dinosaurs (not the momma!) and The Simpsons. One program that my parents were not quite hip to was MTV - which was surprising given my dad's position as a school administrator. 

MTV was obviously huge in the 80s and 90s. This is no secret. The majority of the reason that the network was so popular during this time was that they actually showed music videos. As a young, impressionable white kid growing up in a small town - it was a window into the world I had not previously been exposed to. You could gain access to all types of genres, clothing styles, and regional cultures. It was absolutely fascinating. I remember the early 90s as being the time that I fell in love with two things (primarily because they were becoming increasingly popular) - the NBA and rap music. One TV show that bridged these two for me was The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Will Smith was talented. I had read somewhere that he had achieved a perfect score on his SAT. Once I had saved up enough money to buy my first CD, it was up to my parent's consent to actually let me make that purchase. I'm pretty sure the CD cost $16 back then. I remember it like it was yesterday - my parents had taken me to the local KMart and had allowed me to use some birthday money to purchase this bad boy - in all of its over the top, cardboard induced, packaging glory....

Hear's to you Will Smith - I've been supporting you since 1991. Maybe you can give me some test prep tips if I ever see you. I also want to thank you for being wholesome enough for my parents to allow me to purchase you and Jeff's work :). 

I leave you with a couple of my questionable, early purchases - probably around 3rd to 5th grade. Due to the early cost of CDs, my rule was I had to like more than 3 songs if I was going to make the investment. I'm glad to know that these guys went on to bigger successes :). Shoutout to Teddy Riley.