Music

Why a Counting Crows Album is Every Bit as Important as Nirvana’s In Utero

This article from Grantland may force you to look at alt-rock annivesaries in a completely different way. Now Gen Xers know how the hippies felt when they realized that their generation’s music had been eclipsed.

It was a good system: Each generation would get its turn at the media steering wheel, allowing people in their thirties and forties to talk incessantly about how anything and everything that happened in their teens and early twenties was tremendously consequential and yet somehow criminally underrated. After that, these people were swept aside, and the next generation would rewrite history all over again.

I grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, when baby boomers had their run memorializing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and the game-changing brilliance of All in the Family with countless Time magazine covers and major TV network retrospectives. I assumed something similar would happen for the MTV debut of “November Rain” and the revolutionary competence of ABC’s TGIF lineup. And I guess that did happen, sort of. Arsenio Hall has a talk show again. Ed Kowalczyk is still putting out solo records. My people allowed these things to happen. But the world has changed.

By the time my generation had its hand on the controls, the media power structure was diminished. Now we can’t force kids to watch our nostalgia fests. Instead, we have to be satisfied with the Internet and social media, where it’s more difficult to proclaim the superiority of the past over the din of nattering youngsters.

“The kids are coming up from behind,” some old dude whose band broke up in a distant time called 2011 once said. In the postapocalyptic media hellscape, you have to fight for your sliver of attention 140 characters at a time.

Keep reading–if you dare.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 37979 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

2 thoughts on “Why a Counting Crows Album is Every Bit as Important as Nirvana’s In Utero

  • Interesting article…but I have to dispute the central thesis, that in 1993, Nirvana and Counting Crows occupied a similar spot in the zeitgeist‎.
    Time can really destroy context, can't it? I'm never was a Nirvana fan boy, but 'back in the day', if I saw a kid at the mall with a Nirvana shirt on…ok that was kind of cool. But seeing someone in a Counting Crows t-shirt….#facepalm sympathy.

    Reply
  • Personal nostalgia is one thing, but I'd argue a big part of the music media is focusing more on 40 years ago rather than 20 years ago. Classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, etc, are not only experiencing a revival, but are actually getting coverage in magazines, special issues, etc.

    Reply

Let us know what you think!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.