Alternative Nation?
KU students reflect music trends visible in other college areas
Story by Kevin Bates
Danger Bob performs at a the Triangle Fraternity, 1144 West 11th St. The group has a two cassette set titled Le Bop Shoppe. It also has a compact disk in the works, and plans to release it around the end of March. Danger Bob is headlining a show this Saturday at the Bottleneck.
individual musical tastes
vary, but because of the pervasiveness of MTV and Casey Kasem, many students across the United States bop 'till they drop while listening to the same tunes.
Jeff Petterson, assistant music director at KLZR in Lawrence, said that students' tastes were branching out and beginning to include more than just everyday guitar rock.
"With all the different bands out there, students are finding a new focus," Petterson said. "They're experimenting and opening up their minds, listening to other kinds of music."
Petterson said that some of the more popular groups included Garbage, Beck and Smashing Pumpkins. He added that hip-hop, electric, ska and lounge music were growing.
"Anything that's beat-driven is hot now," he said. "Students' opinions haven't changed a lot, but some forms are gaining a bigger following."
Perhaps the most popular style of music in college towns can be called alternative, but the definition of alternative music is as varied as the number of people who try to define it.
"Our customers' tastes run all over the place," said Steve Wilson, manager of Kief's CDs and Tapes, 2429 Iowa. "They're not dominated by any one genre. I personally think the word 'alternative' is meaninless."
Wilson said that he couldn't predict what would be big in the music industry in the future.
"That's probably out there happening in a garage in Darton." Wilson said.
Last week, the top-selling album at Streetside Records, 1403 W. 23rd St., was the latest release by the band No Doubt, said Erik Crane, who has worked at Streetside for a year and a half.
"We've got an eclectic mix, a wide variety." Crane said. "We sell a lot of ska and a lot of music with reggae influence. We get people with lots of overlapping tastes."
Other college towns generate their own characteristic sound. Alternative is also big at Tracks, a music store near Notre Dame, said Doug Plencer, who has worked there for two years.
"We have a lot of what's left of alternative," Plencer
Fric B. Howell / KANSAN
The drummer for Danger Bob works up a sweat while beat the skins during a show last Saturday. The group features many tracks with an up-beat sound and lyrics.
"I personally think the word 'alternative' is meaningless."
Steve Wilson Kiefs manager
said. "The new album by Silverchair is huge. We also sell the type of underground things you wouldn't have heard of unless you read the review, like Tortoise."
Although it is not the dominant type of music, country is on the radio much more in Houston than Lawrence, said Catherine Cronin, Houston sophomore.
"I think there are three country stations in Houston," Cronin said. "A lot of people listen to it—a lot more than people do at KU."
Local bands sometimes define a town, especially college towns. Lawrence has its share including Paw, Danger Bob and Kill Creek, but other college towns also have popular bands that gather a following.
Amy Sumpter, New Orleans, La., sophomore, said that she used to listen to two local bands from her hometown, Cowboy Mouth and Garage Mahal. She also said that the band Better than Ezra started out in New Orleans.
New Orleans.
Dave Salis, who works at Virgin Mega Store in Hollywood, said that alternative music was a big seller at his store, with bands like Smashing Pumpkins and The Cardigans topping sales. But he said that pop music was taking off as well.
"Pop is bigger right now," Salis said. "Celine Dion, Mariah Carey—they're selling well. Dance and techno music have also grown big too."
Alternative music is on the decline, said Chris Ross, manager of Triton, a store in Greenwich Village, N.Y. He said that students were moving away from alternative and getting into pop and hip-hop music.
"Hip-hop will take over the music scene," Ross said "It's big in the city right now, so it will take a while for it to get across the rest of the country."
Ross said that lately he had seen alternative music fading away.
"Alternative is dying out," he said. "But it will come back, just like heavy metal did."
back, just like he really was. Other college towns, like Tallahassee, Fla., have their own popular bands. Tom Rich, assistant manager of Vinyl Fever, a record store in Tallahassee, said that alternative music was here to stay.
"It's simply a matter of who you hang out with," Hayden said. "KU is so diverse that it's hard to say exactly what a trend or a style is. I know a lot of people back home that are like other people I know here, so they are probably going to have things in common."
"We've got a really big band here called Sister Hazel," Rich said. "It's a group from Gainesville, sort of like Dave Matthews. We've been selling over 200 conies a week. We just can't keep it on the shelves."
But Chelsi Hayden, Alexandria, Va., junior, said that trends have little to do with geographical and sociopolitical undercurrents.
The annual test of music quality and popularity will occur tonight in New York when the 39th Grammy Awards are awarded. Students' music tastes reflect many of the Grammy nominees, such Garbage, Jewel, and No Doubt, who are all up for the best new artist award. Other favorites include album of the year choices "Odelay," by Beck and "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness," by the Smashing Pumpkins.
Best new artists hope to avoid jinx
Tonight's Grammys to showcase talent
By Larry McShane The Associated Press
NEW YORK - Two cautionary words for whoever wins this year's Grammy Award for the best new artist: Milli Vanilli.
Remember Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, the dreadlocked pretty boys who captured the 1989 Grammy Award for best new artists? You don't remember their victory. You remember their embarrassing exposure as lip-synching poseurs later stripped of the award.
"The most notorious group of the '80s," critic John Floyd once wrote of the Vanillis, whose debut album sold 7 million copies. "Two handsome, talentless dweebs."
less tresses.
It's a sad tale. But that's all too often the fate of the best new artist, which will be announced at the 39th annual Grammy Awards tonight. Winners will receive a tiny gramophone statue that usually comes with a lot of bad karma. Just ask—if you can find any of 'em—past winners such as the Starland Vocal Band, the Swingle Singers, A Taste of Honey or Men at Work.
This year's nominees carry some cachet of hipness; the cutting edge band Garbage; the folksy, chart-topping Jewel; MTV favorite No Doubt; country teen wonder LeAn Rimes; and the smooth R&B sensation The Tony Rich Project. But once upon a time, so did Marvin Hamlisch (1974 winner) and Arrested Development (1992 winner).
The award's aura of ill will really dates to the late '70s and early '80s string of "winners," a frightening mix of one-hit wonders, MTV caricatures, Pat Boone progeny and dating fodder for the Artist Then Known As Prince.
Some frightening best new artist numbers:
Of the 36 honores, 21 never returned to the winner's circle. This group includes Robert Goulet, Hamlisch, Jody Watley, Bobby Darin, Tom Jones and Mariah Carey.
In the year they were cited, the best new artists collected 61 Grammys. In subsequent years, they collectively earned just 25.
collected five awards in 1980 for his eaz-z-y listening album *Sailing* but is currently on a 17-year Grammy-free streak.
Some quirky best new artist facts:
The most precipitous drop from hero to zero: Christopher Cross, of course. He
The Beatles, winners in 1964, won only two more Grammys—the album of the year and best contemporary album in 1967 for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
- Milli Varilli's victory was purged from all official history of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. There is no longer any listing between "Miller, Roger" and "Mills, Erie." The 1989 best artist notation states no "No award."
- It's too early to say if the "curse" will drag down recent winners like Sheryl Crow and Hootie & the Blowfish, but bet on Sheryl to fare better than Hootie. Female best new artists—Bette Midler, Carly Simon and Toni Braxon—have had more success in avoiding the jinx.
- Crosby, Stills & Nash shared a single best new artist award in 1969. Neither Crosby, Stills or Nash ever won another, individually or in any combination.
Further proof: 1991's winner, Mr. Marc "Walking in Memphis" Cohn.
TODAY
Minneapolis Convention, B.p.m. at New York Dell, 129 E. Floor, 10th St. Free.
■ BCR and Butterbean, 9 p.m. at The Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St.
Cost: $3 and $4.
Groov-a-licious, 9 p.m. at The Bottle neck, 737 New Hampshire St. Cost: $2.
THURSDAY
■ Parlor Frogs, 9 p.m. at Nouvelle Dell,
129 F, 10th St. Free.
Winter Concert: KU Symphonic Band,
7:30 p.m. at the Lied Center. Cost: $5
public, $4 students and senior citizens
Doctoral Recital: Alexandra Mascolo-
David, piano; 7:30 p.m. at Swarthout
Recital Hall. Free.
Blue Moon Ghetto, 9:30 p.m. at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St.
Cost: $4 and $5.
Matthew Sweet, 8 p.m. at Liberty Hall,
644 Massachusetts St. Cost $12.80
FRIDAY
LAB Jazz Trio, 6 p.m. at Nouvelle Deli,
129 E. 10th St. Free.
Acoustic Juice, 10 p.m. at Nouvelle Dell, 129 E, 10th St. Free.
Bubble Boys, Dot Dot Commiss and the Unimate Fake Book, 10 p.m. at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. Cost: $4 and $5.
SATURDAY
Danger Bob, TV Fifty and Creature
Danger Bob, TV Fifty and Creature Comforts, 10 p.m. at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. Cost: $4 and $5.
Swing Set, 9 p.m. at The Bottleneck,
737 New Hampshire St. Cost: $4 and
$5.
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Open Mike, 8 p.m. at the Bottleneck,
37 New Albany St. Free.
Brazilian Carnival, 7 p.m. at Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St. Cost; $10 in advance or $13 at the door.
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