David Bowie is Dead, Long Live David Bowie

David Bowie died this month, unexpectedly to most of us. A lot of us took it hard, including me. Like the Glass Spider in one of his songs, I shed tears. Apparently he knew he was going, and even in death managed to handle it artfully, with great image, and flair. Two days before he died, he had a birthday, released an album, and did a photoshoot.

Listening to his final album posthumously, it’s obviously an artist saying “goodbye” the only way he knows how - artistically. He was so much more than an innovator. He was a ground breaker that took music, art, style and performance where it hadn’t been, and helped peers he believed in along the way like Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Mott the Hoople. This doesn’t even go near the ranks of musicians he influenced, directly or indirectly, immediate, or years later.

Being from the MTV generation, Bowie’s video for “Let’s Dance” was the introduction I remembered. I loved that song from the first time I heard it, and seeing the video, I wondered who that suave talented dude was. It’s still one of my favorite songs to this day, and one of a handful of songs I can’t turn off when it’s on. Soon after “Let’s Dance” was released, I was living in a small desert town in California, called Barstow. I used to call the local radio station every afternoon and request “Let’s Dance,” and sometimes they’d play it.

At that time in the early 80s, Duran Duran were my favorite band. They always cited Bowie as an influence, and the influence was obvious. Duran Duran wore their influences on their sleeves. They even covered “Fame” as a b-side. In saw the correlation - catchy danceable music, great performance, artsy aire, impeccable style. They were imitators, but didn’t come close to Bowie.

One night I babysat a neighbor’s kids. Basically I went over to the house and sat around while the kids slept. I looked through the father’s cassette collection, and found a Bowie cassette I’d never heard of. It was called ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.” I popped it in a slid some headphones on. The album and sound were amazing. “Let’s Dance” was great, but this was so much more. Every track on the album was wonderful.

Local radio kept me exposed to Bowie’s hits, and I picked up albums like “Tonight” and “Never Let Me Down.” I loved “Blue Jean” from the “Tonight” album, as well as “Loving the Alien.” I remember seeing a TV broadcast of the “Glass Spider Tour” for that album. I still have it on VHS.

I finally got to see Bowie live in the early 90s on the “Sound and Vision” tour, which was touted as the last time he would play “the hits.” Around this time was when I started to dig deeper into Bowie, beyond the hits. The show was great, with Adrian Belew on guitar. As usual, the stage show was a spectacle in and of itself, with scrims, lighting, projections and more.

In fact, Bowie’s stage production on the “Sound and Vision” had a long lasting effect on me. I still babble about scrims, backlighting and gobos. When I worked in the golf industry, I worked on a redesign of the art for Ashworth Golf’s 2001 PGA booth. Heavily Bowie influenced, with a little Depeche Mode thrown in! Fabric art, backlighting, and gobos.

Many people don’t realize what a tech innovator Bowie was as well. In 97 or 98 he ran a web venture that offered digital access to his catalog, and even online access like a service provider. Definitely a precursor to internet service providers as well as sites like Napster and Limewire.

Throughout the 90s I kept up with Bowie as he continued to put out a solid body of work with albums like “Outside,” “Black Tie, White Noise,” “Heathen,” and “Earthling.”

With the advent of file-sharing and the Internet, I was able to collect hours of Bowie live shows, which I still listen to regularly. My favorites and the gems of my collection remain a “Serious Moonlight” tour show, and a late 90s New Years/ birthday show thrown for Bowie. But, the gem in my Bowie bootleg crown are the “Serious Moonlight” tour rehearsals with Stevie Ray Vaughn on guitar recorded right before their fallout over pay for the US Festival.

Bowie is a true icon, truly one of a kind. Only a handful of artists belong in the same breath - Elvis, The Beatles, The Stones...few others, if even all of them. Bowie was unarguably the most influential music, performance, and style icon.

A comment I read this week referred to Bowie as the gateway drug. If you’re the innovator and influencer, how can you be the gateway drug? Other bands were the gateway drug, and Bowie was the heroin. Bowie was the epitome of art, talent, style, innovation, a chameleon of chameleons. Bands I was into like Duran Duran, The Smiths, and so many more were the gateway drugs to Bowie.

Bowie showed us what music, style, performance and art could be. Bowie is known for his personas, changing through the years, and the eras. From his early tenures in the 60s with various brands, to glam rock and blue eyed soul of the 70s, through new wave in the 80s, to house and industrial experimentation in the 90s to his final jazz fusion experiments on his final album.

Bowie did it all.

Bowie was a beautiful boy.

Spotify or Pandora, which is the streamiest?

Read on Geeks.com

I left both my 1TB hard drive filled with music and my iPod at home this morning. On the drive in to work, I had to resort to listening to CDs! I got to work and wondered what I would listen to, and decided to do a little streaming with Pandora Radio on my phone. There are a lot of choices out there competing for your attention in the “streamosphere”. Undoubtedly the two top contenders are Pandora and Spotify. They’ve got a lot of similarities, but they’re also very different. 

Pandora is an online streaming radio site with 150 million users that’s actually been around for quite some time (since 2000) compared to the relative newcomer Spotify. You can stream Pandora online in your browser, or you can download the app to your computer or mobile device. With Pandora, you can create your own streaming “stations” based on an artist, song, or even genre. Pandora’s musical algorithm quickly puts together a station with a wide variety of artists and songs similar to what you’ve indicated you’d like to base the station on. 

The Pandora algorithm is surprisingly accurate and relevant and matches well with what you tell it you like. The algorithm is based on the Music Genome Project, a ten year ongoing analysis and catalog of music ranging from the latest pop gems, back to the hits of the Renaissance. When a song plays, you can give it a thumbs up or down, and the algorithm will get more dialed in to what you like. You can also skip the song if you don’t like it, but only for a limited number of times in the free version of Pandora. 

Pandora has nearly a million songs in its database, and allows user to stream for free in an ad based version. I’ve found the ads infrequent, and not that much of a distraction. I like the accuracy of the Pandora algorithm, and don’t often find myself skipping songs in my stations. I make sure to give thumbs up and down when I can, to keep getting good results. When I do skip, I’m usually not bothered by the limit in the free version. I have quite a number of stations set up, and find myself most often using the “QuickMix” function, which pulls from all of your channels. I like the variety, and once again, the relevancy of the musical choices. 

Spotify has gotten a lot of notice over the last couple of years. It was first available in Europe only, but launched in the US in 2011. Spotify has streaming rights to nearly 18 million tracks, so it has a much bigger catalog than Pandora. The biggest distinction is that Spotify music is available on demand. You can select an artist or album and stream it for free in your web browser or on a mobile device with ads. To listen without ads, you have to upgrade to the Premium account for $9.99 a month. That’s the main drawback to Spotify. 

Spotify is very socially integrated, allowing the creation of playlists, and sharing of playlists, albums, and songs. Spotify is Facebook oriented, requiring users to link Facebook accounts with their Spotify accounts. If you do so, you’re also authorizing frictionless sharing, so your friends on Facebook will see what you’re listening to. From experience, you’ll see that your friends will like and comment on the popular stuff you listen to, but might give you some grief for some of your guilty musical pleasures! This is a drawback for a lot of users. 

Spotify has nearly 10 million users, with 3 million of those being paying users. Spotify is also bigger globally than Pandora, and is available in 13 countries. Pandora’s license only applies to US operation. 

In 2012, Spotify launched a free radio feature in the US, currently for use on iPad and iPhone, and taking a chunk out of Pandora’s pie. Pandora might be sweating a bit, but it’s going to take Spotify some time to get where Pandora is, if they can manage to take that market. I would imagine Spotify could have some success cannibalizing those users like me who use BOTH services. Plus there’s the lure of the much larger catalog. Time will tell to see how Pandora adjusts to this challenge. 

So which is the winner? It depends on what you want to do. If you like a lot of variety, Pandora is the way to go, more like a radio station. Spotify is a bit more like having your music collection online – they don’t have EVERY artist and EVERY album, but I’ve usually found most of what I’m looking for. I think both Pandora and Spotify are winners, and I’d recommend using both, as they both have free versions available. 

For me, I’m starting to use Pandora streaming on my phone more and more. I like the “QuickMix” function, and the accuracy of the songs in the stations. I like the ability to skip songs I don’t like, and the thumbs up and thumbs down function. I don’t find myself using it on my computer at home, unless I’m mowing the lawn or doing yard work and I’m streaming on my phone. 

I’m considering upgrading to Spotify premium so I can pretty much have my music collection available on my phone for less than the price of an average CD a month. I like to be able to go to specific artists and albums, and I like the size of the catalog. I’ve got a lot of artist “best of” playlists on Spotify, and a lot of mixed playlists as well. I don’t mind that on Facebook you might see some of my guilty pleasure listens, like my affinity for 80′s pop music. 

Trends are showing that teens prefer streaming to downloading and even buying music online. Obviously CD sales are down. With the increase in use of mobile devices, it’s getting more and more convenient to stream music. The music industry as a whole has failed to adequately adapt to the digital revolution. If you put it out there in digital format, people will find a way to get it for free. 

Big Audio Dynamite: Bringing Dance Music to the White Kids

Originally posted on the Tree.com Arts Channel

Big Audio Dynamite (BAD) was a band formed from the slowly drifting ashes of The Clash. The Clash would last a little longer, but would never be the same. Co-founder Mick Jones had just been kicked out for wanting to move the punk pioneers in new directions and into new sounds. Less than a year later, Jones quickly regrouped with BAD. BAD was confrontational like The Clash, but in a different way—exploring new directions like melding dance with rock and liberally sampling sounds and movie clips as part of the band’s palette.

My introduction to BAD came in the mid-80s one day at a high school lip sync competition one lunch in the school gym. This was a largely white high school, filled with surfer boys and new wave girls. Four of the whitest, most popular kids did a lip synch to BAD, two in full Al Jolsonesque blackface to represent the band’s black members. This interesting new sound struck some sort of chord with me.

BAD put out several albums, and went through some line-up, sound, and even name changes. They had their share of hits, but eventually faded away when hip-hop, dance and rave sounds started to become more mainstream. Though not many realized it at the time, bands like the Gorrilaz are the babies of BAD. The same can be said for bands like Rage Against the Machine, and unfortunately, Limp Bizkit, as well as the myriad of others blending rock, rap, hip hop, samples, and even DJs. Jones joined the Gorrilaz recently, and this experience had to have made him wonder about getting the old BAD back together, with all original members.

These mash up bands are original enough, but they wouldn’t exist without the influence of BAD. Aerosmith, Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys get a lot of credit for bringing hip hop to the white kids and making it safe, but I think many more white kids besides me heard samples and hip-hop beats blended with rock for the first time in that sweaty Southern California gym.

To quite a bit of interest, BAD announced earlier this year that they would re-form with original members, play a string of UK and US dates, and top it off with an appearance at Coachella. Coachella is not only one of the biggest music fests in the world, but pretty much kicks off the now huge US Summer Festival circuit, and is known for reuniting nostalgic acts from the past and throwing them on a stage across from today’s hippest bands.

It’s certainly no mark to have “co-founder of The Clash” on your rock resume. They’re one of the most influential bands of all time. But Jones was moving in a different direction than his partner Joe Strummer. The Clash had experimented with many different musical styles before, ska, reggae, dub, and toasting, but Jones wanted to keep it going, even on early demos of the “Combat Rock” album, the one that broke The Clash mainstream in the US. Songs like “(This is) Radio Clash” started setting the tone for the birth of BAD, arguably.

After the success of the mini-tours and Coachella shows, BAD announced more US and UK dates this summer, and a performance at Lollapalooza. They are also working on comprehensive re-issues of the early BAD albums, fleshed out with unreleased material. The band is even planning on returning to the studio to record a new album.

The influence of BAD is appreciated much more in retrospect than it was at the time. BAD was much different from The Clash. Strummer and Jones did get back together to work on the BAD sophomore effort “No. 10 Upping St.” but sadly, never again as The Clash. They were pioneers least of all in the use of sampling, beating even many hip-hop artists that would become known for sampling to the punch.

But here’s to the return of BAD, appreciation of their legacy, and hopefully more kids of all colors appreciating this band as much more than a mere throwback nostalgia act.

My Favorite Concert Shirts and the Ones That Got Away

Originally posted on the Tree.com Arts Channel

My first concert t-shirt was Duran Duran, at the San Diego Sports Arena July 1987. I had to have a shirt. I couldn’t get the main shirt, I bought that one for my date, for $25. I got the $15 bargain shirt. My first concert t-shirt. Set the bar for years to come. I went to a show, I had to have the shirt.

Over the years I amassed quite a collection of concert shirts, at quite an expense. I then gave then away in one fell swoop to a pair of identical twin teens who probably hadn’t heard of half the bands. I was wearing concert t-shirts before they were even born!

 For years my uniform was jeans or Doc Marten shoes, and a carefully selected concert t-shirt appropriate to the audience of the day. There were many times when I was the guy at the show in the band of the night’s shirt, which many consider a concert faux pas.

I actually only had two Duran Duran shirts. I’ve seen them five times altogether. These shirts were like badges of courage. They were my favorite band, and to be honest, not too many guys are huge Duran Duran fans. I got a lot of grief for wearing those shirts. The best was a very colorful one, with the band name on the front, words “Abstract, Idealist, Romantic” on the back.

 I probably had the most Depeche Mode shirts. I’ve seen them ten times. I believe one of my Depeche Mode t-shirts has the distinction of being my most worn t-shirt. It was from their “101” Pasadena Rose Bowl show, June 18th, 1988—my 18th birthday. By the time I got rid of it, it had been worn down to a sheer nearly see through level. The graphics on the shirt practically faded I wore that shirt so much.

 As the 80s moved into the 90s, my tastes changed a bit. I became quite a fan of the Southern California punk band Social Distortion. I’ve seen them live at least 25 times, and at one time had several shirts, and even a hat. My very favorite Social D shirt was form their “Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell” tour. I eventually upgraded to a Social Distortion Dickie’s jacket, which I still have and wear to this day.

 In the mid 90s I got quite involved with the San Diego music scene which Spin magazine touted as the “next Seattle” after Seattle had supposedly given the word grunge with bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. I supported my favorite San Diego bands like Rocket From the Crypt and Lucy’s Fur Coat with shirts as well. Both shirts were pretty simple with the band’s logo. For some odd reason one day I decided to paint wearing my Rocket From the Crypt shirt.

 Among my collection were some controversial shirts as well. These pieces took some extra careful consideration to wear, as they would often elicit comments, questions, and glares. My Dead Kennedys t-shirt used to turn a lot of heads. It simply featured the large “DK” logo on the front. My Public Image Limited shirt got many looks, but mostly because it was fluorescent orange and green. My Bad Religion shirt with the x-ed out cross on the front made many uncomfortable. I had a Social Distortion shirt featuring a burlesque dancer, a drug user and a cross burning that elicited at work complaints. Interestingly enough, a Rock the Vote “Censorship is Unamerican” shirt elicited regular questions as it depicted a black man with a white hand over his mouth.

 There were shirts I wanted but never did get. I saw the Ramones twice, but failed to get a shirt with their epic logo emblazoned on the front. I saw AC/DC one time, but didn’t get a shirt. I’ve seen Iron Maiden twice, and didn’t get a shirt. I’ve also always wanted a Clash shirt, and a Judas Priest shirt, even though I haven’t seen either band live.

 There are, of course, the shirts that got away and still haunt me. I’ve always wanted a shirt from Duran Duran’s 1984 tour. I saw U2 twice on the “Zoo TV” tour, and LOVED the main Zoo TV shirt, but didn’t get it. On the “Music for the Masses” tour, Depeche Mode had an amazing shirt with a huge orange megaphone that I failed to acquire. Lucy’s Fur Coat sold a shirt with Lucille Ball in a fur coat on the front, that got pulled after a cease and desist letter from Desilu. I never got one, but really wanted one. I’ve always wanted a shirt from The Cult’s “Electric” tour.

 I know some of my old shirts are still out there. Hopefully they’ve found good homes. Probably in the closets of some nostalgic 40 something year old men like me. I can only home that at least one of my shirts was the “one that got away” for some music fan out there somewhere.

 What are some of your favorite concert shirts, and what are some of the ones that got away?

I Never Stalked a Band I Didn't Like

Originally posted on the Tree.com Arts Channel

I've never been much of a celebrity stalker or groupie. I've met a few here and there, mostly by chance and have been pretty much low-key about it. I bumped into Halle Berry outside of a hotel in New York City. Maybe I just never had the opportunity. She was very pretty and nice, by the way.

Fandom is a largely thankless job. I've heard story after story of fans meeting famous musicians and being disappointed or even devastated. Obviously we've got this version in our heads of what our idols are like. If we meet them and they're not like we think, it's disappointing. I think this is the number one reason I so rarely band stalked. I didn't want to be disappointed if that singer just wanted to go to sleep, or that drummer just wanted to eat. I think they should consider that for the fan it's probably a once in a lifetime chance, and a little hassle is worth it for the lifestyle, but I'm not in their shoes.

One of my friends had an extra ticket a fairly exclusive Duran Duran concert recently in Los Angeles, and offered it to me. She also asked me if I was down for some late night stalking. Of course I was. Duran Duran has been one of my favorite bands since I was a teenager. The show was unbelievable.

So at the end of the show comes the wait. I'd heard about this before, since high school. Basically you wait outside the venue for the band to leave and hope for a photo or a signature. So out of a crowd of 1300 there where about 8 of us that hung out in the freezing cold, waiting for someone to come out.

There was another group as well, that my group was sure to stay separate from. I called them the "autograph hounds." These were four guys who all knew each other and were pros. They are the types that get things signed and then sell them on Ebay. Some celebrities don't like them, and many fans don't either. These guys knew everyone coming out of the venue, and there were some VIPs and celebrities I didn't recognize.

The first celebrity sighting was Samantha Ronson, best known as a celebrity DJ, and close friend of Lindsey Lohan. She's also the sister of Mark Ronson, DJ, musician, and producer of the latest Duran Duran album. He also sat in with the band on a couple of tracks. I thought about talking to her about meeting her brother, but she was on the phone, probably with Lindsey, and didn't seem too approachable.

I believe John Taylor, bass player for Duran Duran and fan favorite was the first to leave the after party. He's very tall and sticks out. I noticed him walking across the street to his SUV and driver, with the autograph hounds in tow. He was signing, but definitely walking at the same time. I was a little late and missed my opportunity. He'd gotten into the car. I could have lunged and been "that guy" but chose not to. He obviously wanted to go.

Disheartened, I went back across the street.

Soon after, Moby came out. He's a well-known musician and DJ. He was very nice to the autograph hounds and stopped and talked and signed. I ran up and stuck my hand out and told him I was a fan and it was nice to meet him. He seemed surprised there wasn't more. We looked at each other for a moment, smiled, and then he moved on.

Next out the door, and quickly, was the rare and elusive Marilyn Manson. It would have been interesting to meet him, but he was too quick to bolt, chased by the  autograph hounds that literally had to run to keep up with him.

At this point we moved our position, and for me, the coup of the night occurred. Mark Ronson came out of the side door carrying his guitars. My friend asked if he would pose for a couple of pictures and he said he would after he loaded his stuff. So he stopped and took a few pictures with me and signed my poster. He was very gracious and patient and dapper. I babbled, "thank you for what you've done for Duran Duran," as he's truly helped revitalize their career, and "you're obviously a fan." He said he was, and thanked me.

We could have waited longer and maybe gotten a Duran signature, but it was late, cold, and wet. I'd seen one of my favorite bands closer than ever before, and closer than I'd probably see them again. I lucked out on a ticket, front of the line, and front of the stage. I also got one of the signatures and a meeting I was hoping for. I was happy.

Perhaps if I'd waited just a little longer…

Don’t Forget the Songs That Saved Your Life

Originally posted on the Tree.com Arts Channel

KISS. Paul Lynde Halloween special, 1976.

I was 6 years old. This band came out in makeup, loud, crazy, fire, and explosions. Blew me away. Never forgot it. I recently found the performance on Youtube. Cool to see again, but not as good as I remembered! Seeing this doesn't seem too big a deal now, but when I was 6 years old and saw it on “live” TV, it changed my life.

Music is an experience. For me it culminates in the life performance, but every aspect of music is an experience. But times have changed and that experience isn’t what it used to be. Some of us, myself included have forgotten that experience. Others never had the chance to have that experience.

The availability and ease of which music, information and performances are now conveniently available has spoiled us and made us lazy music lovers. The Internet has contributed to the deterioration of such aspects of the music experience like the vinyl experience, the journey to the record store, the band fan experience and the exclusivity of live performance.

Do you remember going to the record store and seeing that a favorite band had a new album out, or opening the music section and seeing that a band was coming to town, or trying to stay awake to see that late night TV performance, or pouring through the music magazines looking for news on a certain band?
I love vinyl. I still have boxes and boxes of records, and a turntable in my office. No, it’s not hooked up to my computer yet, but I’ve got the connections! I'm of the school that thinks vinyl sounds better. Technology has made me lazy. It's easier to press a button and scrollbar than dig out a record, put it on the table and drop a needle. I remember getting a record, opening it, pouring over the liner notes, the new photos, the production notes. Loving bands that put so much thought and effort into packaging the albums, building a brand with a consistent look and feel, and creating an experience. No listen of that album or examination of the artwork and the liner notes is the same as that first time.

We can Youtube any historical performance we want, or just see that TV appearance the next day. Gone are the nights of trying to stay up for the late show to catch and appearance or video. Someone will get it on Youtube quickly enough. I remember being a Duran Duran fan in the early 80s. Sure, their videos were on MTV, but to see other things, you had to hunt. We didn't have Top of the Pops, besides MTV we had to see bands on shows like Friday Night Videos, Nightflight, SNL, Richard Blade's video show, and other appearances. If you had a VCR you could tape it, but if you didn’t that was it! That singularity contributed to the magic.

If we need band news, we go to the website. We can even go to Facebook and Twitter now and interact with some of the musicians we love. I know months ahead now when a new album is coming out, still call it "album," and have HAD the "new" Duran Duran album for months. I remember pouring through “Rolling Stone” looking for the names of my favorite bands, and some tidbit of news. I also remember joining the band “fanclubs” where you’d send $10 to get a periodically bad photocopied and stapled magazine filled with news that was already out of date.

The convenience is fantastic, but the magic is gone!

Don’t get me wrong. I love all the technology and use it all. I have an extensive digital music collection. I have a full iPod. I don’t by CDs anymore, I download music. I  follow my favorite bands on their websites, and on Twitter and Facebook. I watch concerts, music videos and TV appearances on Youtube. What music fan wouldn’t take advantage of all these tools to enhance the music experience?

It’s sad that my young son and daughter one day probably won’t even know what a “vinyl record” is. One of my fondest memories of my Dad and I going to various record stores on the weekends before I could drive, and discovering new artists and finding imported treasures. He’d asked me about them and pretended to be interested as I babbled on about the latest new wave or alternative band.

I certainly love my iPod, iTunes, mp3s, but they’ve helped me grow lazy as a music fan. I no longer run out to the record store when things come out. I don't listen to as much new music. I no longer pour over album art and notes. I'm not as much of a completist as I once was. I no longer have to have every album, every song, and every version.

As one of my favorite songwriters, Morrissey of The Smiths sang, “don't forget the songs that made you cry, and the songs that saved your life…Yes, you're older now
And you're a clever swine, But they were the only ones who ever stood by you.”

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs

Originally posted on the Tree.com Arts Channel

So every year about this time every rock writer or critic gets riled up over the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame inductions. Who is in, who isn’t, and who needs to be?

The ceremony was just held. The inductees for 2011 included Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Darlene Love, Tom Waits, Jac Holzman, Art Rupe, and Leon Russell.

According to the official Rock Hall website, “The 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performer inductees were chosen by more than 500 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.  Artists are eligible for inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25 years after the release of their first recording.”

I’m actually not a huge fan of the whole concept, but the debate is interesting. Plus I like to see who shows up and who doesn’t, who buries the hatchet, and who still holds a grudge.

I think in the past I was happiest to see The Ramones and The Clash inducted, sadly after the deaths of Ramones front man Joey Ramone and Clash front man Joe Strummer.

The “rock n roll” definition seems to be broad. There’s been an argument against rap bands, and pop singers like Madonna. This year the big uproar was over Neil Diamond. I suspect the issues are slightly over the question of rock n roll credibility, but more so that certain artists have been inducted before certain other more rock-n-roll artists.

Yes, some of the obvious are already inducted: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, The Who, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie. Pioneers like James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Robert Johnson, Sam Phillips. The list does go on…

But who should be there who is not? Who should just have been let past the velvet rope without a ticket?

Kiss and Rush always top the list of who should be in. The travesty of Alice Cooper not being in was rectified this year. Few bands may have been more influential and groundbreaking than Kiss. I saw them on TV on the Paul Lynde show in 1976 and it may have warped me for life.

Rush are probably the most well known “prog rock” band with a legion of rabid followers, and huge influence. Who doesn’t love “Tom Sawyer,” the Canadian “Stairway to Heaven?” Who hasn’t air drummed to it at least once in their life?

Now of course we’re venturing down a dangerous highway here, open for heated debate. After a little research though, I’ve found some bands that have been snubbed for years. I’m going more based on influence and lasting impact than anything else.

If you look at the 70’s alone, how about Styx, Chicago, Boston, and the Moodie Blues? I mean the epic guitar solos alone helped launch the punk movement, but certainly these bands are giants of their decade. Where’s Cheap Trick, Deep Purple, ZZ Top? T Rex and Roxy Music, along with Bowie basically launched new wave. What about Chic?

Speaking of new wave and the 80’s, what about bands like Duran Duran, the Cure, Depeche Mode, The Smiths? Don’t worry, U2 are already in. Bono kept showing up to the all-star jams so they got rushed through the process.

As far as punk, where are the Runaways, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, Devo, and X? Talk about bands that launched 1,000 other bands!

Where are metal gods like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motorhead, and Dio? At least Black Sabbath, AC/DC and Metallica are in.

Well it’s obviously not a popularity contest, so what is the process? According to the Rock Hall site, “One of the Foundation’s many functions is to recognize the contributions of those who have had a significant impact on the evolution, development and perpetuation of rock and roll by inducting them into the Hall of Fame.”

I think a lot of artists see the Rock Hall as kind of a sham, but many of those same artists will still show up if inducted. I suppose the recognition is nice, however late it comes.

Let’s start with Kiss and Rush, maybe next year?

John Hughes: The Music and the Movies

Originally posted on the Tree.com Arts Channel

Few films are as quintessentially ‘80s as John Hughes films. The holy troika of Hughes–“Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club, and “Pretty In Pink”--are epics of ‘80s culture. No pop film conversation on the ‘80s is complete without a mention of the films of John Hughes. What is odd is how films that are so much a time capsule of ‘80s fashion, culture and music can be so universal, resonating with teens to this day.

The films in the Hughes canon are not just universally ‘80s. They’re universally teenage and universally high school. The fashions and the music may have changed, but the struggles of teenagers in high school are largely the same. Just as integral to these themes that still resonate is the music in the films. Hughes got that music is as much a part of the teenage landscape as angst and alienation.

I think it was through the music to his films that I first discovered John Hughes. I owned the “Pretty In Pink” soundtrack before I saw the film, and it changed my musical landscape and, in turn, my life. For the first time I heard bands like the Psychedelic Furs, New Order, The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and INXS.

The soundtrack to “Sixteen Candles” featured Oingo Boingo, The Thompson Twins, Billy Idol, General Public, and the Stray Cats. “The Breakfast Club” soundtrack brought us Simple Minds’ unforgettable “Don’t You Forget About Me.” The soundtrack to the too-often overlooked “Some Kind of Wonderful” featured Flesh For Lulu, Stephen Duffy, and The Jesus and Mary Chain.*

“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” continued the trend with bands like Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Yello, Big Audio Dynamite, General Public, and The English Beat. “Weird Science” emphasized its fringe nature with the likes of not only Oingo Boingo, but also Wall of Voodoo, Lords of the New Church, and Killing Joke.

Arguably, many of the bands got their biggest exposure due to inclusion on the soundtracks of John Hughes movies. Where else would my Mom have heard Sigue Sigue Sputnik? These songs were not only the music of the time, but music Hughes listened to himself. These were not mainstream artists, at least in most of the U.S. Hughes wrote his screenplays while listening to the music, and “Pretty In Pink” was inspired by the Psychedelic Furs song of the same name.

Hughes not only showed us what we should be listening to, but also captured how teenagers talked, what they had to say, what they struggled with. Everybody wants to be liked (“Some Kind of Wonderful”); everybody wants to be cool (“Weird Science”). We all come from different backgrounds (“Pretty In Pink”), but we need to find common ground (“Breakfast Club”). We all need some time to blow off some steam (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”).

And we all need something to dance to.