DAVE GROHL COMPARES MODERN MUSIC SCENE TO LATE 80′S, SAYS HE EXPECTS A NEW ROCK REVOLUTION
Thanks to Andrei for letting me know about this.
Foo Fighters frontman/former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl did a new interview with Billboard where he discussed the state of rock and briefly mentioned seeing Soundgarden in LA among a sea of fans last year (I was right next to Grohl). Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
You have to understand, we’re a really simple band. We think we suck and we try really hard to make good records and we practice. We don’t feel like the biggest, best band in the world. We just feel like the same five dorks that were touring in a van 17 years ago, that hasn’t changed. But there was a time about 10 years ago when we would get asked to come play an awards show or a radio festival or something like that and we’d show up and be the only rock band. Here we’re on a bill with pop artists like Pussycat Dolls or some new rapper and then we get up and beat the shit out of our instruments. And I started wondering, “Why are we even here?” I wondered if they just needed a “rock band” — “Who’s a rock band? Call the Foo Fighters.” Then I started thinking maybe we actually represent something to people, maybe when they hear the name “Foo Fighters” they just think rock’n'roll, and I thought, “Wow, that’s cool.” Then over the years playing shows I’d look out at the audience and see kids with Nirvana shirts and their parents with Foo Fighters shirts — which seems upside down — and I’d see moustaches and kids at their first rock concert. Our audience became so diverse I thought, “Man, they just want to see a rock show.” Go see Bruce Springsteen. Go see Tom Petty, AC/DC, Roger Waters, any of these people. Go see Pearl Jam or Soundgarden. I went to see Soungarden four or five months ago; I didn’t stand in the VIP section, I ran down and got crushed in front of the stage and danced around sweaty with a bunch of people I didn’t know for an hour and 45 minutes.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with rock at all. It’s overlooked. And right now, the current musical climate is not unlike it was back in 1991, right before Nirvana [Grohl's former band] got popular. The late ’80s was full of over-produced pop that kids had nothing to grab hold of, they had no way of connecting to this hair metal band singing about fucking strippers in a limousine on Sunset Boulevard. Who can relate to that? Then you had a bunch of formulaic pop songstress bullshit, and music was boring. And then a bunch of bands with dirty kids got on MTV and rock’n'roll became huge again. And I feel like that’s about to happen. Something’s got to give. It can’t be song contests on television for the rest of our lives. It can’t be the same playlists on every radio station for the rest of our lives. It can’t be music made entirely by computers with people talking over it the rest of our lives. It can’t go that way, it just won’t.
I feel like as a musician and a part of this rock’n'roll scene, I have a responsibility to make shit real, to not think about all of that other bullshit, not think about making music for money or promoting music for fashion, the contests. My responsibility is to make shit that’s real. Once you start doing the right thing, it will get better.
Well, there you have it. Grohl said Foo Fighters suck. He’s right!!!
Grohl should help facilitate a rock revolution by switching to the drums.
Good quotes though.
I hope this revolution is on it’s way i can’t take anymore of this pop and rap.
God I hope so Dave Grohl.
Dave Grohl is right on the money and I applaud him for that. That reminds me of the latest MTV Video Musio Awards. They were the only rock band that performed. Awards shows the past decade have been not even worth watching because it all leans towards pop and rap. That awards show used to have a good mix of bands and artists that perform back in the day. Now they are just lame to watch because it’s all one sided. I really hope rock does make a revolution and comes back with more success than just the generic rehashed riff selling out pop of Nickelback. Rock was huge during the Grunge era and it was even big during the Nu Metal era. We still have some great rock bands out today that do have some success like Seether and Three Days Grace just for some examples. But rock as a whole is being incredibly overlooked because of this robotic voice pop music that has been dominating our culture for the past few years. I actually listen to some pop music once in awhile but some artists are wayyyyy too overrated. I found it to be a way better genre in the 90s and early 2000s. Lets face it…the 90s was probably the best era of music period.
Fucking FINALLY! He just said EXACTLY what I’ve been trying to drive into so many peoples heads for a while now. Wow. I’m literally in shock that he had the balls to say this. I can’t do anything but applaud the guy for this.
He can say that because there’s nobody in the music buisness that can touch him!!! He was a legend 20 years ago with Nirvana so at this point he’s everything every other artist should strive to be.
bwahahahaha.
Just do not support any rap, pop or American Idol like performers. Don’t buy their CD’s, MP3′s, clothing, perfume or anything else they make money from. Boycott their movies and TV shows and resturants. Send a message by not giving them 1 dollar. Support artist’s you like and people that actually play instruments and sing live on TV no matter how their voice sounds. ROCK is still alive and out there you just have to look for it.
^the problem with this is that there are ALREADY so many young kids who aren’t educated or expose to good music buying all of their shit. Kill the radio stations and this may work.
He is so right the music today plains old sucks and the music industry has suck all in the 2000′s. At least in the 80′s thrash metal came to to scene and 90′s of course were known as Grunge.
This is exactly what I have been feeling about the current music scene as well! I feel like a rock revolution is imminent. With all of these grunge bands getting back together and making new music it gives me hope. Surely people have got to want to some change. At least I hope so, because so far there hasn’t been any music of my own generation that I have liked, so I continue to listen 90s music and the new music that artists from the 90s have created. It would be cool if there were new bands that were “real” as Dave Grohl appropriately put it though.
Preaching to the choir! I may just have to give Wasting Light another spin after reading that.
BTW he looks like he’s in timeout in that pic.
well I support what he stated, but I must say that there is good Hip hop out there and other forms of music. I love rock but i also love many hip hop artists, granted many of those are from the 90′s like Pete Rock and Cl Smooth, tribe called quest and The roots. One of the best new hip hop acts is The Foreign exchange. But being that Rock is my first love, we do need a new rock wave, the music industry is really stagnant and struggling at the moment.
I’m sure there is MAMMOTH talent jamming in a basement somewhere in West Hollywood, but the record companies are WAY too pussy to give them a shot like they did AIC, Nirvana, and SG back in the day. GAH it’s frustrating, they won’t take a risk. They just play it safe with Bieber and Gaga.
The Gospel of Dave
this is EXACTLY my thoughts on the modern day music scene. I think the rock revolution we’re all predicting will be spearheaded by bands from Kentucky, like Cage the Elephant and Sleeper Agent. Bowling Green is the new Seattle.
what is with all this anti-rap/pop talk? i agree with Dave, to a degree. While I agree that society has been one sided with music, there hasnt even been any good new rock bands out there anyway. Its not just about the genre ….the only stuff thats good are older band’s new music. i also heavily disagree with the comment regarding 90s beingthe best musical time period. seattle was nothing more than a fad,like glam and like the one hit 90s wonders. they came and died…but they were the only genre to come back, and still have loyal fans. you dont see glam bands having that. but the real talent was in the 60′s and 70′s.
@ Redhead: Sorry, but have to disagree with you to an extent. Grunge was not a fad and is still heavily popular to this day. Look at the recent emergence of Soundgarden and Alice In Chains – they are wildly popular because so many people crave grunge music. While I agree that there was great talent in the 60′s and 70′s, I would have to lump the early to mid-90′s in there.
Grohl has a lot of great points and is spot on!
I don’t think Dave could have been more on the money with this one. Anyone taking the time to look at the way history tends to repeat itself through several generations can’t help but feel something’s gonna happen soon.
Now we only have to find out new rock bands as good as Nirvana, AIC, SG, NIN, PJ, SP, JA, RATM, Pantera, etc, that are good enough and have the potential of being as commercially big as so many of those bands were back in the 90s, sadly I don’t know of many new bands these days that could achieve that and become as popular as Gaga or Lil Wayne (somebody above mentioned Seether, I guess it was a joke since they suck really really hard).
The only fad about grunge was the clothes they had on the runway at the time. LOL
Grunge is hard rock twisted with a punky metal infused sound made unique by each band.
hahaha He is so wrong, but I still love Grohl.
The 80′s blow the 2000′s out of the water when refering to music. Fact of the matter is, there is no new/great music revolution on it’s way. Late 80′s gave us a sign of hope that something special was coming. There isn’t one newer band today that is capable of doing what Nirvana did in the 90′s. The new bands today are shit.
To make a statement like that, you’d have to atleast have a sign of hope, he’s talking out of his ass to cheer people up. Foo Fighters are now one of those bands he was refering to from the late 80′s. They’re too poppy and radio freindly these days.
Grunge is gonna make a HUGE comeback, just wait people
There is nothing wrong with rock today. It’s just as vibrant as it’s always been; but nobody is taking the time to seek out the good stuff. For every half-assed band that gets write ups and hand-jobs from the major media outlets; there’s always a Thou, Elder, Saturnalia Temple or what have you out there to be discovered. You just have to keep your ears & eyes open; turn off your radio, get off your couch and go to a show. It’s all out there and very much alive. You just have to stop being so lazy & seek it out.
Maybe that’s what Daves saying, get ready for Grunge Revolution the second time around.
New rock bands and old grunge bands.
YES! I’ve been saying this since ’98!
Seriously, if you guys want to check out my page for proving grunge never died, here it is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Spread-the-word-of-good-newer-grunge-bands/192998060774625
these bands should start the revolution
Looms,
Nobody’s writing big songs like Nirvana or Led Zeppelin did. There are some good bands out there, but no GREAT bands who are writing AMAZING big songs.
To me the glory years of rock are roughly 1964-1978 and then 1991-1997, when it comes to just great rock dominating the mainstream. It seems like everybody just packed their bags and went home in 1997. Soundgarden broke up, STP didn’t end up touring again for another 3 years, Alice In Chains made their last public appearance together. Grunge wasn’t going to go on forever, but if all of those bands had kept their shit together and maybe Kurt didn’t off himself, it could have lasted longer like the previous rock revolution did. It would have ended at some point (by early 2000′s) but we probably would have avoided garbage like Creed trying to step in and fill the void. The labels were able to succeed in putting out the commercial Grunge ripoffs because the real bands themselves were simply sitting at home.
The big problem right now is that the “anti-mainstream” movement is the hipsters, and all of their music is passive soulless garbage. Those are the people that should be writing the next great rebellious rock songs like “Break On Through” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” but they’re listening to and writing pussy garbage. That’s why it’s really the job of people like us to try to create good music, out of all of us hopefully some can write some great songs that can shake shit up. We can’t just sit around and expect a revolution.
I think other musical genres too have struggled since the 90′s, like rap has become a total joke since the Tupac/Biggie era of the 90′s. We need great new music in every genre to come out in order to save music/society.
Brett,
I have to respectfully disagree with you on this. The whole Northwest scene emerged out of the “hipster” crowd that you dislike so much. Hell, most; if not all musical & cultural movements come out of some sort of network of hipsters in the beginning.
I guess what I was getting at, is that for all the time spent lamenting the fact that there’s not another Nirvana, or whatever; there’s an amazing band out there right now within a 10 minute drive from your couch that is playing it’s ass off in some dark, crusty bar or squat while everybody is at home blasting a 20 year old record lamenting about how amazing the early 90′s were. Rock has moved on; and unfortunately most everybody else hasn’t. Rock has never stopped, or gone away; it’s always been around; you just have to look for it (and that’s half the fun anyways).
But if you need your fix, The Melvins are still around and are still just as amazing as they always have been.
And Dave is very right in saying that the climate right now is similar to the late 80′s & early 90′s.
There is one saving grace, at least we’ve got At The Drive-In back… the revolution starts NOW!
Well I always did think that Raw Mojo song Hold Me Up should be on commercials, that Noiseheads song was really cool, same with that SMB project song, stuff by Navel and Nukeateen and Violent Soho really wowed me, Senium I thought was amazing etc.
Here’s the list of bands on my page so far
Pet Salad, Violent Soho, Sick Sick Sister, The Chocolate, Pissed Jeans, Paradox, The Vertical, Mosquito, Trash Queen, Drunken Hippies, Soul Pollution, Nisvanis, Ume, Bodisartha, Dead Confederates, Faggot Sapiens, Male Bonding, Navel, Dead By Pregnancy, Smoke Recess, Noiseheads, Collected Thoughts, Japanese Voyers, Lastdime, The Concrete Balloon, We the Fixture, Raw Mojo, Permute, Idiot Culture, Nukeateen, Healthy Junkies, The Greenhornes, The Vines, The Catheters, Dropbox, Muddy Porcupines, Idiot Culture, Utopia Grunge, Seattle Sound Tribute, Grunge Tree, Vault of Eagles, Dinosaur Pile-Up, RazorDrive, Epidemia Psicotica, Hysterical Injury, Cry ROw, Dogtown, The Grither, Tripod, Imp, Gouranga, War Baby, Koko Grunge, Senium, Sassy, Pagoda, The Valley, Post Stardom Depression, The Weapons, Ill Fate, The Everyday Motive, Pandora, Alta May, Fermented Sloths, Black Coven, Karma, Wagner & Welles, Batter Dean, Boredom Swells, Grandpa Joe, Froun, Mojo Fury, Nine Black Alps, Drommond, Black Market Radio, Rusty Nail, Insane Hats, Wipeout (UK), WEAK13, The Rusty Knives, Gardener, Spirit Shon, Darkest Ritual, Sundance Crow, New Politics, HedgeHog, The.Headache.Diary, Salt Circa, Final Coil, Head, Random Nonsense, Vaporland, Valis, Kozo, The Ax, Electric Falcons, Dead Language, The Mothership, Fukked Up, Boy Dirt Car, UnderGarden, Urban Castle Magic, Bitch Alert, The Lion’s Eyes, God’s Favorite Drug, The Mermaids of the Lipetsk Shed, Angerbox, Sperm, Lazarus X, Respect Your Mom, Slaves to Gravity, Jeff the Brotherhood, 10,Rue d’la Madeleine, Something Social, Wreck of You, Original Formula, The Monastics, Rusty Cage, False Heads, Ancient Warlocks, Jesse Sykes, Morffe, Inambush, Pure Ed, Intervene, Slonk Donkerson, Cronofobia, Bordello Fish, Braille, Amnesia, The Durge, El Otro Extremo, Scarlet Dust, Kursed, Spectral Fires, Determined, Autistic Love, Counsellor Finley, Black Bag Job, On The Take, Loose Ground, Clown, Verdena, Sonic Outcast, Villains of Yesterday, Sketcheads, Sharon’s Gate, Jonas, Union Youth, Aero Aneurysm, Valentiine, Hawk vs Dove, Doggenstein, The Kitty Pills, Blood Scream, Stag, Dirty Bliss, Wild Flag, Gunshy/Ross Allaire, Mind Vice, Disagony, Patrick Lew’s Band, Venus Veins, Softy, Cable35, Grey Valley Ghosts, Layer 4, Jukka Ruostila and Kaaoksen ystavst, Samantha Schindler, Zombie Jihad
Hes right something has to give that’s why you need to listen to
The Dead Language at https://www.facebook.com/TheDeadLanguage
New musicians that are trying everything they can to change the scene? We’re here. Hai! We’re The Mothership. We can barely afford rent but we play from the heart. We’d like to be a part of this revolution, in fact, it’s all we would ever want. Let’s change this shit for the better. I really think Mr. Grohl would like us… oh well.
Sorry for the passionate rant.
Come on Dave, The Foos don’t suck, you’re just a GOOD pop rock band UNLIKE Nickelfag.
And, come on kids, rock is dead for the mainstream, but fuck it, we don’t need the mainstream to know good music.
About a revolution coming soon, I’d say:
NEVERMIND
it won’t happen.
http://www.facebook.com/GreyValleyGhosts : )
I was born in 1988, i remember watching “Smells like teen spirit” music video on MTV (When MTV was good). I was 3 years old when the video came out. I was 6 4 or 5 years old when Black hole sun video came out.
Music sucks these days, i thought the 2000′s was crappy era for music
though you did have some decent bands, who shoulda won grammmys but was dominated by pop rap and pop rock. Like these bands:
Tool, A perfect circle, Staind, i know there are more but i cant remember because of the crappy music blocking it. Tool’s lateralus is so underrated it deserves a grammy, compared to the pop and rap.
hey check out this site – http://www.youtube.com/user/stokedmusicchannel?feature=mhee Peace!
Check out the band Senium
http://www.facebook.com/seniumnj
Sharon’s Gate…. “Fortnight” is one of my favorite songs
One thing is for sure it will never happen unless people get out and support local bands. That used to be the norm. but no longer is
I completely agree with Superunknown. Until labels grow thier balls back and start giving new rock bands some air time, i feel it will be up to Soundgarden Pearl Jam and others who are already very recognized to carry rock. I have an idea of what SG and PJ and AIC and STP should do though, and that is form a few labels of thier own. Carly Rae Jepson, as talentless as her genre is, has gained great recognition through that asshole called Bieber and that happened because he created a label specifically…
I agree with Superunknown, but what needs to happen is that Soundgarden,Pearl Jam, etc., needs to create thier own record labels. Beiber got Carly Rae Jepson alot of recognition by giving her a label, so should the big guns of rock and grunge. Superunknown records or Screaming Life records.
So true all music today is total bullshit no one in my school even knows who Nirvana is and its so stupid they all like these stupid country and pop stars who all sing about the same bullshit in every song. They give them their money just because they make them weak in ths knees or can quickly spit out some half assed rhymes its all fucking bullshit and it has to end.
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