THE SWINGING PENDULUM
May 1, 2005 12:00 PM, The Remix Editors, Robert Hanson Erin Hutton Kylee Swenson
Popular music seems to be in love with its decade-to-decade credibility struggle. It's a constant battle that moves from the picture of youthful, underground integrity to the perfected craft of a few choice superstars. And it's never the same thing for too long. For one brief stint, the picture of cutting-edge music might be Ian Curtis hanging from a noose, and the next, it's Paul Oakenfold sipping champagne off a model's ass and commanding 50 grand to spin at the new Apple store. But fickle fans and artists rebelling against the status quo are really what keep things fresh and adventurous. If a bunch of disaffected, '70s-era scenesters hadn't decided that Rush sucked, we may have never gotten punk and new wave. And if a bunch of enterprising DJs hadn't started fussing around with some secondhand Roland TB-303s, you might not be reading this magazine.
For those of us who produce music, either as an artist or for other people, this constant turnover of scenes and sounds begs the following question: What is staying current? Is there something to be gained by taking stock of the music happening right now, or is it better to bury your head in the sand and stick with your own thing? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this question. There are plenty of examples of successes and failures on both sides of this argument. People like Perry Farrell have made an art out of casting themselves into whatever the hip scene happens to be. While at the same time, acts like Radiohead and Björk could teach graduate-level seminars on alienating fans and stumping critics with their ever-more-bizarre offerings — throat singing, anyone?
All of this leads perfectly to this month's cover story: Trent Reznor is a little bit of all of these things; he's seen it all, from the underground club circuit to the Grammy winner's circle to all points in between. A decade ago, Reznor's indulgent use of computers and all things synthesized made his music stand out against a backdrop of guitar-slinging clones, and it arguably paved the way for acts like The Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers to make their way to the states. But, today, the sound of electronic music is literally everywhere. So for his latest album, With Teeth, Reznor again chose to ignore his surroundings: Instead of presenting a sprawling, epic symphony of noise and programmed angst, he chose to bang out a stripped-down, almost minimalist album that, like his previous works, stands in direct contrast to the expected norm. Is it a move of pure genius, or did Reznor listen to the White Stripes one too many times? Hindsight will be the final judge.
It seems like the lesson here is that there will always be gifted artists fighting the good fight, and some of them will even find success. At the same time, there will always be those who will have made an art form out of moving on to the next thing. Without the one, the other doesn't shine so brightly. Which one best describes you?
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