Psychozoic Hymnal 11 - 80's Not
U2
Errrm, they had a good rithm section. A very good rithm section. Which placed them with Dire Straits and… some experimental punk bands and… I struggle. To the derision of many lead guitarists, The Edge chugged and dabbled with effects on top, but represents a seam of largely non‐rock guitar sonics that has been important ever since. In contrast, lead singer Bono used his powerful voice to railroad political slogans. ‘The Fly’ suggested something may crawl from the larvae, but what? Somewhere between a British The Guess Who and a public service announcement. Clearly, many people could use this.
Husker Du
Driven by the unfairness of life they, unlike the power‐popsters of the day, were never ironic or clever. Out came short songs in standard form and comfortable. Instrumentally their dead‐on rithm section pinned the beat while guitar distorted and fed back so heavily that on many sound systems it was impossible to hear what went on. Their playing backed them from guitar manglers, and the sound despite a late deal shovelled them from mainstream to college radio. An occasional acoustic number exposed them as singer‐songwriters, but likely only two minutes from rage exploding. A sonic original of pop form.
Sonic Youth
People mention this—they started as part of collectives gathered to perform theatre and Western Art Music, chamber pieces, symphonies, and so forth, but using electric guitars (and sometime other home‐made instruments). This offers many possibilities but to avoid cramp needs clear direction and work. They experimented more then is recognised, trying open‐ended harmonic picking, settling on a lyric approach of positivity about confusion, adapting to song structure, exploring rock jams with formal rigour. And picked up the drummer they needed, and the time that took showed they knew what they were at and walked those roads. They never smashed the charts, but were viable for touring and sales, and lasted until personal relationships brought them down. Composition originals for sure, and powerful also. But for all the drama‐in‐structure performance, which they understood from the off, they were about the evolving guitar shape.
Guns ’n Roses
They had a rangy rithm section. As hard rock. J.C. remarked they were an end‐point of the crawl from the producer sterilization of the mid‐70’s. Except they had nothing on top but devolution from the Stones through Aerosmith and Montrose. J.C. called it as a ‘boring archetype’. As for corporate, only way they could have topped their efforts was if a producer assembled them. Though self‐assembly seized the claim for every company and journalist result. Christgau notes the expertise, which was very Eighties. But no note on the rebel pose which, much as it meant anything may have been ripping jeans for the cameras. No musical genius—depends what you call as rock but a long road from sainthood. Effective—millions of plays and history says so.
Stone Roses
Cute tunes, cute performance and forthright story songs put them over big as pop. Um‐puck rock and wandering roll. The much discussed connection to dance music is to be heard mostly in touches of effects and some arrangement moves with funk‐like rithm figures. J.C. mentioned that, of all the Pop groups of the Eighties, Ride and this group were the two with rock and roll in them. It’s a strong factor why this group seemed important to audiences, while journalists struggled with if the pop meant something or nothing. The group broke new ground by defying journalistic stories of mental difficulty or personal difference by providing sum of zero product. With only two albums and a single in their career, journalists set for waving a managerial finger at them for failing to capitalise on their brand.