Has come to an end, with the tenth article in the series, "1999: By The Time I Get To Woodstock '99".
Remember Woodstock '99? The one where lots of people got beaten up and raped? Yeah, just as we had almost completely erased it from collective memory, here comes Fred Douche shouting at a bunch of drunken jocks to "RAPE SOMETHING!!" in his squeaky, balls-not-dropped voice while security throw their badges an the ground and dive into the mosh pit. Ok, so he didn't encourage rape (not that I'm aware of anyway), but the point is still the same. The 90s started with Kurt Cobain in a dress, and ended with Douchface forcibly ripping dresses off harassed women. What a fitting end to the decade, this series, and the story of rock music itself over those years.
This is the comment I left, I will probably get round to doing this myself at some point as it was my own arc through the decade:
"Great series but it just underlines for me how spent a cultural force rock became over this period. The original sense of anarchy and rebellion that made rock so engaging was strip mined to nothing in the Nineties. The real story of the decade is how rock, or alternative, was superceded by other genres and how people who before would have dismissed those genres started to like them. A lot. It's what happened to me.
I would like to see someone write about what was REALLY alternative and fresh in the Nineties. Hip-hop (THE genre that defines those times), house (the early-to-mid 90s was probably the most gay-friendly the mainstream has ever been), electronica (producers like Aphex/Squarepusher pushed boundaries that rock bands are still catching up with), drum & Bass, rave, Daft Punk etc. Real progression / boundary breaking in 90s music was being done by kids with samplers, computers and machines, not by guys with guitars trying to fit into patterns established 30 years before. Not to mention that the drugs were better.
I'm not hating on WHTAN here, it's been a great ride, but it backs up what I truly feel about that decade. I hope someone will write a series about music beyond rock in the 90s, because that is the real story waiting to be explored. "
http://www.avclub.com/features/whatever-happened-to-alternative-nation/
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