Secret History of Rock. The Most Influential Bands You've Never Heard Read Free

genres and chapters: In an attempt to touch on as many facets of modern music as possible, it was sometimes necessary to favor a subject who’d been cited less over one that fit into an already well-represented chapter. For instance, Liquid Liquid made it into the small “Minimalist Funk” chapter with only a few citations, while the often-cited groups Joy Division and Killing Joke were shut out of the crowded “British Post-Punk” chapter.
    The quality of the responses: Merely citing an artist as an influence was not enough; the commentator had to give a compelling description of how the impact was felt. For instance, while many commentators cited Karlheinz Stockhausen as an inspiration, few could explain in even the simplest terms what they learned from him.
    In choosing which quotes to use, I attempted to balance the responses that explicitly address “influence” with those expressing something less concrete – more a matter of inspiration. As I conducted the interviews, it became clear that influence is manifested in more ways than through direct stylistic appropriations, and it is exhibited through more than simply appearances on tribute albums. In fact, the very nature of influence and appropriation proved a fascinating undercurrent in the research of the book. Many of the commentators were able to elucidate their influences in very precise terms – even in some cases to an embarrassing degree, where it seemed they were deflating their own contributions. Others had a much more difficult time characterizing their influences, and a few seemed quite certain they were entirely original. Yet the terms in which the individual commentators described their growth as artists probably has little to do with the quality of their art; they simply represent different ways of processing information. Certainly every creative act is to some degree influenced by others, and is also in some measure original. How those two elements are integrated in an artist’s mind would likely make a terrific subject of some other book.
    Early on in this project, I was warned by a music professor, “Never claim someone was the first to do something – it’ll get you into trouble every time.” Sure enough, in this process of delineating the reference points and precursors to modern rock music, I’d repeatedly encounter artists credited with having discovered something completely original and revolutionary, only to dig a little deeper and find an earlier artist doing something similar. This doesn’t mean there is no such thing as originality, but it underscores the constant flow of ideas between artists and art forms that makes the subject of influence such a dynamic issue. A quote from an interview with one of the book’s subjects sums it up well:
    Hellos Creed, Chrome:
    Everybody inspires everybody else. Nobody has a corner on anything. So I’m not going to be all egoed out and say, “Yeah, we invented this kind of music.” Actually, we’re just one link in a chain. Maybe a rusty, unnoticed link, where the shinier links are on either side. I guess you’re doing a book about the rusty, unnoticed links, you don’t really have to write about the shinier links, because everybody already knows.

    KEY TO FEATURES IN THE TEXT
    The names of people and groups found in bold text are meant to signify cross-references. These artists have separate sections about them located elsewhere in the book.
    The discographies are for the most part complete. Certainly all studio releases appear, as do all officially released live albums and retrospectives. Occasionally, EPs that have been tacked on to CD reissues are only noted in the reissue’s commentary. Releases that are both long out of print and thoroughly unimportant are sometimes omitted as well. Names in parentheses before an album title signify either releases made under a name different from the main subject’s name (either as part of a band or occasional solo projects) or releases done as