Sunday, May 29, 2011

Emo via my Saturday morning tv shows: a summer project

So yes, another quick one while school's away- from 1990-1997, I recall watching some kind of Saturday morning block or another or at least watching repeats of some cartoon

Let's start with 1990, Bobbys' world: I didn't watch it when it first aired cos I was two, but whatever, it's good starting point:
songs:
Repeater-Fugazi
wit's end/never more-Iconoclast
Want-Jawbreaker
Guatamala- Moss Icon

1990 was a time of uncertainty and anxiety, obviously because it was the start of a new decade, but also because of the fall of the USSR and end of the cold war in general which left everyone feeling lost and confused, a sentiment nicely expressed by Fugazi:

You say I need a job,
I've got my own business
You want to know what i do?
None of your fucking business
But now I'm lying here
Knowing that business had a name,
But now I'm a number

While this could easily be read as an anti communist sort of sentiment, I believe that it's about losing a status of sorts. In the 80s, people were stockbrokers, hair metal stars, corrupt politicians, any type of deed or sin of the famous you could possibly imagine was splayed across pages as though they were bold epic novels, (a trend which only got worse into the 90s, but that comes later), once the decade was over though? Bam! They became part of the population, one of the unwashed working class people that they once scoffed at.

Along with status change, there was also a hint of sincerity creeping in whether it was expressed through an environmental message like in Moss Icon's Guatamala or via the voice of a tongue tied, lovelorn young man in the aptly titled Want. The 90s was going to be a totally different decade and these songs certainly showed it.

Next: Ren and Stimpy or Emo years 1991-1992

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