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The American indie underground made music for like-minded people who thought for themselves. Thinking for yourself is intrinsically subversive.

Michael Azerrad

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Michael Azerrad
Age: 63
Born: 1961
Born: May 8
Author
Journalist
Music Critic
Music Journalist
Writer
New York City
New York
Thought
Music
Made
Intrinsically
Thinking
Indie
Like
Subversive
People
Underground
Minded
American

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I'm not sure I ever try to make a case for the music. I mean, sometimes the music isn't even that good. I just tell the band's stories if I describe the music, it's to explain how it moved the overall story along.
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People didn't get to see how other towns interpreted the underground ethos, and so they developed their own unique versions of it.
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Nine Inch Nails' sound is dominated by clanging synths and sardonic, shrieking vocals.
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There's a whole apparatus for indie bands now, but back in the eighties it was just getting built. The early people really took it on the chin.
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People shared everything: information, equipment, their floors, whatever. There was strength in unity.
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You didn't have to be a huge rock star you just had to do well enough to continue doing what you wanted to do. It wasn't about hitting the jackpot, it was about sustainability.
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The online musical universe has become Balkanized, with many sites focusing on minute niches. That works well for reaching very specific demographics, which is wonderful for advertising, but it flies in the face of the common wisdom that people's tastes have become more diverse as music of any description has become a mouse-click away.
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Just as not all popular albums are wonderful, not all wonderful albums are popular.
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I just wanted to tell the story of a bunch of musicians who had never had their story told before. There's no preaching or theorizing.
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There's no law that says anybody has to do an interview.
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I would roll out of bed and immediately start working, and keep working until it was so late at night that I couldn't stay awake anymore. Then I'd go to sleep and wake up the next morning and do the same thing all over again. I did that every day for three years.
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As a journalist, I'm not supposed to be the subject, but as an author, I'm fair game - another ingredient in the media soup.
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Now that the generation that grew up on '80s indie-rock has attained influential positions in the culture, that music is the new yardstick. And that will shift yet again some day.
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I have this theory, bands with enigmatic lyrics attract crazies.
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When you're writing, you're only a brain and some fingers, but drumming, you're involving all four limbs, and you're hearing stuff and you're converting your ideas into physical motions, getting physical feedback from things you are touching - it's pretty cool. It's a really a nice contrast to writing.
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Critics and fans use the music of their youth as reference points. For years, people seriously wondered who the next Beatles were going to be, and classic rock bands were the de facto yardstick for rock quality.
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There's no glamour in Nirvana, no glamour at all, in fact.
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For Nirvana, putting out their first major-label record was like getting into a new car. But the runaway success was like suddenly discovering that the car was a Ferrari and the accelerator pedal was Krazy Glued to the floorboard.
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A lot of music fans are still interested in insightful perspectives on music - maybe even more interested than ever, since everyone needs help making sense of the incredible variety of sounds that have sprung up in the wake of the Internet revolution. There's a lot of room for unique, qualified voices who can provide good reads.
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Bon Jovi's trick is to use heavy-metal chords and still sound absolutely safe. Rock & roll used to be rebellion disguised as commercialism now so much of it is commercialism disguised as rebellion.
Michael Azerrad