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| A fan surfs the crowd at the 2005 Lollapalooza in Chicago's Grant Park. (Photo courtesy of Cambria Harkey/Lollapalooza) |
A Senior Moment for Gen X: First Lollapalooza Was 15 Years Ago
BY MICHELE M. MELENDEZ
Posted on 07/24/2006 7:14:47 PM PDT by Incorrigible
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A Senior Moment for Gen X: First Lollapalooza Was 15 Years AgoBY MICHELE M. MELENDEZ
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[Chicago, Illinois] -- It happens to everyone: Some cultural moment makes you "feel old." For Generation X, now in their 30s and 40s, this is one of those times.
Beneath the buzz for next month's Lollapalooza music festival lurks the jarring realization that the first one was 15 years ago.
"Jeez. Really? Fifteen?" asked Kristen Palmer, 32, of New York City, who braved the mosh pit as a teen at the show in northern Virginia, outside Washington, D.C. "Are you sure?"
Yep.
Back in 1991, music critics called Lollapalooza that generation's Woodstock. It had a similarly youthful, anything-goes spirit, even if body piercings had replaced love beads.
Lollapalooza -- originally a touring show -- has evolved into a three-day event settled into Chicago's Grant Park. It's Aug. 4-6, with roughly 130 acts topped by high-energy funk-rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers and the "Louis Vuitton Don," rapper Kanye West. Nine stages. Even a "Kidzapalooza" area for children.
The first Lollapalooza traveled to 21 cities with just seven acts: Jane's Addiction, Rollins Band, Butthole Surfers, Ice-T with Body Count, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Nine Inch Nails and Living Colour. Late in the tour, Violent Femmes and Fishbone replaced the last two.
The word itself -- lollapalooza -- was a curiosity, and started people using "palooza" as a suffix.
The dictionary definition: something extraordinary.
That's the vibe Perry Farrell, the iconic frontman of Jane's Addiction, sought in creating the festival. Farrell considers himself an alchemist of sorts, pulling different types of music and energy together.
"It's about revolution, and it's about rebellion, and all those things that young people still believe in and have faith in, that they're going to change things," Farrell, now 47, recently told Henry Rollins, an original Lollapalooza performer, on Rollins' Independent Film Channel show.
"That moment in the early 1990s was where alternative or independent rock started," said Steve Waksman, assistant professor of music and American studies at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. It had its own set of values, Waksman said -- experimenting with sounds and words, rejecting the music business establishment.
The first Lollapalooza mixed rock with rap with punk with funk with industrial.
Today, rap and rock artists routinely collaborate, by design or at the whim of DJs who blend the genres. But the concept was a baby when rapper Ice-T and Body Count, his accompanying heavy metal band, took the Lollapalooza stage and belted out "Cop Killer," a song describing violent revenge for police brutality. They would release it on an album the following year, sparking a national furor. (Ice-T now plays a cop on TV's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.")
The inaugural show was the year before a presidential election in which many fans would be voting for the first time. It was about more than music. Concertgoers strolled among issue-oriented booths with information about voting, AIDS, gun control, abortion, the environment.
"The original tour broke new ground in packaging rap, metal and alternative in one show, but it also broke new ground in including a wide range of progressive political organizations on the tour ... at a time when popular music was only making headlines for getting censored," said Reebee Garofalo, professor of community media and technology at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Reviews were mixed. Some critics wished there had been more interchange among the bands, a wider variety of political viewpoints and a more diverse audience, which was largely white.
Regardless, for alternative music fans, Lollapalooza was THE show.
"This was the first time I remember there being an opportunity to see a bunch of alternative bands all at once, something different and special," said Anna Villines, 36, of Portland, Ore., who caught Lollapalooza in Enumclaw, Wash., near Seattle.
Brett Burmeister, 35, also of Portland, saw the same performance. "I spent 14, 15 hours in the rain," he remembers.
At a show in Clarkston, Mich., near Detroit, "Sod wars had been breaking out through the day as the people up on the lawn ... realized that the grass on the hill was easy to rip up in large, dirty clumps," recalls Michael Absher, 40, of Flint.
Christopher F. Smith, 35, of San Francisco, remembers feeling awestruck after the northern Virginia show: "I was still glowing -- energized and very, very alive. I knew that I had been to something important -- historic -- and didn't want to lose the feeling."
Observers note that Lollapalooza uncovered an appetite for eclectic music festivals, after the big "arena rock" shows that marked the 1970s and '80s.
"It's a touchstone," said Murray Forman, assistant professor of communication studies at Boston's Northeastern University. "It really did change the character of what we've come to expect from our (live) summer music."
Some who have seen Lollapalooza change over the years note that "alternative music" has become mainstream and that the show increasingly relies on corporate backing.
Daniel Goldmark, assistant professor of music at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, recalls a 1996 episode of Fox's long-running cartoon, "The Simpsons": Homer takes his kids to "Hullabalooza" to prove he's still cool. His daughter, Lisa, observes, "Wow, it's like Woodstock, only with advertisements everywhere and tons of security guards."
"At what point do people say something is authentic and real, and when does it become commercial, a sellout?" Goldmark said.
That's a challenge for show producers, who have to keep ticket prices low enough to attract a crowd.
"We've really made conscious decisions not to go too far (with corporate sponsorship) with Lollapalooza, because we feel the fans that are coming out don't really want that in their face," said Charlie Jones, partner and executive producer with Capital Sports & Entertainment in Austin, Texas -- one of the event's current producers.
After 1997, Lollapalooza took a five-year break. It returned in 2003 only to be canceled in 2004 due to weak ticket sales. Jones' firm and Charles Attal Presents, also in Austin, reshaped it last year as a two-day show in Chicago.
The 2006 edition adds a third day. There'll be an art market. Organizations devoted to stopping global warming, getting out the youth vote and other causes will spread their word. Children will get the chance to play music and dance in their own activities area.
Unlike the first Lollapallooza, this is a family-friendly show. Do the math. Gen X has kids now.
"One thing that's consistent with this generation ... they've been concertgoers since day one, and they're still music fans," Jones said. "They're just a little older."
July 21, 2006
(Michele M. Melendez can be contacted at michele.melendez@newhouse.com)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
If you can't remember seeing one of the original 3 Star Wars movies in the theater when they were originally released your not a Gen-Xer
Hmmmmmmm...ok, I wasn't alive for the first Star Wars, and a toddler for the other two. Guess that settles it. :)
You were born around the same time Mickey Mantle was a rookie? :O)
1952-1954ish?!
Yeppir, I remember Eisenhower (vaguely), Leave it to Beaver in first run, and fell in love with Sandra Dee. I was born in 54, but have always been a little distanced from the baby boomers, and fit in more with the Gen Xers who came of age during Reagan's political career. That's why I'm on the Gen X ping list.
How about this to make you feel old?
The kid that was in the Sixth Sense ("I see dead people") Haley Joe Osment was in a car crash last week.
He rolled his SUV. (He's 18 now.)
Another thing to make you feel old--
Taylor Hanson now has a son.
One of the Butthole Surfers was the son of children's television star "Mr. Peppermint." He was a kid's show host on WFAA in Dallas, with a straw hat and red and white striped jacket. Characters on his show were Mr. Wiggly Worm and Muffin. I saw an interview with Mr. Peppermint, and it sounded so weird to even hear him say "butthole".
That album has a place in my heart. Everyone talks about Superunknown and forgets about BMF.
I think BMF is every bit as good if not better.
Chris Cornell and David Draiman (Disturbed) are the best rock singers today, when vocal competency seems to be rare.
One thing I miss about about the 70's, you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a good singer, and usually they played another instrument. And harmonies! Everybody did harmonies. Not anymore.
I saw Cornell's solo tour in '99. I was front row and about a foot from him. One of the best concerts I have ever seen. General admission, so I got there four hours early.
Please. Weezer and Blink 182? I'm no fan of The Doors or The Moody Blues (before my time) but the crap they play on the radio that you are referencing is just that. A bunch of no talent hacks. Talk to me about X or Social D.
You missed me getting the flaming of a lifetime on this thread where a Freeper goes to a Dixie Chicks concert and then posts a thread on it HERE
I did a nono. I flamed the poster (I mean c'mon, go to a DC concert and post an FR thread -whaddya expect? Roses?) and the "Sistahood" tore me a new one.
You just don't diss the Sistahood.
entering the conversation late, but if Poison is coming your way this summer, GO. We saw them in Vegas and Cincy, best two shows they have put on since 1999 (when I was old enough to go see them).
cripes, I'm getting old, saw Sebastian Bach and Izzy with Axl in NYC, my friend 'misplaced' our Metallica tickets last fall, and I remember when Metallica appparently 'sold-out', because they played this deal.
X and The Rollins Band at the Hard Rock, August 26th. If either are your thing.
Oh boy!
X is my band from the way back days, Rollins Band is the hubby's gig. We MAY have to get a sitter!
Thanks for the heads up.
No problem. Saw X at the HOB about three(?) years or so ago and they were great. If I can get away from work, I'll be there.
Do the hustle!
LOL! Thanks for reminding me but I'm still into the RHCPs...
Wow - did I just enter a time warp? I LOVE that song!!!
Now, back to feeling aged, my son turned 15 this year....I knew there must have been a valid reason I missed this. (and yes, at one point I did have to explain to him what an album was)
I read that thread for a while, but dropped it before the flame war began. The Dickhead Chicks just really baffle me. They're that brand of modern day country crap that's sort of indiscernible from disco/soft rock. It's like watching the Oxygen/WE Channel/Lifetime/The View, only set to music. Although NM's crash and burn is fascinating to watch.
I loved how the brainiacs immediately jumped in with the personal attacks (rather than actually responding to the points you raised.) But what do you expect from morons, eh?When they can't actually debate, they insult. Typical.
Ping me next time when you need some backup ammo.
And I do have a little secret to let you in on... The 30's are soooo much better than the 20's!
Marie (36 next month and lovin' it!)
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