CLASSIC STATUS OF AN ALBUM

INTRODUCTION

A music album by anyone’s favourite artist or band is always special. Apart from the music that speaks to the listener, there are various tangible strands attached to them. There is a Compact Disc, the album cover, lyrics and photographs. However, the intangible aspects have more of a depth in a way such as music itself, the lyrics and subject matter of the songs. If those elements strike a chord with the listener’s heart, soul and mind, then it goes beyond the notion of “good” and “bad”. It will become that person’s best friend. Similarly, when a large number of people-defying any boundaries known to humans- associate in a similar way with the same musical output, then it becomes a kind of phenomenon. That is when an album should ideally become a “classic”. Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ is one such album.
However, there is a thin line that separates between what is deemed “classic” and “canonic”. An album’s success is largely measured in commercial terms when there is a media attention. An album’s sale of copies is directly proportional to an album being worthy of called a classic. Whilst, it is true that an album’s sale reflects the record buying public’s taste in music, it is not authentic enough to state the actual worth of an album. For example an album by an artist could be selling like hot cakes because of the media hype surrounding their images or even music. The music industry is littered with several examples of such artists and bands. In the present times, the record companies seem to show more and more interest in the financial gains from an album or music as opposed to artistic or individualistic talents. For this, they do not even mind to invest in programmes such as X-factor or American Idols as long as their pockets are full. These thoughtless avenues of musical output just mocks at anything being called canonic let alone classic.
All said and done, even now in the midst all these “Fake Plastic Trees”, there are still genuine record buying public and passionate listeners contrary to the popular notion. Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer’ is one such album that was released in the spiritless 1990s. Whilst not ignoring Radiohead’s unique talents and fresh approach to music making, the time at which they released ( two decades after ‘Dark Side of the Moon’) is crucial to this study of how an album reaches a classic status with such a quick an suspect rapidity. The non-musical affairs and the technology available at one’s disposal should seriously be taken into consideration to get an idea if not truly understand the success of an album to the point of it being labelled a “classic”
In the mainstream rock and pop market, electronic music was largely exploited in the late 1960s when bands such as The Beatles and The Beach Boys used tape loops, reversed playback of their recordings, sounds of Theremin on their records such as Revolver”, “Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Pet Sounds”, respectively. This resulted in number of rock bands who either emulated them or strived to make records in their own special way. Most of the bands used electronic music to just support their music with traditional instruments. Exceptional cases were few bands such as Pink Floyd in the late 1960s and early 1970s and Radiohead in the late 1970s/early1980s who showed the unlimited possibilities of using electronics and electronic instrumentation as a form of musical expression.
However, both the acts, Pink Floyd and Radiohead hit the music scene during two important eras of popular music- Pink Floyd during the psychedelic and progressive-rock era and Radiohead during the grunge and Brit-pop era (which was an offshoot of the punk and post-punk ideologies). Though both had an objective to produce something innovative, futuristic and fresh, their attitudes were remarkably different. This had to do, to an extent, with the sociological and cultural change that occurred during the late 1960s-early 1970s and the early to late 1990s. Both those periods need to be briefly looked at to understand the prominence of both the bands and how their seemingly hard to digest avant-garde musical output is worthy of being called classic or canonic.

‘DARK SIDE OF THE MOON’ – PSYCHEDELIC/PROGRESSIVE ROCK ERA

The word psychedelic suggests colour and in a figurative sense, the patterns of the mind that is associated with various colours, imageries and hallucinations. The music that the world saw in the late 1960s was replete with subjects dealing with such images of the mind. Many elements of these psychedelic topics were born out of an amalgamation of the discovery of underground music, the awareness of the importance of humanity’s proximity to nature, the need to get in touch with reality and also an urge for personal freedom. These elements and beliefs were all part of the hippy culture. This culture was in many ways an acceptance of the earlier polytheistic cultures which existed in medieval times in Europe and many parts of world. However it was both ignored and stripped away by the so called “modern western society” and monotheistic religions with a dogmatic outlook. The hippies, as a result, found some solace in Eastern philosophy and polytheistic cultures, particularly from places such as India.
The beginnings of psychedelic music could be traced back to the days of The Beatles’ “Revolver” album in 1965 (which interestingly introduced Indian music to a mainstream audience) and around the same time, in its initial days, Pink Floyd (an underground band, then) were also experimenting with sound. However, the popularisation of psychedelic music and the whole “hippy culture in music” was started in 1967 by the American music industry who realised that bands with long hair, strange names and less commercial success could not be ignored. The open-air ‘Be-In’ festival in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco which attracted 20, 000 people and featured such pioneering acid-rock groups as Country Joe and Fish, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead was a testimony to the hippy revolution that took place.
The marketability of this new movement was further enhanced in Britain during the Monterey Festival of June 1967. This festival was just like its American counterpart in 1967. American acts such as Grateful Dead, Mothers of Invention, The Doors, The Byrds and Simon and Garfunkel along with British icons Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Brian Jones were present. Drugs, flowers, beads and bells were widely available. This particular coverage was the source from where hippy music and culture became so popular in the rock world.
Around this time, Pink Floyd’s ‘Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ and The Beatles’ phenomenal album, ‘Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” were perfectly in tune with the “acid filled” atmosphere of 1967. Pink Floyd’s already radical approach to music making inspired a cult underground following. In any case, by the early 1970s, the hippy ideology started to wear a little thin. People were looking for something different and more touching music rather than the utopian values that the hippie ideology tended to convey. By the time of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, they were using avant garde techniques and showed the unlimited possibilities of using electronics and electronic instrumentation as a form of musical expression. Besides, the universal theme of the album such as conflict, greed, death, consumerism and mental illness were something people could relate to.

THE PUNK ERA- CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ASSOCIATIONS

The Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees , The Clash and other bands along with people like Malcolm McLaren and Jamie Reid (who both had punk sensibilities and mixed with radical politics and art history that targeted college students and analytical thinkers alike) played a major role and were pioneers of this punk movement. It alsosoon had an impact around the world.
Punk could be viewed as an attitude more than anything else. It enables us to have our voices heard and gives scope for something new to come in. It acts like a recycle bin of the music world. When there was a need for change, it played a pivotal role. Due to its revolution, it opened the doors for many acts to express their musical ideas and talents. It is also contradictory due to the fact that punk’s ideology was that of “No Future” and what happened in the aftermath was a bright future, particularly from 1977- 1983/84 with post-punk, art-rock and new wave scene. Phenomenal bands such as The Cure, Depeche Mode and The Human League were all part of this development. They had an element of Do-it-Yourself Punk attitude but had more artistic values.
Punk had a really charged up idealism that was more realistic and focussed. Punk was really for the people and there were no distinctions between an artist and its audience or even between the sexes. It also had a Do-it-yourself ethic and shunned any following that was centered around mass marketing and music for commercial purposes. It was an attack on the establishment and this included the sentiments of women in music long left unaddressed by the recording industry. Punk gave female artists an exposure and showed the world the true potential they possessed unlike anything before it.
The grunge movement of the 1990s was very reminiscent of the punk and it was a reaction against the image oriented and souless manufactured producer-driven music of the late 1980s and early 1990s which were churned and promoted wildly. It was something- again- what the serious listeners were waiting for. Bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were a part of this Grunge movement. In Britain, the Brit-pop music of Oasis and Blur garnered enough media attention to label them the next big things in music. Radiohead were also being slotted into this category, initially though in a very short span of time, they would prove that they were a totally individualistic band that really were keen on challenging themselves with the release of every album unlike their counterparts who seemed happy to rest in their rock ‘n’ roll star lifestyles.

MEDIA FRAGMENTATION AND ‘OK COMPUTER’

Even to this day the impact of punk is felt in some ways. Notably, for instance, as far as internet related to music is concerned, it is an extension of the punk revolution. Punk gave even a musically inclined common man who can just barely play an instrument or sing, the opportunity to approach a recording company which was considered next toimpossible at one point of time. The internet has made it even more easier for anyone to send their songs to a record label via electronic mail (e-mail), upload their songs on their own web site, convey the information to literally anyone in the world, including recording companies, both major and independent record labels. Its effectiveness is understood to such an extent that we now even have online record labels such as Caff Corporation in England and C-Sharp Productions in America.The music world has become more colourful due to the punk revolution but it has more accessible as ever because of the speed and quantity of the transfer of information from one part of the world to another. MySpace, Youtube and iTunes have only aided in pushing the limits to proportions that were unthinkable of around even two decades ago.
However, the success and the sheer media attention that bands such as Radiohead and Oasis receive are just magnimonious. This has a lot to do with media fragmentation. In the present times, there are so many avenues of expression with the boom of the internet technology such as hundreds of web sites and virtual radio stations. Due to digitisation of music, the fans can just log on to different web sites, read the latest news, download music onto their computers or iPods. There is also a direct or an indirect means of communication between fans and musicians. The fans can vote for their favourite bands on the reader’s poll. Although this is really a bogus enterprise with people even sometimes casting multiple votes for their favourite bands. Nevertheless, this is also considered because it directly reflects in the ultimate acknowledgment that the bands receive such as- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or Band of the Century and so and so forth.
This was not the case during Pink Floyd’s ‘ Dark Side of the Moon’ period- an album that is now a well-known classic. It was made at a time that predates the birth of even the personal computer and the birth of the punk revolution. Although, it is also to be noted that by the time of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, Pink Floyd were already a well-known band in the media circle and they already had seven epic albums in their back catalogue.
However, it cannot be dismissed that OK Computer is an album that dealt with universal themes- like ‘Dark Side of the Moon’- with alienation, death, insanity, transport, technology, modern life, political objection to capitalism. This album was received with open arms all over the world. OK Computer’s status of being propelled to the level of classic is not just because of its mass appeal and artistic use of instrumentation and subject matter but also because of the quick media and the the pace at which information is transferred around the world. It is a combination of both the factors, besides not ignoring the fact that the presentation of the album and the backing of the record label have a lot to do with its success. An album like OK Computer would have become a classic even without the aid of information technology and fragmentation of the media. But the answer to the question of its fast rise to classic status is definitely due the quick assessibility of music to the public and the media attention.