Authors London

Key points

  • The 1990s is the misunderstood decade
  • So much about the decade is forgotten, misremembered or missed out
  • We hear repeatedly of Grunge and Britpop
  • But not about the third genre. The genre that broke through after Grunge and Britpop
  • The misunderstood genre alt.country
  • For the first time we see the role of a new and restive generation in the rise of alt.country as well as Grunge
  • And alt.country the genre had its own geography and its own A&R milieu
  • The vital A&R role of Europe is revealed
  • The vital A&R role of women is revealed
  • Plus a new myth-busting view of genre
  • A personal selection of labels, industry movers, artists, albums, tracks, and more, including those here on this page
  • Then witness the fall of alt.country in the face of seismic industry and media changes
  • Take a fresh look at the music and the character of the decade

Timeframe 1988 - 2001

  • Prime movers with momentum 1988 - 1993
  • The mid-phase 1994 - 1996
  • The breakthrough phase 1997 - 2001
  • Decline from 2002. The major labels had consolidated, restructured and abandoned the genre. Widespread, global industry / media retrenchment begins. A music technocracy emerges

Timeline

  • 1985: MTV video channel goes corporate
  • 1988: CD album sales overtake vinyl
  • 1988: alt.country first emerges as an underground genre; first British, and then US and continental European independent labels are involved
  • 1993: Increasing major label involvement
  • 1997: alt.country breaks through
  • 1997 - 2001: The breakthrough phase and the great alt.country A&R purge
  • 2002: The music technocracy era begins

Prime Movers

The Expanded 1990s

Genre

Now That We Live rejects both the musicological and the pure context approaches to music genre. Instead, this is the first book I know to utilise a third model, by Lena and Peterson, which has music genres as "systems of orientations, expectations, and conventions that bind together an industry, performers, critics and fans in making what they identify as a distinctive sort of music." Genres evolve through stages: Avant Garde to Scene to Industry, and sometimes but not in this case to a Traditionalist form. This means that most genres don't last forever. Genres usually have a lifespan. The author adopts and builds on this approach.

The author

Mal Smith has worked in the music industry for 25 years. He lives in London. This book is for Bethany.

Millennium Tracks


A summary of the story…

Brits into America

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It all gets started for me when Making Waves releases Barefoot Rock by Rainer & Das Combo as a vinyl LP in 1986. But I see 1988 as the turning point, the start of something new.

The Cold War is ending, a new generation is coming of age, MTV is a big thing to push against, and the CD becomes dominant - alt.country was a music of the CD album, along with touring Europe. The music industry is international but regionalised.

Demon Records get behind Giant Sand, American Music Club and later Rainer. And Rough Trade releases records by Camper Van Beethoven and Lucinda Williams. This is just the beginning. Along with many UK, and later continental European, record labels, the UK media, mainly the print press, takes up the new American music and effectively defines the new genre.

The New Continentals

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It's a remarkable story. They form a band called The Chosen Monks. Reinhard Holstein, Rembert Stiewe and Christof Ellinghaus. Across the Weser from Beverungen, in Lauenförde in mid West Germany, Glitterhouse Records had been started in 1984 by two of The Chosen Monks, Reinhard and Rembert. Glitterhouse moves to Beverungen in 1990. Then, inspired by Glitterhouse, City Slang is founded in Berlin in 1990 by Christof Ellinghaus. Each of these labels begins with an interest in Garage Rock and Grunge. A third label, based in the Netherlands but called Munich Records will also be inspired by Glitterhouse.

Some Europeans are more into underground American music than Americans themselves. And these continental European labels become the greatest A&R input into the formation of alt.country.

The US-based A&Rs

US-based Independents:

It's notable that most of these US indies were founded in the mid to late 1980s or the 1990s. And so these labels, along with their European competitors and associates, form a distinct A&R milieu.

A&R Person/s | Label Active From | Label | Main Artist | From Date | UK Release Label (starting from)

  • Lisa Fancher 1980- Frontier American Music Club* 1985 Demon (1988-)
  • Gerard Cosloy 1983-1996 Homestead Giant Sand* 1988 Demon
  • Craig Marks 1983-1996 Homestead Giant Sand* 1988 Demon
  • Robin Hurley 1980-1991 Rough Trade US Lucinda Williams* 1988 Rough Trade
  • Bruce Pavitt 1986- Sub Pop The Walkabouts* 1988 Glitterhouse (1989-)
  • Jonathan Poneman 1986- Sub Pop The Walkabouts* 1988 Glitterhouse (1989-)
  • Debbie Southwood-Smith 1987-1994 Rockville / Giant Uncle Tupelo* 1990 Yellow Moon (1992)
  • Susan Farrell 1986-1996 Texas Hotel Vic Chesnutt* 1990 Pinnacle (1994-)
  • Michael Meister 1986-1996 Texas Hotel Vic Chesnutt* 1990 Pinnacle (1994-)
  • Stephen Tesluk 1986-1996 Texas Hotel Vic Chesnutt* 1990 Pinnacle (1994-)
  • Jeff Rougvie 1983-2006 Rykodisc Morphine * 1993 Rykodisc
  • Cathie Svingen 1983-2006 Rykodisc Morphine * 1993 Rykodisc
  • Bettina Richards 1992- Thrill Jockey Freakwater 1993 City Slang
  • Dan Koretzky 1989- Drag City Silver Jews 1994 Domino
  • Dan Osborn 1989- Drag City Silver Jews 1994 Domino
  • Laura Ballance 1989- Merge Lambchop 1994 City Slang
  • Mac MacCaughan 1989- Merge Lambchop 1994 City Slang
  • Patrick Monaghan 1993-2016 Carrot Top The Handsome Family 1995 Loose (1998-)
  • Jerry Balderson 1994-1996 Buy Or Die Neal Casal 1996 Glitterhouse
  • Gary Waldman 1994-1996 Buy Or Die Neal Casal 1996 Glitterhouse
  • Corey Rusk 1990-2009 Quarterstick Calexico 1998 City Slang
  • Stefanie Scamardo 1996- Evil Teen Dolly Varden 1998 N/A
  • George Howard 1994-2002 Slow River / Rykodisc Willard Grant Conspiracy 1998 Rykodisc
  • Anna Johansson 1994-2002 Slow River / Rykodisc Willard Grant Conspiracy 1998 Rykodisc
  • Eric Babcock 1997-2001 Checkered Past Johnny Dowd 1998 Munich
  • Rob Miller 1993- Bloodshot Ryan Adams* 2000 Cooking Vinyl
  • Nan Warshaw 1993- Bloodshot Ryan Adams* 2000 Cooking Vinyl

* Later records for a major or major-affiliate

US Multi Artist Labels A&R Summary:

European/US Independent/Major Hybrids

  • Mark Williams (Virgin America) Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker, Geraldine Fibbers, (1)
  • Ivo Watts-Russell (4AD/Reprise) Red House Painters, Tarnation

US Majors

  • Danny Goldberg (Atlantic; Mercury) Victoria Williams, Lucinda Williams, Shelby Lynne
  • Dave Ayers (Capitol) Vic Chesnutt, Sparklehorse, (2)
  • Joe McEwen (Sire, Reprise) Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Wilco

Notes:

  1. Also subsequently Whiskeytown for Outpost/Geffen
  2. Also previously The Jayhawks for independent Twin/Tone

The Breakthrough

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In the UK between 1997 and 2001, the national newspapers document a new music called alt.country. Wilco had played London in April 1997. The gig had not been well-received. Then, just a week after the noted demise of homegrown genre Britpop, Hazeldine’s album How Bees Fly on Glitterhouse Records is Pop CD Of The Week in The Guardian newspaper of 29th Aug 1997 - on Britpop’s demise see John Harris 2004: 341 - kicking off the breakthrough, some say the invasion of alt.country.

More national press coverage follows. Stewart Lee says alt.country is “the last, great, undiscovered next big thing” (The Sunday Times 1 Feb 1998). In October 1998, The Guardian is describing the new music as “the US underground's healthiest, most diverse export” (Tom Cox The Guardian 16 Oct 1998). The Times notes “the alt.country upsurge” (Paul Sexton: Albums Of The Year The Times 26 Dec 1998). Grunge chronicler Everett True approves of Whiskeytown: “purchase immediately” (Melody Maker early 1998). Gavin Martin sees “reckless abandonment wed to crack-shot precision” in a band called The Gourds (NME 22 May 1999) and Darren Johns hears “a fucking brilliant album” from 16 Horsepower (NME 14 April 2000).

Mark Edwards advises “just ask for anything on Glitterhouse” (The Sunday Times 7 May 2000), referring to the Glitterhouse record label. Nick Hasted witnesses “an embarrassment of riches” (The Independent 2 July 1999). Tim Perry documents “the ubiquity of alt.country” (The Independent 15 Dec 2001). Andy Gill hears “real music for real people” (The Independent 4 Sep 1998) and “the most genuinely rebellious, iconoclastic records I've heard all year” (The Independent 21 May 1999), and then in February 2002 concludes “the alt.country invasion continues to make deep inroads into the European psyche.” That is just a sample.

The deep inroads are also apparent across the UK’s regional press. In London, Time Out music editor Ross Fortune champions the “most powerfully resonant and curiously fucked-up of genres” (Time Out 14 October 1998) on a regular basis. Max Bell reviews alt.country gigs for the London Evening Standard confirming “the American underground is alive and well and full of fresh ideas” (Evening Standard 15 Oct 1998).

And the press in the other UK regions is equally amazed, enamoured, enthused, fascinated. Plus, there are at least five British fanzines covering the new music in print. And, by my reckoning, eleven alt.country stars appear on Later with Jools Holland on BBC television between 1993 and 2002.

Something is happening. It’s not only in the national newspapers, national TV, regional press, and fanzines. By 1998, three new British monthly music magazines are available at your local newsstand alongside the newspapers. They too will play a key role in the rise of alt.country. Sylvie Simmons is an influential advocate at Mojo. And Classic Rock magazine is also a strong supporter of the emerging genre.

Then, in the midst of all this, comes the emphatic seal on the breakthrough of alt.country. It comes from the new magazine Uncut, edited by Allan Jones, and takes the form of Uncut's September 1998 cover-mounted Compact Disc Sounds Of The New West. A substantial British magazine emblazons alt.country on its front cover. A new music genre is materialising. With Sounds Of The New West, Uncut puts alt.country firmly on the cultural map, in effect defining the genre.

The Major Label Hits

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Cost-slashing corporate machinations mean turmoil and confusion for Warner and PolyGram/Universal in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It’s amazing that any alt.country recordings are released by these companies. Yet one way or another they release some of the great alt.country albums. Each is a story.

PolyGram/Universal and Warner — turmoil | confusion

  • Lucinda Williams — Car Wheels On A Gravel Road (Mercury/PolyGram 1998)
  • Wilco — Summerteeth (Reprise/Warner 1999)
  • Shelby Lynne — I Am Shelby Lynne (Mercury/Universal 1999/2000)
  • Ryan Adams — Gold (Lost Highway/Mercury/Universal 2001)

EMI — luck | continuity | freedom

  • Sparklehorse — Good Morning Spider (Capitol/EMI 1998/1999)
  • Norah Jones — Come Away With Me (Blue Note/EMI early 2002)

The Great A&R Purge

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It’s abandonment. A&Rs, artists and entire frontline labels dropped or sidelined. Between 1997 and 2001. Mostly by the major record companies, but also by large independents with, initially, great ambitions, like Rykodisc and V2. The effect is felt across the genre. One extraordinary upshot: amid the chaos, some recordings by American artists signed to major labels in Europe never get released in the US.

Look at Warner. Multiple factors collide in the mid to late 1990s: debt bearing down on Time Warner Inc. as a result of the Time and Warner merger years before; putting quick profits ahead of retaining good staff; the cost of dumping the Interscope label; the copying of CDs onto CDRs; attempts at introducing CD encryption; numerous record store closures; supermarkets using CDs as loss-leaders; internet piracy; and the short term thinking of Wall Street analysts obsessed with each new set of numbers. That's the view of a Warner insider.

The extent of the 1997 - 2001 A&R purge? My research suggests that 5 frontline major labels are axed, and at least 19 alt.country artists are either dropped (16) or have to move A&R/label within a major company (3). For 3 artists it is the second time a major has dropped them.

What was alt.country, an edgy alternative prestige-artist, frontline-label challenge to the mainstream, is shunted off into a niche market, sidelined, marketed as Americana, no longer a music on its own terms that can go up against anything.

The majors don’t get alt.country. And can’t push it easily onto MTV or mainstream radio in mega-rotation. So the majors, along with Rykodisc and V2, simply give up the genre. And so curtail its lifespan.

Continuity Can Help

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Come Away With Me by Norah Jones (2002) is a great, great album, which is one of the reasons it did so well. But I think there are other reasons.The A&R and marketing stability enjoyed then by EMI and subsidiary Blue Note is a matter of good fortune, rather than a matter of good judgement by EMI, which had already tried and failed to make three separate deals with other majors. If EMI had sold out or merged, as it wanted to, would Norah Jones have even been signed, let alone looked after properly? Would Blue Note have even existed with an effective A&R capacity? What this ultimately says to me is that stability and good long-term A&R can work out a whole lot better than desperate corporate manoeuvring.

Geography

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An alt.country phenomenon map 1988-2001 taking into account labels, artists, media and fans, would start in the UK and continental Europe, as Europe got interested in the underground American music, then bridge the Atlantic and pepper America, pointing to Albuquerque, Athens, Austin, Boston, Chapel Hill & Raleigh, Chicago, Davis, Denver, Denton, Ithaca NY, Lake Charles, Los Angeles, Louisville, Minneapolis, Mobile, Morristown NJ, Nashville, Portland, Richmond, St Louis, San Francisco, Seattle, Shreveport, and Tucson. And extend into Canada.

The Women

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There is also the integral and equally important role of women alongside men. There's the influential writer Sylvie Simmons. And in no particular order, there’s Lucinda Williams, Carla Torgerson of The Walkabouts, Freakwater, Victoria Williams, Amy Allison, Carla Bozulich of The Geraldine Fibbers, Amy Boone and Deborah Kelly of The Damnations, Denise Bon Giovanni of The Sunshine Club, Paula Frazer of Tarnation, Diane Christiansen of Dolly Varden, Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family, Hazeldine, Kim Sherwood-Caso from Johnny Dowd's band, JinJa Davis of Utah Carol, Lauren Hoffman, Shelby Lynne, Neko Case, Laura Krause of Knife In The Water, and Oh Susanna, just for example. There are musicians like Caitlan Cary, Tina Chesnutt, Lisa Davis, Anne Tkach, and Deanna Varagona.

And A&R and label people such as Laura Ballance, Deanna Cohen, Lisa Fancher, Susan Farrell, Joyce Linehan, Anna Johansson, Julie Panebianco, Bettina Richards, Stefanie Scamardo, Debbie Southwood-Smith, Cathie Svingen, Kelley Walker, Nan Warshaw, and Jana Wolff.

Without them…

Rise of the Technocracy

alt.country is hit by the perfect storm of music industry and media retrenchment in the 2000s. The storm comprises an array of related factors. Along came the technocracy. Among the top technocratic distortions: the pushing of Americana; simultaneous global releasing; the single-track download; the festivalisation of music; the heritage act resurgence; the awards/hype lists; the television talent shows; the talent schools; the journalistic shortcuts Poptimism and Rockism.

It was the move from MTV dominance to a new system controlled by all of the above. And all this was one way or another anti-alt.country. Such contrivances shut out music that would have come through in a less rigged, less distorted market. The new system tended to crush or squash anything that got in its way. It astroturfed, rolling out phoney stuff all over the place. The 2000s seem made of pure technocrat logic.

The aim is to rig the market in favour of whoever employs the technocrats. It’s on a much higher plane than ever before. Artists conforming to the technocrats’ rules may do well. Others most likely won’t. It’s not a conspiracy. It’s efficiency. And we now have the financialisation of streaming platform Spotify, leading to its mood management, self-help playlists and podcasts paradigm. Record labels have regained some of the lost ground. But essentially music has become a sphere ruled by a technocracy.

Beyond the how, and beyond the nature of the new setup, the question is - why has this happened? The answer is in the book.

Spotlight 50 album selection:

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Over 200 albums are mentioned in the book.


Tracks not currently available via Apple Music include the following. But some of these are on bandcamp.

Acetone
I'm Gone
Pinch
All You Know
The Final Say
AMC
Firefly
Lonely
Western Stars
Dolly Varden
Sunflower Drag
Johnny Dowd
Thanksgiving Day
Heavenly Feast
Worried Mind
Hazeldine
Tarmac
Allergic To Love
Drive
Rainer
Inner Flame
One Wrong Turn
The Sunshine Club
Rainy Day Friend


And these won't show up in the above playlists for some reason:

Neal Casal
Still I Got You
Eddy & Diamonds
Chris & Carla
Swinger 500
Willard Grant Conspiracy
Christmas In Nevada

The 1990s was not the holiday from history we have tended to believe and been led to believe. The bungled peace was both a gigantic failure and a whole new chapter of history — history afresh. History that came with its own music, including a whole new genre ready for rediscovery.


Quotes from the book

If you were born around 1960 or afterward, you have lived your adult life in the vertigo...
George Packer
But now that we live here in the desert, things are much, much better...
Douglas Coupland
The '80s were finally fucking gone...
Howe Gelb

Now That We Live: The 1990s, the vertigo & the third genre by Mal Smith is now available for publishing in various territories. Please click Contact Us below.

© Mal Smith 2021