1991
By You Can't Hear it on the Radio
October 18, 2010
Like Pearl Jam, Nirvana is a band I turned to in teenage angst (it did, in fact pay off well) and the death of Kurt Cobain, while unsurprising even then, was the first time I remember feeling like someone I’d never met but “knew” had died. Didn’t he have a responsibility to keep speaking to and for me? Apparently he didn’t think so, but I suspect Nevermind is an album I will hear blasting from my son’s bedroom in about 10 or 12 years. Nevermind led me to Soundgarden, The Violent Femmes, and R.E.M.
Having been a fan of 1987’s Joshua Tree, U2 was the only band on this list I was familiar with before buying their album in the fall of 1991. So I knew that U2’s Achtung Baby (November 19, 1991) existed, but hearing The Edge’s opening riff to the first single – “Mysterious Ways” – and thinking “WHAT THE #$%& IS THAT!?!?” was an experience only “Smells Like Teen Spirit” had given me to that point. Still completely cutting edge in 2010, Achtung Baby is probably the album on this list that has endured as one of my all-time favorites. It would almost certainly be in my desert island top five and my obsession with this album was the metaphorical fifth gear for my newfound love of music.
Achtung Baby also was the first album that made me want to see a concert. The Zoo TV Tour came through my hometown, but being 14 and not schooled in the ways of buying concert tickets in 1991 (standing in line at the venue or a Ticketmaster outlet), it was also my first Ticketmaster phone experience – made up almost entirely of busy signals. U2 was also the first musical obsession I shared with my best friend. My best friend growing up had an older sister, which resulted in much better musical taste. I still remember our disappointed repeat dialing for tickets. I’ve since seen U2 three times (and hold tickets for the fourth), but missing the Zoo TV tour is one of my great musical regrets. U2 led me to The Beatles, Dylan, Brian Eno, Radiohead, and Johnny Cash.
In the age of the Internet, access to music is so easy you almost suffer from an overabundance of choices – the selection is a little bit overwhelming. In the fall of 1991, with no Internet, no driver’s license and no older siblings to influence me, the radio and friends at school were all I had. All that considered, what’s most amazing to me is that none of the four albums I mentioned would sound particularly out of date if released today – 19 years later. In particular, Achtung Baby would be as much a revelation today as it was in 1991.
With technology, the new musical landscape and lack of commercial radio as a powerful force in music, I’m not sure it’s possible anymore for four albums in two months to be such critical and commercial successes. Maybe I was just lucky to hit a musical sweet spot at such a formative moment in my life. It would be impossible to remember exactly the path that led me from Pearl Jam in 1991 to Jonsi, Arcade Fire, Wilco, Ra Riot and The National in 2010, for me all roads still lead from these four albums.
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--Noah
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