Continued from…

DON’T LOOK BACK

Going to shows is one thing, buying new albums is another. Can 20-year-old bands with new records appeal to 20-year-old fans? Can rockers in their 40s and 50s produce new music that can still compete with younger, more contemporary bands?

Dick Bozzi thinks so. He’s the director of A & R for the rock division of Intersound Records, an independent, Atlanta-based label that has released new records by Kansas and Jefferson Starship, and is developing one with Jonathan Cain of Journey.

"There is an audience there," Bozzi says. "It’s just a little harder to find. It’s not a direct line anymore–it’s not mass-marketing, it’s micro-marketing."

Major labels, with their focus on mega market shares, have ignored music buyers from the "radio generation," according to Bozzi–those who predate MTV but are still a "very valid purchasing group." So older bands are going the indie route because smaller labels are a lot more receptive to their commercial viability.

"There’s a lot of independents out there–Pyramid, Priority, Curb–that are all in the business of trying to find or provide these bands with an avenue for their music," says Bozzi. "And I think that to not put out music by bands that have sold millions of records is an absolute mistake."

But how good are these records? Listening to Kansas’s latest, Freaks of Nature, it’s as if the last 15 years haven’t gone by–there are the trademark Kansas power chords, violins, and the high-pitched imploring of singer Steve Walsh. For longtime fans, this may be manna; for newcomers, it could be old hat.

"The sound is dated–maybe," says Bozzi. "But you don't want to go sign a band that wants to reinvent themselves–that's like taking Tide and trying to make it something that it isn’t. I believe there's a brand-name identity that goes along with the music that these bands make, and you have to stay true to the music.

"But being true to the music doesn't mean that you're true to the sound of the past. The technological changes enhance the product–they can't help but make ’90s-sounding music because it comes out of ’90s-sounding recording studios."

So we have clean-sounding records of the ’90s that appear time-warped from the ’70s–will they still appeal to young buyers?

"Music doesn't have color, and it doesn't have age–it has emotion," insists Bozzi. "And if you can buy into the emotion, you're going to buy it whether it's Live, Pearl Jam or Kansas. If you're into it, and buy what they're saying, you're going to buy the record."

THE SPIRIT OF RADIO

The final, and perhaps most important, element in album rock’s revival is radio play. It’s a given that MTV won’t resort to airing videos of 50-year-old guys "jamming out" (Neil Young notwithstanding) when they can show White Zombie in skin-tight, lizard-skin chaps worshipping Satan. It’s up to classic rock radio to save the day–will they shove aside "Dust in the Wind" for "Freaks of Nature"?

Dick Bozzi describes reaction to his label’s new Kansas album as "mixed," and says there is a "bitterness" in radio that has "shut the door on impressions being made by bands like [Kansas]." Likewise, Neal Doughty has felt the cold radio shoulder, even as REO records a new release which he promises will be "in the same direction" of their classic albums.

"It's a period of time when it's not as easy for us to get on the radio as it used to be," admits Doughty. "But you know, the old power ballad is always going to be something radio stations are going to play. If none of our newer up-tempo things can catch on to the radio, then we've always got those ballads we know how to do."

Sadly, it may be the power ballad that is the old rocker’s last resort–the very song form that lead to album rock’s demise in the eyes of young fans. But, at the very least, REO and its peers haven’t (for the most part) been reduced to novelty acts at county fairs, like so many rock acts from the ’50s.

"We could probably be like a nostalgia band and stay in business forever," says Doughty, "but we don't really want to do that. I mean, we appreciate the fact that there's people familiar with our music, but we always want to move forward, and also introduce what we've done before to a new audience."

Perhaps, however, today’s music market doesn’t have room for nostalgia anymore. With ongoing CD reissue programs and box sets and tribute albums, everything old is new again–even rock that was considered schlock when it was first released. Odds are that people aren’t looking to album rock to relive their youth, but simply because they genuinely like the music. But what does this mean for the vitality of rock ’n’ roll?

While one generation’s rock bands may influence the next one’s in a never-ending progression, the hope is that fresh music will be sparked along the way–whether it’s funk in the ’60s, punk in the ’70s, or rap in the ’80s. Although this renewed interest in album rock doesn’t bode well for rock innovation, perhaps it will be a catalyst for the same revolution album rock originally inspired in bored teenagers of the time … a gnawing desire for something completely different.

First Published: August 10, 1995 • Metro Pulse

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