Heartland Rock

[gweimer]

this looks like a list that satallite radio may use.

is shoe gazer on the list?

Shoegaze is on the list, but Emo is not.  Nor is Nu Metal.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Nor is Nu Metal.

Shhh!! Without MTV promoting those crap bands (probably the last music genre they "pushed"), it has died the death it needed to.

[uwe]

"Bob Seger, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Petty"

One is from Detroit, one from New Jersey, one from Florida and I don't know where Mellencamp is from. Some geographic concept of "heartland". I'd see all four as "electrified singer/songwriter rock", a music that is not totally anti-urban, yet avoids fashion and retains a rural foundation with lyrics that are not so much escapist as they dwell on everyday life. There are lots of other artists in that vein or even bands such as Drive by Truckers which always get lumped in as "Southern Rock", but have more to do with Tom Petty or Neil Young than Lynyrd Skynyrd or Molly Hatchet.

[gweimer]

Mellencamp is from Indiana.

[uwe]

True, I remember now. I liked Jack & Diane and Paper on Fire. Plus what he did with Meshell Nedgeocello (always have to google the spelling of her name!). He and Bryan Adams kind of started in the same place in the early 80ies, but Adams became more shallow over time while Mellencamp dropped the "Cougar" and travelled the well-travelled Bob Dylan/The Band path to more rootsiness. Bryan knows more super models though!

[westen44]

I do feel Bryan Adams wins in the super models in videos category. 

[uwe]

Pah, no competition for George!



Not that John didn't have nice girls in his vids either ...

[westen44]

Still, when it comes to women in videos, Bryan Adams was no slacker. 

[uwe]

That was the nadir of his work musically, fetish visuals or not. Très 'orrible!!! Around that time I did no longer mention that I had once owned the Cuts Like a Knife LP.

[westen44]

That was the nadir of his work musically, fetish visuals or not. Très 'orrible!!! Around that time I did no longer mention that I had once owned the Cuts Like a Knife LP.

I remember reading something about him in which he talked about how difficult songwriting was for him.  To his credit, I doubt that he rates himself very high, either. 

[uwe]

I don't think he's a bad songwriter and Jim Vallance could come up with a lyric. A lot of their stuff has been played to death - I don't care to hear Summer of 69 ever again, but it's a tune, a lick and a pleasantly Springsteen'esque lyric (which, as Bryan has it these days, is not supposed to be about the year 69 at all, but a human exchange of, errrm, giving and taking).

I liked his "Take me Back" best back then, this is a relatively fresh and youthful version!

[westen44]

In the comments I saw, he was saying something to the effect that he would try to write thirty songs or more.  Out of that number, only two or three would be any good.  I thought he was being brutally honest with himself.  That's, of course, better than someone who overestimates his musical worth. 

[Dave W]

Mellencamp's voice and music bore me.

At least his name spawned one of the best punk band names ever, Jon Cougar Concentration Camp.

[uwe]

Dave prefers Bryan (not Ryan) Adams to John Mellencamp. Who'd have thought.

[Dave W]

Dave prefers Bryan (not Ryan) Adams to John Mellencamp. Who'd have thought.

Where on earth did you come up with that? Not a fan of either Adams.

I was a fan of Edie Adams. And Don Adams.