Sonic Youth



Underground music. Let's be honest people, if someone were to ask us in our day-to-day lives what sort of music we were into, most of us would say 'Indie', or 'Underground', or any other sort of genre that is underground. And though there were many 'underground' bands before them, Sonic Youth were monumental in helping to unite the disparate strands of Reagan era discontents and making everyone realize they were pretty much in the same scene and in the same boat, at least philosophically. The best scenes are never ones with very similar content, but very similar motives and drive. To make art and be different and to escape the status quo. Their most essential work of art is their album 'Daydream Nation', a masterpiece whose reputation has only grown since it's release. Rolling Stone, in a moment of rare wisdom declared Daydream Nation to be the best album of the 80s. And though that is this band's magnum opus, that isn't solely what they are known for.

Sonic Youth came from a growing discontent in the punk scene. When Thurston Moore, the band's front man, arrived in New York in the late 70s, he saw that for all their rebellious posing, bands like The Sex Pistols and the Ramones were still playing Chuck Berry chords. Other bands, however, had a rebellious attitude, and a radical new way to playing music. Television is one band who influenced many of the acts which would be associated with the No Wave scene that would come out of New York. No Wave wasn't a scene united by a sound within a single genre, but was a mentality that music was in need of being shaken up a bit. No Wave bands would do anything to their instruments, trying to create new sounds. Sonic Youth became known for the prepared tunings of their guitars. Sonic Youth perhaps summed up the entire attitude of the scene with the title of their first album, Kill Yr. Idols. And in that sense, Sonic Youth were great iconclasts. And being an iconoclast is one of the most punk things you can do.

I feel like I might be trying too hard. Sonic Youth are gods of the underground. Listen to Daydream Nation and explain why they shouldn't get in. On their influence alone they should get in, and their music is pretty damn good too.