When Did College Rock Begin?

The breakup of REM got me thinking once again about the moment in history when punk new wavers decided to do away with affected singing & the more theatrical elements, stop singing about anarchy and bondage, musically loosen up, and get down to earth and personal - the "college rock" of the '80s that arguably was more influential than the earlier, more heralded punk uprising due to it's '90s explosion into the mainstream.

But what's the record that historians will point to as the first? The "Rock Around The Clock"/"Birth Of The Cool"/"The Ramones"/"Rapper's Delight" of the alternative nation. Or even which artist was first? It's hard to say what's the first funk record (tho "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" is often cited) but nearly everyone agrees it's James Brown and/or Sly Stone. Can we even point to one band? Here's a few nominations:

- REM
- Violent Femmes
- when the SST roster started moving past hardcore
- Nick Cave trading in his Birthday Party for some Bad Seeds
- The Smiths

This might get complicated: some bands born of the '77 explosion moved seamlessly into college alt land, e.g. the Cure, New Order, but their synths/hairdos/makeup still carried the mark of the New Wave.

Or should we just say The Velvet Underground and call it a day?

"Academy Fight Song" - Mission of Burma

Ha! I know: it was when Milo left.

I'd trace the strongest beginnings and upswelling to a stretch between 83-84:

Murmur/Mummer (1983) Let It Be/The Smiths (1984)

Depends which college, I suppose. Some towns are hipper than others.

I remember hearing the Murmur version of "Radio Free Europe" on KRCC when it was new. I don't remember hearing anything from Chronic Town, but I know for sure it's in the vinyl archives at that station. (Can't say about the original Hibtone single; I kinda doubt it.)

But I also remember hearing "Radio Free Europe" as a new song on our local AOR station, KILO. The music director at that time, Art Phillips, was a true music lover, and a pretty adventurous listener. He did his best to fit the newer sounds of rock in between Pink Floyd and AC/DC wherever he could. I heard the Violent Femmes on KILO too.

But I first learned about R.E.M., the Femmes, The Cure and plenty of other so-called "college rock" artists from TP – including the flexi-disc of "Wolves, Lower." (Mission of Burma, on the other hand, I read about in the "Up & Coming" section of Rolling Stone.)

I was eleven in 1984, and have always felt that was the year when pop music really exploded in my lifetime.

At least that's how it seemed in a small East Coast city in Canada.


I guess that was the year that you could see things had changed. It all reached a saturation point. Music videos, Thriller, Purple Rain, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, video games, Ghostbusters, Back To The Future, "AMERICAN TOP 40 WITH CASEY CASEM..."

Before 1984 there just wasn't the culture of routine blockbuster success that would have pop music was woven into every bit of it. Hell, a few years before that we got less than a half-dozen TV channels

There were a lot of New Wave one-hit wonders in the early '80s, but '84 seemed to be the point at which nothing seemed unusual or novel about punkish cartoons like Lauper, Boy George, or even Talking Heads being big stars (even if it had been gradually building for years.)

My guess is, this is what created "college rock." If the mainstream had fully absorbed the most "acceptable" aspects of punk and new wave, at the same time that the mainstream was becoming more powerful and all-pervasive, then the underground was going to splinter into harsher out-of-limits sound (hardcore) and artier permutations of pop/rock.

The stuff that was just under the radar- accessible, but hadn't been echoed in the top 40 -yet- is what got called college rock. And then a wide subculture grew around it, aided by late-night non-commercial radio (college or gov't- BBC, CBC,) SPIN magazine, weekly alternative hours on music video channels, imported NMEs.

I'm not saying it was reactionary but I think the development of an accessible, non-commercial music culture ("college rock') had more to do with the mainstream than any significant, internal developments, bands.

It was more of an epochal thing.

re:mJohnson's thang

I think it was a societal acceptance. In the 70s, rock was still verboten in much of the bible belt (vinyl burnings etc.), mostly not booked on talk shows, still had an outlaw vibe (ha, try explaining that era to kid today - it's acceptability is the sole reason rap took off in the suburbs). Perhaps 84 was the watershed year for a generation that came into control.

Kind of like it is right now for gay culture and marijuana.

"I'm not saying it was reactionary but I think the development of an accessible, non-commercial music culture ("college rock') had more to do with the mainstream than any significant, internal developments, bands."
+Like

No, I don't recall hearing the term 'college rock' at the time, tho the CMJ (College Radio Journal) started around this time and became a kind of alt-Billboard chart. 'underground' or 'alternative' were the terms used by the (still) great LA college station KXLU, who I started listening to in '83. They still had some old-timers on staff who threw in the occasional Gabriel-era Genesis or Zappa, but it was clear that the hippie-era campus stations were changing rapidly.

Mid-'82 is pushing it back, but '82 is the year "Chronic Town" came out, so REM are still in the discussion. Tho I just remembered something: the definitive history of this period, the book "Our Band Could Be Your Life," starts with the founding of SST records. So that's one historian's opinion. Tho it could be argued that SST's breakout year wasn't 'til '84, with the release of Meat Puppets "II", "Double Nickels," "Zen Arcade."



Post Edited (09-23-11 17:37)

College Rock started when some cool kid on the student council convinced the rest they could book a band in the ballroom/auditorium in the 60s. Many bands first toured in colleges in the 60s. There were campus-package-tours of teen idols/crooners/doo-wop in the late 50s. In many US towns, you have thousands of college kids but the only venues in the region are on-campus (and there are usually several room sizes).

That's where the music-buying public IS, so managers always knew about the college circuit and had knowledge of which ones were receptive.

But, yeah, "College rock" as a phenomena/genre.
Though the momentum was there, I'll give the era-terminology to REM. The "College rock chart" was directly influenced by the arrival of REM because they were clearly a campus phenomena, sold steady LPs, yet early-REM did not appear on the mainstream charts or MTV.

It wasn't consistent everywhere because to book a campus there has to be a receptive student body, a backer (student council, off-campus promoter, etc.), copacetic building managers, nice campus security and positive campus P-T-B.

Spinal Tap: "The Boston gig has been cancelled. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town."

edit:dang my grammar and typing are atrocous today



Post Edited (09-23-11 18:57)

I can't speak for any other city besides St. Louis (and probably shouldn't presume to speak for it, as far as that goes), but pre-1979 or so, most college radio stations in the market programmed mainly classical music or jazz, with the University of Missouri-St. Louis station (KWMU) also mixing in early NPR programming, like Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Prairie Home Companion.

Then around 79/80, KWMU and the Lindenwood University station, KCLC, starting broadcasting new wave programs one night a week - Pipeline on KWMU and Nightwave on KCLC. Washington University's station apparently was (and still is) a more free-form station along the lines WFMU and was heavily into punk and new wave, but since it has the broadcasting power of setting a turntable next to a cheerleader's megaphone, impact outside its actual campus was pretty nil. As far as I know, the first station in the Lou to go all new wave all the time was KCFV, which was a station from a little community college that had a broadcast radius of about five miles in any direction, but it was always a source of excitement when driving to St. Louis from the Illinois hinterland and trying to tune in 89.5 and beginning to hear snatches of a Stranglers song finally cut through the static.

All those outlets were pretty content to use the New Wave classification until the stereotypes surrounding that started to coalesce in the wider culture - synthesizers, Devo hats, the Dale Bozzio-inspired fashion sense, Square Pegs, etc. - right around mid-82 or so. The wave of guitar bands that first emerged nationally (or internationally) mid-82 had no desire to be labeled New Wave at that point - or more to the point, their fans had no wish to call them that. REM, Big Country, Translator, Wire Train, the Church, the Dream Syndicate, Romeo Void, etc. - all benefitted from the college radio infrastructure that had sprung up around new wave and for the most part retained the same fan base, but it never felt quite right to call them "new wave", even though they'd all emerged from it.

So I would set the summer of 1982 as roughly the time frame when new wave began giving way to college rock. The year began sounding like the Human League and ended sounding like The Dream Syndicate.

I personally don't remember anyone ever really calling it "college rock" at the time, though. I guess it probably was referred to by that term, but I honestly don't remember hearing the term all that much. I have no clue what I did call it, if someone in 1984 asked me what kind of music I listened to. I probably just said "Oh, bands like REM." I really don't recall anyone ever declaring that they listened to "College Rock."

Considering Lou Reed's literary connections/interests (Delmore, etc.) you probably could just say VU and call it a day. ("Modern" era: REM).

I have no idea why I kept pluralizing "phenomenon". Maybe I was going somewhere with it.
---
When asked, I used this terminology:
late 70s: Art Rock/punk
80-83: Underground/Punk
84-91: College Rock (indirectly influenced by REM)/maybe "Alternative" a few times
92+ : Indie (directly influenced by the co-opting post-Nirvana)

For awhile (mid/late 90s) I said "Sonic-Ethereal". Just for the reactions which were of three types.
Nod-and-a-wink.
Confusion.
Look of snide refusal stemming from the thought that I was trying to pull the cowpie over ones eyes in a game of, had it been authentic, rudely blatant superiority.

A couple months ago I met with a girl who was interested in playing music together. When asked what style I prefer I said "Indie and Punk".
Her, "I didn't know they had their own style!"
Me, "Who?
Her, "The Indians"

Now I try to say "Punk and Indie" or just "indie".

Reminds me of the common accent of the western US waiter who says , "It comes with soup or salad" which to me always sound like (because it is) "SUPER SALAD!". So I like to say "wow, totally psyched for the Super Salad!". After all, just imagine.

QUOTE:
"it could be argued that SST's breakout year wasn't 'til '84, with the release of Meat Puppets "II", "Double Nickels," "Zen Arcade."

Agreed. I owned a couple of the 7-inchers and Damaged but paid little attention to the label itself until the arrival of those titles.



Post Edited (10-07-11 20:47)

That's a great anecdote about "Indian punk," Pagan.

When my brother and I got into the newer music at the end of the '70s, we had no qualms about calling it New Wave. We associated the term with music we thought was cool; we didn't think twice about using it, no matter who we were talking to. Of course, some people would sneer or jeer at the mention of it, but we didn't care; we just assumed they were out of it.

I continued to use that term through, oh, at least 1984. Black Flag, the Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, the Pistols, the DKs, et cetera all were punk. Everything that wasn't to that level of speed and fury was New Wave — including R.E.M., the Violent Femmes, Mission of Burma, The Cure and all those other bands mentioned above. I don't recall ever being embarrassed by the term ... mainly because anyone who did seemed out of it to me.

That was especially true when the local rock clubs would book bands like Translator, Modern English, The Members, Berlin, The Payola$ ... and the crowd that was used to frequenting those clubs came just to jeer, and maybe to start a fight or two. (Fuckin' Journey 'n Judas Priest fans; what do they know.)

But I don't remember ever using the term "college rock," at least not while I was in college. Even DJ'ing at a college radio station, I still never refer to college rock.

we had a great college rock (Florida Institute of Tech) station, WFIT. thats why it was 'college rock. '
but they played 'underground' music, long before REM or the REPLACEMENTS were around. and that format lasted until the mid 90's(when people could have called it indie, i guess) then it went jazz.

cool Aside; a few hours earlier tonight, two college kids visiting from Saugerties,N.Y. (they clarified, 'its about 60 miles south of Albany') came up to the desk where i work (a hotel, er 'college' dorm). they were here visiting their friend that is a student here. Nice huh? so i asked them about the rock scene up there, they said they love it, rap sucks and they play guitar because being in a band is 'fun'

for the first time in a long time, i thought to myself, rock isn't dead. no wait, what am i saying! i was thinking the very same thing last night , about this time, it was when i saw 'the sheep dogs' on PROJECT RUNWAY...

p.s.-THAT was for erik.
and i'm considering moving.



Post Edited (09-23-11 23:53)

Tough to follow STEVE on this, but here I go...

I believe College Rock existed for 6-10 years. Let's go with 10...that would kick things off in 1983 or so. Say it's 6 years...things still kick off around 1983, don't they?



Post Edited (09-24-11 00:15)

The first time I heard the term was when The Hoodoo Gurus were starting to make incursions in the US. I seem to recall they did a tour with The Bangles.
Geez, Wire Train! There's someone I'd totally forgotten about. Thanks breno.

I'm a latecomer, I know. College rock began when people started going to college.

Quote

College rock began when people started going to college.

Yeah the ancient greeks could really rock the party.

college rock began with otis day n the knights