I was listening to “Just a Phase” earlier this evening, scream-singing it while parked in front of a misty nightfall, bobbing enough to rock the car.
One of my cousin’s introduced me to them when I first moved to California in 2002. I traded a young, folksy palette for the west coast’s moody alt and indie rocker boy bands. She played the song “Aqueous Transmission” before bed at every slumber party. Years later I found out the song actually had lyrics…I always fell asleep before them.
The first song released from Incubus’ album Morning View was “Wish You Were Here” on August 21, 2001. They had originally planned to shoot a music video that featured lots of screaming people leaping off a bridge into water in a chaotic panic as an homage to the film “Head” featuring the band The Monkees. Considering MTV was the gatekeeper for all things music video, they deemed it inappropriate considering the events of 9/11. The band shot a new video and the song topped the charts for a while. “Wish You Were Here” helped me greive my father’s loss, helped me hold him in a joyous light.
In my teen years, it was bands like this, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead etc. that validated my rage deep inside and the ecstasy I longed for. In 2004 I finally got to see Incubus play live in Sacramento—my first big kid concert with no adult supervision. I screamed every lyric, watched the mosh pit splash like a meteor landing in a lake, and swooned at Brandon Boyd’s passionate emoting. I was free and positively unconcerned with the world.
Most of the bands in this genre were led by, or fully fronted, by white men, so how was it, looking back, that they were able to relate to a young Afghan girl? Is my nostalgia ~problematic~ because their music heavily inspired me? What would a Gen Z say/think/tweet at me? For the last four years studying youth culture so deeply (/creepily), I have feared the fate of my teen self in today’s world.
It’s really a tragic thing we live in a world that young people don’t feel safe in for so many reasons. Or that our inner youth are still cycling in the wounds of personal and societal chaos. I haven’t listened to a lot of popular music in a while, but over the past couple years, I really have hoped that moody bands start making a strong come back. Not quite the energy of “push me to the edge all my friends are dead” or songs about anxiety, but music that is based in inquiry. Inquiry on the pains, tragedies, ecstasies, comedies of the human condition. That’s a wish I’d like to cast into the collective.
Unless I’m missing something, in which case, I’d love new suggestions.
In the meantime, I stay buried in the past as an uncanny guide for the present.