lördag 30 Jun 2007, 12:22
The careers of Sonic Youth, the Pixies, Nirvana and Pavement span the most interesting and influential years of American alternative rock, from the late 1980s through to the end of the 1990s.
Each band is acclaimed critically, while Nirvana's mainstream success and record sales are off the chart compared to Sonic Youth, the Pixies and Pavement.
However, charting the relative success of the four groups in America and the United Kingdom reveals some intriguing facts.
The Pixies, regarded generally as one of the most influential of all rock bands, never sold a lot of records in their home country. However, they were much more successful in Europe, and in the UK particularly. Doolittle, the Pixies' second album, released in 1989, broke the top 10 in Britain, reaching number eight, while barely breaking into the top 100 in the US, only reaching number 98. Bossanova achieved the number three spot in the UK, number 70 in the US, while the Pixies' final album, Trompe le Monde, reached number 7 in the UK but only number 92 in the States.
Every Sonic Youth record has achieved considerably more success in the United Kingdom than in the USA. Goo, released in 1990, reached number 32 in Britain but only 96 in the USA. The most spectacular example is the 1992 release Dirty, which ascended to number 6 in the UK while only reaching 83 in America. Only Washing Machine, released in 1995, performed similarly in the two countries, reaching 58 in the US and 39 in the UK.
Pavement's debut, Slanted and Enchanted, failed to chart in the US but across the pond achieved some moderate success by breaking into the charts and reaching number 72. With their second album, Pavement, in many ways the epitome of indie rock, really took off in the UK. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain failed to break the US top 100 but reached number 15 in the UK, a staggering performance for a group on a small label with little if any promotion. We see similar relative performances with Wowee Zowee, Brighten the Corners and Pavement's final record, Terror Twilight. All three charted impressively in the UK.
The relative performance of Nirvana in the United States and the United Kingdom is a little more difficult to interpret due to their sudden and explosive commercial success and their significant cultural resonance. However, there are some revealing facts.
Nirvana hit the mainstream music scene like a lightning bolt from a clear blue sky with Nevermind in 1991. However, while the album sold in huge numbers all around the world (in excess of 26 million so far) it actually failed to reach the number one spot in the UK, peaking at a rather anomalous number seven. In the US the album steamrollered the charts, achieving the top spot. Nevermind reached number two or three across most of Europe.
On the back of this success, and with Kurt Cobain achieving icon status (even before his death) the follow-up In Utero also shifted millions of units across the world. In between Nevermind and In Utero, Nirvana's forgotten first album, Bleach, rode the Nevermind wave and sold fairly well in 1992, three years after its initial release.
Now interestingly, whereas the admittedly extremely successful, and significantly more commercial, Nevermind only reached number seven in Britain, the much more abrasive and challenging In Utero went to number one. Bleach achieved measurable success in Europe and reached number 33 in the UK, whereas in the US, even with Nirvana the 900 pound gorilla in the musical jungle, Bleach barely made the top 100.
Note that the performance of Bleach in 1992 mirrors that of records by Sonic Youth, the Pixies and Pavement, before and after the Nirvana phenomenon. There is also a similar element with In Utero, although, as I said, Nirvana's incredible penetration of popular culture via the success of Nevermind makes this difficult to interpret with any accuracy.
What conclusions can we draw from all this? For me, this supports my previously-held intuition that listeners in the United Kingdom were probably more attuned to the 1990s US alternative rock phenomenon than listeners in the US, where it was actually happening. It also suggests that listeners in the UK were more attuned to the more alternative sound and the artists and releases which would, at least to the present day, gain and retain canonical long-term respect and come to be regarded as among the most influential rock music of the era.
Americans created the greatest, most original and influential rock music of the era. And the Brits knew it.