November 7, 1998: CMJ Report #4:
Bad Religion's Greg Graffin Warns Against Death Of Creativity
SonicNet Daily Music News Reports: NEW YORK Greg Graffin of punk stalwarts Bad Religion stood on the stage of the New York City Hudson Theatre delivering a speech Friday that made a correlation between pop star Alanis Morissette and -- get this -- a monkey.
"It's not a random chance that we have Alanis Morissette," singer/guitarist Graffin said. "She didn't evolve out of a null and void. She came from a former template," said Graffin, using the analogy of how animal species evolve. "She borrowed styles and sounds from a very limited set of other artists."
The keynote speaker for the 18th annual CMJ Music Festival, Graffin was drawing a parallel between biological evolution and music evolution, as part of his speech Thursday afternoon before 300 or so college students. Graffin, whose 20-minute speech dealt with the responsibility of the music industry -- which includes labels, radio stations and retail stores -- in advancing the state of music, called the subject of his speech a "very serious" topic.
Certainly no stranger to modern music, Graffin and his pop-punk group Bad Religion joined such contemporary rockers as Rancid, NOFX and such veterans as Mike Watt on this summer's Warped Tour. Bad Religion released their 13th album, No Substance, in April.
Dressed casually in jeans and a corduroy blue sportcoat, Graffin made the point that just as monkeys evolved from other earlier life forms, Canadian pop superstar Morissette's music style evolved from the styles and sounds of past bands.
But with the reference to Morissette, Graffin warned that the music industry was in danger of only producing bland, repetitive bands. And this, stated Graffin, was detrimental to the state of "music evolution."
Graffin warned that, as certain diverse animal species are in danger of becoming extinct, the same can be said for certain unique, original-sounding bands. Uncultivated bands will become extinct, said Graffin, unless labels are willing to sign and support these diverse bands. If this doesn't happen, added Graffin, acts such as Alanis Morissette will continue to spawn future same-sounding bands, and on and on.
Graffin blamed the music labels for pushing "mediocre" groups such as the multi-platinum-selling Matchbox 20, which, according to Graffin, lower the standard of what is considered quality music.
"Lead singers are sounding identical to other singers on other labels," Graffin said, explaining that labels are rushing out carbon-copy bands to compete with one another and ultimately offering listeners limited choices. Claiming that Epic Records pushed Pearl Jam which in effect spawned BMG's Creed, and that Atlantic's signing Little Kim has some correlation to Def Jam's bringing on female rapper Foxy Brown, Graffin demonstrated that there is an over-saturation of the same styles. In addition, Graffin pointed out that producers employ the same styles, perpetuating the similarities between songs and, thus, music as a whole.
"The question in the music industry is the same as the biggest question in modern biology: How do we maintain diversity?" said Graffin. "If the music industry doesn't cultivate a diverse array of artists today, it will extinguish the possibility of a future musical revolution."
Graffin contended that it is possible to predict with some degree of accuracy what the next stage of the music evolution will sound like, based on what kinds of bands are being promoted today. He reiterated that the future was going to look bleak unless things changed now.
"In order to maintain diversity, we need label executives who are willing to stick their necks out and say this is good music, and this is poor quality, this has integrity and this is a blatant rip off, " Graffin said. "Artists need to be told when they sound like someone else, it helps them recognize what is and isn't unique about their performance. In short, it helps them develop....
"Bad Religion took a long time to develop into gold-record-status artists, along the way we learned and applied our knowledge and Atlantic helped us every step of the way, since 1993. And although we are still in a unique situation, I think we proved that real development can occur in the industry without sacrificing our sense of integrity."
At the end of the speech, Graffin took questions from the audience. Luke O'Neil, station manager at WCHC (88.1) of Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass., questioned Graffin's stance that there isn't a need for mass-appealing bands.
"Isn't there a need for the Spice Girls of the world?" O' Neil asked. "Everyone can't be pushing the artistic envelope."
"I wouldn't say there's a need for the Spice Girls," said Griffin, prompting laughter from the audience, "But I'd say there's a place for the Spice Girls. There's certainly a place for them, but you don't promote the Spice Girls at the expense of promoting what I think are good role models for girls. You need to create some kind of equality. You can't take up all the music bins at a CD retail outlet with Spice Girls CDs and leave nothing for the Joan Jett catalogue."
Following Graffin's address, 20-year-old Merin Seifer, who attends Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla, sounded a bit wary of some of Graffin's points.
"I think he was taking away the responsibility that music buyers have for them to find the really good stuff," Seifer said. "Just because every major label is offering stuff, buyers can go find the quality stuff they want to hear, rather than having it handed to them on a plate -- that's the fun part of it, going out and finding the stuff you want."
Still, he added, Graffin's intentions are admirable.
"I think [Graffin] is really intelligent," Seifer added. "He's one of the only people who's dedicated to getting his message across in music, and so I have great respect for that."
While his speech drew some negative response, it drew much warm applause as well, and as groups of college kids filed out of the theater, lively debates and conversations could be heard through the crowd.
It's surely what Graffin had hoped for.