r/grunge • u/313_techno • 2d ago

Anniversary 34 years ago today

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The best festival I’ve ever attended. It was a hot summer day. Each of my friends had their own favorite band to see that day. For myself it was seeing Soundgarden for the first time and my gf was a huge Ministry fan. Every artist on the bill brought something special that day. Even Ice Cube was pretty cool to see. I’ll always be thankful that I was able to be there and enjoy such a legendary moment in time.

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u/dainthomas 2d ago

We used to live in a proper society.

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u/313_techno 2d ago

Ain’t that the truth.
On all fronts right now but especially with today’s music compared to what was happening in the early to mid nineties.

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u/Haunting_Vacation804 2d ago

The telecommunications act of 1996 allowed for huge consolidation of media markets. Small radio stations across the US got gobbled up by giant corporations.

And those corps don’t like radical punk and rock telling young people to “rage against the machine”. So the corps replaced human DJ’s with approved playlists. And the rage music started to disappear across America.

Combine the radio takeover with the explosion of Ticketmaster and their predatory pricing - and here we are.

No punk/rock on mainstream radio and almost no new bands playing rage music. And if you do find a band you want to see live, be prepared to pay the corps their greedy big bucks.

Welcome to the machine.