OFF: The MTV generation

[Christian Mumford]

The question is: why do people like music? I've been a music fanatic
since 8th grade, getting into bands like Queen, Duran Duran, Genesis,
A-Ha, Phil Collins, Dire Straits and other contemporaries at the time
(mid-80's). I was also a big MTV fanatic and picked up on bands I liked
like Siouxie & The Banshees, Julian Cope, The Stranglers, Sisters Of
Mercy, The Cult, Bryan Ferry, The Cure, Marillion and others in the late
80's, watching SKY Channel, SUPER Channel and MTV Europe on a daily
basis. I had gotten into Hawkwind in my first year of high school as a
Moorcock fanatic, picking up "Chronicle Of The Black Sword" in 1988 on
Flicknife. I soon got "The Xenon Codex" and "British Tribal Music" and
"In Search Of Space" on CD. In the early 90's I started watching 120
Minutes on MTV and picked up on bands like Sun Dial, My Bloody
Valentine, Spiritualized and Ship Of Fools, also reading music papers
like NME and Melody Maker. The whole "grunge" revolution affected me as
well as my friends, everybody owning a copy of Nirvana's "Nevermind"
album at some stage, a big hit to say the least, with everyone being
into Husker Du or The Pixies picking up on Nirvana and such. I saw Pearl
Jam in Oslo in 1992. I got into Monster Magnet in 1991 with "Spine Of
God" and was a big fan of Soundgarden and Mudhoney as well. My first
live show was Lenny Kravitz with Stress in 1989 and my first Hawkwind
show was at the same venue in Oslo, The Alaska, in 1991.  In 1992 I
picked up Faith No More's "Angel Dust" and immediately was hooked. This
was something else. I had already seen their videos on MTV and such from
"The Real Thing" in 1989 and 1990 but this was a big change as Mike
Patton had matured as a vocalist and frontman. I soon got the Chuck
Mosley era discs too like "Introduce Yourself" and "We Care Alot". My
first FNM show was attended in 1993 with my friend Espen. I also saw
Motorhead a bunch of times throughout the 90's, mostly alone, as I never
seemed to convince my friends to like the, except for a show in New
Jersey with a couple of friends from Kubert where I studied art and my
girlfriend, Dorothea. It was a very romantic evening to say the least at
the Stone Pony in NJ. I had seen plenty of bands in Oslo during the
early 90s, bands like Faith No More, Kingmaker, Teenage Fanclub, Kåre &
The Cavemen, O-Men, The God Machine, Seigmen, Bel Canto, Ym: Stammen,
Cranes,  and many others. I saw Marilyn Manson in NJ in 1995 with Daisy
Cutter and Mental Hippie Blood with a bunch of friends from Kubert. I
saw Hawkwind again in New York at The Limelight in 1995 and was
astounded at Ron Bastard as a manic frontman, reminding me of something
like Johnny Rotten fronting The Sex Pistols again. I interviewed Nik
Turner in 1998 in Hamburg with Scott Heller when we went to see him
playing with The Moor and Knut Gerwers. Bands I saw in the latter part
of the 90's in Oslo ranged from Voivod, Fu Manchu, Cathedral, Kula
Shaker, Orange Goblin, Black Sabbath, Legendary Pink Dots and Laibach. I
have to say as an MTV Generation spokesperson that music is alive and
well still in the 21st century! The question remains: why do people like
me and others like myself go to such lengths to see a band live or find
just the right album or live recording? Are we as crazy as we were in
our younger years about music? The answer would be YES.

Chr.