Guitarist Tom Morello has criticised nu-metal bands in an extended comment about the state of the music industry, claiming that a large proportion of modern rock acts are “diluted” and “wannabes”. The Rage Against The Machine musician also claimed that modern rock acts have sold out, pandering to the needs of record executives in seeking out the largest demographic with their music.
Speaking to Gibson, Morello declared that bands are no longer inspired by their love of the underground scene. He said: “Those bands – and you can list them, from Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Rage, Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction, to the Seattle bands – shared one thing: they all had a love of underground music and punk rock.”
“They all loved ‘no sell out’ music. But then, suddenly, they found themselves able to play the same venues that bands like Poison were playing, and to be on MTV between videos of Backstreet Boys and those type [of] artists. It created a sort of ‘arena rock’ personal crisis. It clearly affected them.”
Morello continued: “It’s no accident that Nine Inch Nails albums and Tool albums and Rage Against the Machine albums came out only once every four or five years. There was none of that thing of putting out an album every six months to try to capitalise on momentum, and try and become the biggest band in the world. These bands were all vexed, and afraid of being seen in the same light as the bands they disparaged, or the bands their heroes had disparaged.”
The guitarist went on to claim that successful modern rock bands are often trying to emulate the ethos of the underground scene, but end up diluting their sound to sell millions of records. He said: “Those bands from the first few years of Lollapalooza created an audience, and then they didn’t serve it. Inside every cigar-smoke-filled record-label board room in the country, executives were saying, ‘If only we had a Rage Against the Machine that sang about girls, and would show up for a video shoots.’”
“And those types of bands did show up. And then of course everything got diluted. They had the form but not the content. There were the nu-metal bands, the Pearl Jam wannabe bands – bands that sold millions of records, but who had nothing like the talent of the groups they were trying to emulate.”
Tom Morello UK & Ireland Tour Dates are as follows:
Sun November 13th 2011 - Southampton Guildhall, Southampton
Wed November 2nd 2011 - Rock City, Nottingham
Thu November 3rd 2011 - O2 Academy Leeds, Leeds
Sat November 5th 2011 - O2 Apollo Manchester, Manchester
Mon November 7th 2011 - O2 Academy Birmingham, Birmingham
Tue November 8th 2011 - O2 Academy Newcastle, Newcastle
Wed November 9th 2011 - O2 Academy Brixton, London
Sat November 12th 2011 - O2 Academy Bristol, Bristol
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