Which band epitomizes the teenage experience?

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Answer: the Violent Femmes.

― na (Nick A.), Thursday, 12 August 2004 14:51 (twenty-one years ago)

The first incarnation of the Modern Lovers.

― Huck, Thursday, 12 August 2004 14:55 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost: Correct.
If depressed, then The Smiths.
(Modern Lovers is like 18-22)

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 12 August 2004 14:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Tonight I'm all alone in my room
I'll go insane if you won't sleep with me
I'll still be with you
I'm gonna meet you on the astral plane
The astral plane for dark at night
The astral plane or I'll go insane

I go to bakeries all day long
There's a lack of sweetness in my life
And there is pain inside
You can see it in my eyes
Oh there is pain inside
You can see it in my eyes
Makes me think about me
That I've lost my pride
But I'm in love with this power that resides in your eyes

― Huck, Thursday, 12 August 2004 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

the violent femmes are a good answer for teenaged boys--what about girls?

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Huck, you must have been pretty emo. My teenage experience was more like, "Why can't I get just one kiss?" et al.

― na (Nick A.), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:01 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost, "Astral Plane" is about jerking off.

Teenage girls like shitty music.

― Huck, Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

they don't have to like it, it just has to epitomize their experience

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw this thread title and immediately thought, "Violent Femmes." That first album is singularly adolescent.

Modern Lovers are almost too sophistocated to be the right answer to this question.

― Harold Media (kenan), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I was listening to something from the first VF album yesterday and thinking about how perfectly it reflected my attitudes as a teenager, not so much ANGER as much as a sick frustration and heartache glazed with sticky self-deprecation and a morbid sense of humor.

― na (Nick A.), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Hell yes, I was sophisticated as a teenager.

― Huck, Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:05 (twenty-one years ago)

"Blister in the Sun" is about jerking off, too, or at least nocturnal emmissions, right? I think this thread is D.O.A. because Na nailed it totally right off the bat.

― Softly Weeping at the Oki Dog (Ben Boyer), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a feeling once the Brit posters find this thread there will be more disagreement.

― na (Nick A.), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:07 (twenty-one years ago)

GOOD CHARLOTTE

― Red Panda Sanskrit (ex machina), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Broder Daniel

― Avi (Avi), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I would add Beat Happening, but that's more romanticizing teenagedom after the fact (Indian Summer)... The Femmes actually get listened to by teenagers during the process (Blister in the Sun).

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:10 (twenty-one years ago)

So any song about jerking off works for boys.

Ladies?

― Huck, Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:10 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm with the s.d. - modern lovers were my ultimate college thing.

xpost - totally right about beat happening, too.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

"Lack of Sweetness" refers to not living with Mom anymore.

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I love that first Modern Lovers album but can't imagine listening to it in high school. Richman would've been too goofy and sentimental for me.

― na (Nick A.), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Precise Modern Lovers Order was probably the only album I listened over the long winter of my senior year.

― Huck, Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I was wrong in the head.

― Huck, Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

PULP

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

teenagers = virgins obsessed with sex

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:24 (twenty-one years ago)

WTF? modern lovers/smiths/violent femmes arent bad answers, but cmonnnnn

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezer

― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Note: a band that epitomizes the teenage experience !necessarily= a band that teenagers listen to a lot or that you listened to a lot as a teenager. I'm talking about a band that best expresses the teenage experience through their music.

― na (Nick A.), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

smashing pumpkins, especially geek usa which was my favorite song ever when I was sixteen.

― s downes (sdownes), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Then: Bowie
Then: The Cure (runners-up, Smiths - too heady)
Now: Dunno. Ask a teenager.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:03 (twenty-one years ago)

ABBA and Queen, because I wanted to break free.

― Slim Pickens (Slim Pickens), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Ash. Cos they'll forever remind me of being 14.

― jellybean (jellybean), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:05 (twenty-one years ago)

oh man, come on - weezer is a shoo-in for this category. the world has turned and left me here, only in dreams, buddy holly, the sweater song, ALL OF PINKERTON... these are perfect articulations of the romantic idealism, excitement, melodrama, and embarrassment that seem to typify the teenage years.

― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:07 (twenty-one years ago)

BLACK FLAG.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

For me (the type of person that would end up working at a video game magazine, I guess)...the answer to this question is Rush.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

There is no Teenage Experience?

― the teenfox, Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

undertones

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Hilarious Duff!

― Huck, Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

these are perfect articulations of the romantic idealism, excitement, melodrama, and embarrassment that seem to typify the teenage years.

same as with beat happening, weezer are more teenagedom after the fact.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

undertones is a pretty good answer... yknow, that s/t album might be the least pretentious album ive ever heard. not that pretense doesnt typify teenage stuff, just thinking about that album

― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

lauren, how old were you when the first weezer album came out?

― Red Panda Sanskrit (ex machina), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Huck's on the right track. Kelly Clarkson, JoJo, etc.!

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah - i guess this question leads me to be really really subjective. i got that first weezer album in 7th grade for christmas, which was fairly soon after it came out in '94. i think i was born in the perfect time to latch on.

also that year, dookie... i mean, THATS a pretty teenage-y album, too.

― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

isn't that more pre-teen/social conditioning shit?
check it:
Pink Floyd the Wall

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

um... probaby 18. obviously i see what you're getting at, but i still think there's a sense of immediacy missing from weezer.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.new-video.de/co/haroldma.m.jpg

― Red Panda Sanskrit (ex machina), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

do you believe what i sing now?
do you believe what i sing now?
do you belieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeve?

(ok, i truly am embarrassing myself now.)

― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

that's me and peter smith, i guess.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Emo's a helluva drug.

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Pinkerton epitomizes the 18/19-year-old college-freshman (esp. at major private institution) experience, which is a whole different thing from the "teenage" experience. Which might suggest that the first album was teenage, but I just never got quite the same sense of age-specificity off of it.

I, too, saw this thread and thought immediately of that first Violent Femmes, which remains the most explicitly (and convincingly) teenagey album I know. I keep trying to think of any actual teen-pop that succeeds in that way, but of course it's not happening: so much of it involves very constructed adults-too stage-versions of teenagerdom. Avril is as good as it gets: surely nobody over the age of 18 could ever have written the lyrics to "Sk8er Boi."

― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

nabisco = OFF THE MARK

― Red Panda Sanskrit (ex machina), Thursday, 12 August 2004 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

i think he's ON THE MARK.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 12 August 2004 17:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 39 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

what about girls?

Tori Amos or Alanis Morisette.

― j.lu (j.lu), Thursday, 12 August 2004 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait a minute - NO ONE has mentioned The Replacements yet? Yeah, I know "Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash" is not very teenage...

― Bimble (bimble), Thursday, 12 August 2004 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Korn, mostly because I can't imagine someone over the age of 19 listening to them.

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 12 August 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

tom i'd agree.

The Undertones!

― Andrzej B. (Andrzej B.), Thursday, 12 August 2004 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

http://media.fi.jippii.com/mesta/musakuvat/limp%20durst%2003.jpg

― Joseph Pot (STINKOR™), Thursday, 12 August 2004 22:09 (twenty-one years ago)

dude Fred Durst has issues far beyond that of the normal teenager

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 12 August 2004 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Descendents.

― Akiva, Thursday, 12 August 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

dude Fred Durst has issues far beyond that of the normal teenager

-- CeCe Peniston (anthonymicci...), August 12th, 2004.

like, lawyers and stuff?

― chris andrews (fraew), Thursday, 12 August 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I forgot JILTED JOHN! The particular beauty of Jilted John is that he speaks for the whole teenage experience, not just the glamorous 16-19 portion of it. The one song about breeding mice might even dip down as far as 10 or 11.

― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 12 August 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

As far as the dispirited and angry teen convinced it's SOCIETIES fault and not their own, the Manics have a neat line in artless polemic.

― matthew james (matthew james), Thursday, 12 August 2004 22:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Late teens = Ween. And thank christ for that.

― piers (piers), Thursday, 12 August 2004 23:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Incoming: boring answer

Smashing Pumpkins.

― Simon H., Friday, 13 August 2004 01:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Early Beach boys
Cheaptrick
Lot's of Brill building artists
The shangri-las and lot's of other 50s and 60s girls groups
Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers
Adam Ant
Blondie
Bon Scott era AC/DC
So solid crew
Hanson
Silverchair
The Buzzcocks
Nirvana
Orange juice
X-ray specs
and an honouree mention for the great Daphne and Celeste!

― A pair of brown eyes, Friday, 13 August 2004 01:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Uh.....no. Replacements and Husker Du--and no, I'm not from Mpls.

― John 2, Friday, 13 August 2004 01:56 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolio3/m/multiteed/Depeche_Mode-997487423t.jpg

― frankE (frankE), Friday, 13 August 2004 02:04 (twenty-one years ago)

i can't believe nobody has said the who yet (at least up to who's next) or the clash. i can't even conceive of listening to those records now without the spectre of adolescence returning.

― drew, Friday, 13 August 2004 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

also, metallica.

― drew, Friday, 13 August 2004 02:10 (twenty-one years ago)

What about NIN? Loads of angsty "I loved you but now I hate you aargh kill me now thrash thrash waaaahhh" stuff, esp on their earlier albums. Also, drugs, and antiestablishment topics. TOTALLY teenage.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 13 August 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

If I seem a little jittery I can't restrain myself

Everyone who said Buzzcocks, OTM. Singles Going Steady is pretty much a song cycle for adolescence and they do really well at capturing both the pointlessness ("I don't mind") and the epic feel ("Ever Fallen In Love...?") of being a teenager.

"What do I get? - no sleep at night
What do I get? - nothing is nice
What do I get? - nothing at all at all
Because I don't get...youuuuu"

That and the point in the beginning of "Ever Fallen..." when the drums break up and the lead guitar makes the song a classic just six seconds into the track are basically Roy Orbison for punk, operatic melodrama and all

― Slim Pickens (Slim Pickens), Friday, 13 August 2004 02:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Alice Cooper reeks so very much of teenism.

― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 13 August 2004 02:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah Alice Cooper for sure. Ramones too I spose. And I second Buzzcocks and Femmes (though for the Femmes its really only "Blister in the Sun" innit?)

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 13 August 2004 04:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Nirvana will always represent teenagerdom to me.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 13 August 2004 04:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Ooh also: "Institutionalised" by Suicidal Tendencies. k-classic teen fuck-you song, that.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 13 August 2004 04:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Buzzcocks

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 13 August 2004 07:48 (twenty-one years ago)

My vote is Smashing Pumpkins too. "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" - The perfect soundtrack for angry slamming of doors and cries of "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME OR MY MUSIC!".

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 13 August 2004 07:52 (twenty-one years ago)

another vote for the Smashing Pumpkins.
can any other band personify/vilify the teen angst angle any more than billy c.+co.??!

pseudo-outsider that desperately wants in, or not. pretty shimmering gtrs with wailing singer d00d.

'i just want to beeeeeeeeeee me, when i can. i will...'

ifn it ain't SP, then nirvana comes to a close second, at least for people my age. and that's by default. or you could substitute any for pearl jam...

― eedd, Friday, 13 August 2004 08:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Sonic Youth

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 13 August 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

can any other band personify/vilify the teen angst angle any more than billy c.+co.??!

The Descendents.

Hate your parents, hate girls who won't go out with you/sleep with you, hate the poseurs, hate the cool kids, class issues, etc.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 13 August 2004 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I DON'T WANT TO SMELL YOUR MUFF

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 13 August 2004 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

(Although they epitomize the 15-19 part of adolescence a lot more than the earlier part -> they're really two different periods for me. The Rush and Pink Floyd nominations seem to make sense to me for the first part at least for geeky boy teenagers. . . Soundgarden???)

Also, Schoenberg and Berlioz. Maybe Schubert.

double x-post

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 13 August 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

The question does seem to me to become more interesting if you look for artists that do this who are or were not typically listened to by teenagers.

Maybe So (the band). Fragile with an eye for beauty but breaking into bitchy noise, mope, and whine. Trying to navigate between the conventional and the experimental.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 13 August 2004 20:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I think this thread is divided into MM readers and NME readers. Oh, and some American things I don't understand. I'm trying to delineate the different forms of teenage angst. "I hate my parents" and all that stuff vs. lonely romanticism. Plus some American dweeb stuff I don't understand.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 13 August 2004 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Basically, it's all very indie, though.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 13 August 2004 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

What do MM and NME represent? And which one = Smashing Pumpkins?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 13 August 2004 21:29 (twenty-one years ago)

NME (for me, in my 88-93 peak reading years) = the more down to earth wit and Englishness of the Smiths and Buzzcocks. Plus Madchester and hip hop.

MM = Smashing Pumpkins, Suede, grunge and shoegazing. Basically more tolerance for the mostly ridiculous.

This is a gross simplification, but that was the way I saw it. I was surprised when I first met all the likeminded people who were pro-MM. Mainly cause of Reynolds and a few others, I guess, who I did like at the time too. I think many of them started reading a bit before me, though. I think it had changed a bit by 'my' era.

By the mid-90s, the down to earthness had started to get very tiring and resulted in things like Cast and Oasis, and I wasn't interested in defending this corner anymore.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 13 August 2004 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean of course in one sense Morrissey isn't down to earth at all. But it's a peculiar reactionary dandyism rather than than a flighty art school pomp.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 13 August 2004 21:41 (twenty-one years ago)

No Trend have a few songs that nail certain teenage experiences.

― Gettin' Punky at Roy Rogers (samjeff), Friday, 20 August 2004 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

For me: Smashing Pumpkins
NIN
Pearl Jam
Primus

― Star Cauliflower (Star Cauliflower), Friday, 20 August 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm surprised no one's mentioned the who. the first 6 or 7 singles sum up "the teenage experience" (whatever that is, i'm not sure i had it myself) better than anything else in rock.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 20 August 2004 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

four months pass...

I claim knowledge on this topic being that I'm 16.
My answer is BEAT HAPPENING.

― W. Earl Piglet, Friday, 31 December 2004 22:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Bill Haley and His Comets - "Rock Around the Clock"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 31 December 2004 22:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm a girl born January 17th 1988, and I would disagree with almost all of these, unfortunately. Especially Tori Amos, who is (along with Northern State and several others) my least favorite musical happening on the planet.

The Throwing Muses debut was an angst album from middle school to the present day, but that's probably a me-thing, rather than an age-thing.

honestly, I uh, like to think my life can't be summed up by Weezer, the Violent Femmes, etc.

― babyalive (babyalive), Saturday, 1 January 2005 12:29 (twenty-one years ago)

OTM

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 1 January 2005 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

no one has yet mentioned Muse!

― The Lex (The Lex), Saturday, 1 January 2005 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

haha I like how teenagers are showing up and saying "WELL I'M A TEENAGER SO I SHOULD KNOW etc etc." (I'm 17 and don't have a clue what the answer is)

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 1 January 2005 21:17 (twenty-one years ago)

but but... I don't think there IS one, y'know?

― babyalive (babyalive), Saturday, 1 January 2005 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think the point of this thread is to find a definitive answer.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 1 January 2005 21:41 (twenty-one years ago)

(It was intended, most likely, to be derailed into a conversation about silverware or Pepsi or something)

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 1 January 2005 21:42 (twenty-one years ago)

No Trend was a good call for this thread! In fact, if we're going to go that route, how about a certain song by Suicidal Tendencies?

― Bimble..., Saturday, 1 January 2005 21:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Weezer, absolutely

― Holly (an appletross), Saturday, 1 January 2005 22:18 (twenty-one years ago)

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