For example, The Velvet Underground.
Thy are as mainstream as the Beatles or Michael Jackson. So I thought. If that banana keeps showing up on t-shirts everywhere, that's the definition of mainstream, right?
Wrong. I casually name dropped them on Reddit one day, and everyone thought I was being this hipster who just likes things because they're obscure.
Meanwhile, that band entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. And they got an Apple TV+ documentary about them. Metallica decided to collaborate with Lou Reed on one of the most infamous albums ever made.
I mention this because I'm like this about a lot of things.
Everyone knows the Sugar Hill Gang, right? And also the Ramones. And Mariya Takeuchi. And Orbital. And Dwight Yoakam. And Weezer. And Wu Tang Clan. And The Strokes.
But no. The world is full of two kinds of people: folks who only live in the mainstream and never leave because they always need to be "current" and "with it"; and folks who are so deeply devoted to their subculture and niche, that everything outside it is somehow wrong. Metalheads, I'm looking at you.
I think we all owe to ourselves to learn the history of music, who made it, why it got made, and how we arrived at *now*.
That means leaving our little bubbles and being a little curious.
This is how I remember the 2000s, and it's strange that this music is mostly forgotten.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiqpkTFjsMQ