I can't remember if I've mentioned this before or not, but one of my favorite things about music is that there is always something new to learn. The percentage of stuff I know about music is miniscule compared to how much I don't know. Nonetheless, I try to learn about different styles and decades and learning about one band often leads to learning about another band so progress is always being made.
However, I have one gap in my musical knowledge that I can't seem to repair. The mid-nineties are a complete and total blur for me and I am starting to suspect that Third Eye Blind, Matchbox 20, the New Radicals, and Marcy Playground are all the same band. I absolutely cannot tell them apart no matter what.
This happened because there was a brief period in the nineties when I did not work in a record store or have cable and that really affected my ability to follow new music. I mean, I could have followed new music if I had wanted to, but I didn't want to listen to the radio. The mid-nineties was the time when my local radio stations started turning against me and I had no use for them.
Radio was on the decline (in my opinion) and that bummed me out because when I first got into music in a big way, radio was excellent. I had always dug music growing up but when I got my very first boom box I was no longer limited to the record collection of my parents. I could sit in my room all day and listen to Top 40, which is exactly what I did.
When I got my first boom box in late 1985 the Twin Cities had two Top 40 radio stations. One was the greatest station in the world because it played Top 40 but had a strong emphasis on R&B and local music as well. You could hear the latest hit from Bruce Hornsby and the Range followed up by local favorites The Wallets, and then maybe some Cameo. Yes, it was Word Up! but it was also in heavy rotation on the R&B station so that still counts as my R&B example.
In fact, thanks to a local music video program and my Top 40 station I got into the local R&B station in a big way too. That was my weekend station because after a week of Top 40 I was ready for a slightly different playlist. Now, the other Top 40 station in town sucked total monkey. They played Top 40 and their other emphasis was on dance music. They played things like dance remixes and I didn't care for that at all.
Of course, the only Top 40 station that survived is the one I didn't like. That's okay, I had given up on the Top 40 and switched to the rock station before my Top 40 station folded. I was still sad when it did fold though. It was a good emergency backup when the rock station got stupid. Eventually, the rock station got all stupid and I had to change the dial. That would have been sometime in the early nineties, maybe 1992.
That was when I pretty much switched exclusively to records and talk radio, but at the end of 1993 I got my first record store job. Finally! Back in those days qualified music fans were so abundant and so willing to work for low pay that it took me almost a full year to get hired at my local music emporium. Working there full time I stayed up on all of the current releases and learned more about existing music.
Even though I didn't have cable anymore, I knew all of the new music. Then in 1995 I left the record store and was left with no source for new music. I got cable again in 1996 but that was when VH1 was having a big Beach Boys phase and those specials were so much fun to watch I never needed to change the channel. That was right before Behind The Music started and VH1 was still very much a channel that sort of threw on whatever they could find.
That was also before their never-ending parade of Top 100 Bungholios Of Something lists and it was excellent television. I never needed to check the MTV for anything. I don't think I even watched MTV for about six months, which is how I missed two years of popular music. I cannot tell the difference between Third Eye Blind, Matchbox 20, the New Radicals, and Marcy Playground.
I know that the New Radicals was actually just one guy who put out a record under a band name and had one hit and that was that. If memory serves, it was a fluke for him and he's still a studio based guy. I know that Marcy Playground wants Sex and Candy but I never have seen the whole video and can't sit through the entire song.
Third Eye Blind and Matchbox 20 are stickier situations. I couldn't identify Rob Thomas until he recorded that song with Carlos Santana. When that came out I was in a TRL phase (yeah, I know. I'll tell that story another day) and I had to be told, "That's the guy from Matchbox 20," multiple times before it stuck. Third Eye Blind, I've got nothing. I know what their album covers look like (thanks record store!) but I can't name one single song. I know this because every so often, on a jukebox or in a store or whatever, a song will start up and LCG will say, "Remember when this song was new?"
Me: What?
LCG: This song was everywhere.
Me: I've never heard this song in my life.
LCG: Of course you have!
Me: I think you are making it up. This was never a hit.
Then a guessing game begins that never ends. He will give me hint after hint and the game will go nowhere. He thinks that telling me that the band name starts with a T will help. Never helps. I guess every band in the T section until I finally cave.
Me: Just tell me!
LCG: Come on!
Me: Wait a minute. Is this song from the mid-nineties?
LCG: Yep.
Me: That's why I've never heard it! Wait. That means it's Third Eye Blind, right?
LCG: We have a winner!
Me: Yeah, eight hours later. Next time just tell me!
Of course he never does, and of course I never guess the band correctly. That's okay, I'd rather have an overly long game of twenty questions than have to listen to Matchbox 20. Or Third Eye Blind. Or Marcy Playground. Or the New Radicals. Although if I hear one I suppose I will hear them all. I mean, they are all the same band, right?