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College Rock: Campus Favorites of the '80s. Andrew Carpenter. Before 'indie' or 'alternative’, College Rock was the most commonly used term for new music running on th ...More. Play all.
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Exploring the foundational "alternative" music of the mid to late '80s, when it was more likely to be called "college rock" or "postmodern." https://ko-fi.co...
College Rock: Campus Favorites of the '80s. Playlist • Andrew Carpenter • 2017. 39K views • 69 tracks • 4+ hours Before 'indie' or 'alternative’, College Rock was the most commonly used...
- Pylon, “Cool”
- R.E.M., “Radio Free Europe”
- The Embarrassment, “Celebrity Art Party”
- Camper Van Beethoven, “Take The Skinheads Bowling”
- Guadalcanal Diary, “Watusi Rodeo”
- The dB’s, “Black and White”
- Let’s Active, “Every Word Means No”
- Love Tractor, “Satan”
- Dumptruck, “Watch Her Fall”
- Big Dipper, “Ron Klaus Wrecked His House”
The seminal Athens band took the clipped, stentorian dance-punk of U.K. groups like Au Pairs and Gang of Four and flipped it into something fresh and wide-open, offering “everything is cool” as a chill salvo for small-town art-school slackers looking for affordable kicks.
Their first single on a tiny local label was speedy and dreamy, driving into a brand new kind of rock & roll mystery. This version has the hyped-up punch they’d vague out marvelously for the recording that appears on their historic 1983 debut, Murmur.
From Wichita, Kansas, the Embarrassment were four guys in glasses with a wry sense of wit and a knack for charging, churning guitar tangle: Who hangs out at a celebrity art party? “Art Carney!” Guess Don Knotts went home early.
Camper Van Beethoven formed at UC Santa Cruz and packed their songs with scenester in-jokes you could sing along with. “Skinheads” was a college-radio smash that even trickled down to cool high-school kids.
A sly, rollicking riff on cultural colonialism wrapped in madcap surf-rock jangle from this great second-generation Athens band. Guadalcanal Diary had a searching earnestness that was admirably endemic to college-y bands.
Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple of the dB’s were Beatles fans from North Carolina who headed up to New York and proved themselves peerless pop masters on songs like this tense, testy banger from their first record.
If college rock had a sonic architect, it was Mitch Easter, who produced R.E.M.’s landmark early records; his own North Carolina band’s debut EP is full of bright, slippery tunes like this one, driven by Mitch’s sharp songs and cheery voice and ace drummer Sara Romweber.
Another weird, cool band from Athens, Love Tractor was founded in 1980, and they’re still going, usually cracking out oddly transporting instrumentals. “Satan,” from 1989’s Themes From Venus, shows they could write killer rock songs too.
Seth Tiven went to Wesleyan, moved to Boston, and threw himself into his own style of post-punk squall. If over-cutesiness could be a college rock Achilles’ heel, that was never Seth’s issue: “Watch Her Fall” is full of likably bracing sad-dude angst.
Members of the Embarrassment teamed up with members of the Volcano Suns to form Big Dipper. Their best moment is a heraldic-sounding anthem about a guy who throws a party that gets out of hand — like an indie-rock version of a wild scene in some goofy Eighties coming-of-age comedy.
Aug 17, 2021 · College rock refers to the non-mainstream rock music that was popular on college radio in the 1980s. College rock encompassed many genres, including punk rock, post-punk, new wave, synth-pop, and jangle pop. While college rockers were once considered edgy, their music gradually became mainstream.
Sep 17, 2018 · College rock in the 90s was comprised of solid, predominantly American rootsy rock – here are 10 of the best albums the genre produced
