Essay: Music of a Sub-Generation (Pluto in Virgo/Neptune in Scorpio)
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| 10,000 Maniacs, Wikipedia |
So remembering my own "dark days" as a professional musician (alternative rock),which I write about in my book Whole Music (Soul Food for the Mind Body Spirit), I spent some time on YouTube revisiting some of my favorite musicians and bands of my early adult years, before I chucked out rock music and started listening only to world, folkloric, jazz and classical, well, predominantly anyway. I would be fooling myself to say that I never hear rock music playing in the background or that I never get a craving to listen to at least some of the music from my past. However, my main concern here is how the music composed by musicians from our own generation (not baby boomers) shaped our world outlet or how we bonded as a generation either in collective woundedness or eventually decided to empower ourselves through music and take up a leadership position to bring transformation to the planet.
Like any of the previous generation, the seduction and intoxication of rock music led to unhealthy behaviors such as drug experimentation and addiction, rave culture, grunge, goth, and other subculture activities. You also find mental illness or at least musicians who were mentally unstable, usually more with women musicians, no surprises there given the confusing messages about womanhood the 1960s children grew up with, not to mention mixed messages about race, sexuality, and religion. Many of the children born at this time were also born to troubled parents given the outer planet transits happening at their birth or they witnessed events in the media such as assassinations, footage from the Vietnam War and other disturbing images that they could not assimilate, as no child ever could and here were these unsafe images right dab in their living rooms.
As these children reached adulthood and even when some were still in high school, the specter of AIDS appeared frightening this generation from behaviors that seemed all but natural to the baby boomers. There would be no rolling in the muddy fields of Woodstock for these folks, at least not without consequences. But that didn't imply that these children carried a burden of guilt from previous generations or that they didn't seek out alternative healing and new age practices to relieve them of this guilt or that they didn't seek some stage to express their creative talents since they would have grown up most likely feeling invisible when Chiron was in Pisces and Neptune was in Scorpio.
So below I'm including a few videos by musicians born 1957 to 1970. Look for common themes or patterns in this music. While some artists chose to write straight pop songs, they hardly seemed as sugar-laden as the pop songs of previous eras and sarcasm was never far behind and some songs cut deep below the surface whether speaking about political, social or relationship situations. Sure, there was the nonsense of the Gogo's "We Got the Beat," the B-52's "Rock Lobster" and whatnot, which I call escapist music (that was needed too to blow off steam). But the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s itself had not disappeared with many alternative acts referring to the issues of their day, either in an abstract way like R.E.M. or more direct such as Natalie Merchant of the 10,000 Maniacs and Billy Bragg.
Much of this music had so much Pluto power behind it (Pluto in Virgo conjunct Uranus in Virgo sextile Neptune in Scorpio in some cases) that it would be hard not to feel seduced and pulled in by the lyrics, melodies or emotions of the vocalists. Even the softer English pop had an uncomfortable edginess as you would find with Lush. So let's revisit the 1980s and 1990s and feel free to leave comments below.
I realize this is not the normal type of post for Whole Music, but since I'm a member of this generation and since I am looking into working part-time as an intuitive life coach for artists, I think we need to take this plunge and do some deeper healing work. These particular songs could bring catharsis to those who need it and I'm not including any harder edge music here since I don't feel like damaging my own nervous system or lowering my frequency.
1. Billy Bragg, born in 1957, Astrological Sign:Sagittarius
Accident Waiting to Happen 1991, (combines sociopolitical messages with relationship issues)
This is a bit of a rock song for Billy, who normally played acoustic folk songs with humorous lyrics. On this song, he's not cutesy in anyway at all and stands in his power. I turned to Billy's music when I found my self drowning in apathy or if I just needed to listen to well-written lyrics that were written by someone closer to my age group.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18bVR0qhOKw
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| Roddy Frame, Wikipedia |
I believe the song, Oblivious comes from early 1980s, sociopolitical comments are embedded in a relationship song.Roddy Frame was the musician who inspired me to get rid of my electric guitar and go acoustic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibKTlG5tbjo
3. R.E.M.
Losing my Religion from the album Out of Time. I prefer the music of R.E.M. before this band went mainstream and the last album I bought buy this band was "Green". The early sound, acoustic and warm-sounding provided an alternative to synthesizer-based dance music of the new wave bands, which many of these bands came from the shadow or late baby boomers, born in the early to mid-1950s. The bands earliest songs possessed a jangly acoustic sound that became popular in Seattle in the early 1980s, later to be replaced by grunge rock (unfortunately).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if-UzXIQ5vw
4. Lush
This song, Sweetness and Light, actually feels uplifting and this is an example of ethereal rock music from the UK.This song came out around the same time as the height of grunge music and it gave music audiences an alternative to hard rock, me among the lighter music crowd. Lush was the alternative to the alternative and released albums on the 4 A.D. label out of the UK. The Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance also recorded albums with this label.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DguzIlTBrTo
5. 10,000 Maniacs
This band out of Upstate New York spearheaded a folk music revival in the US during the early 1980s and launched the solo career of Natalie Merchant (Scorpio, born in the early 1960s). The band crafted wonderful melodies backed by both acoustic and electric instruments with sociopolitical lyrics mainly. Unlike Billy Bragg, the songs of this band did not boast a sense of humor and while the melodies were beautiful and delivered with well-modulated alto vocals, the lyrics were often real downers with a focus on what was going wrong in the world.
Verdi Cries, from the album In My Tribe (Neptune in Scorpio theme)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ribWEQqnwzI
I feel uncomfortable leaving you with songs with sociopolitical messages or edginess in some cases so I'm going to close this article with a few healing songs to lift your vibration. While it is fine to wax nostalgia ever so often, I think we also need to get ourselves back into our heart centers which can be done through meditation, yoga, chanting, and sound healing. I also recommend listening to classical music to bring yourself back to center, but stay away from the edgier classical music compositions that feel discordant.
1. Deva Premal and Mitten (Kirtan Yemaya)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlvF0qXttqA
2. Gregorian Chant (Benedictine Monks of St. Michel's)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXByMD4XWso
3. Mozart's Clarinet Concerto (performed by Sharon Kam (soloist and Czech Symphony Orchestra)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QAAZ29cvfU
4. Bach's Goldberg Variations (performed by Glenn Gould)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2YMSt3yfko
5. Astrud Gilberto's Greatest Hits (Brazilian samba and bossa nova)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_X16QwASe8
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