Music Minute: The Rise of College Radio

I missed a deadline for this column yesterday, y'all, and I'm sorry. :)

What we've been doing in this column for the past few months is tracing the roots of pop music through all kinds of channels—soul, R&B, black gospel, early rock n' roll, Elvis, Bob Dylan. Music from the late 1960s and early 1970s was generally overproduced and overly commercial. And at the end of the 1970s, the music industry changed. Grungy, messy, angry, and shocking, punk music was the exact opposite of sugary, overdone 70s pop.

Punk was very popular but never really took off in a mainstream way. New bands always kind put their own take on what's happening in music around them, and in the early 1980s, college radio was born.

College radio was independent (read: not major-label) music played primarily on college radio stations. It was music that was purposely out of the mainstream and owes a debt to punk without really sounding like it, and was made up of all kinds of cult and mainstream acts. (I once had an album by a band called Dread Zeppelin, which did only reggae covers of Led Zeppelin songs and wore Elvis costumes. Yes, I was weird.) This kind of music was spread around by word of mouth, small independent music clubs, mix tapes, and (of course) college radio stations. Most people agree that at the very least, it's guitar music, and alternative music often has some kind of message.

Today, we'd call college radio "alternative" music. The White Stripes, The Killers, Switchfoot, MXPX, Thousand Foot Krutch, Relient K, Skillet and countless other mainstream and Christian bands have college radio to thank for their success. And the Britpop, ska, power pop, and grunge sounds from the 90s all have their roots in college radio.

The two biggest bands you'd have heard of from the 80s college radio scene are The Cure and R.E.M. The Cure was an English rock band with big, messy hair, towering guitars and synthesizers, and a style that ranged from gloomy and weird to upbeat, happy and fun. At some point in your life, you've probably heard the 1994 song "Friday I'm In Love." A more upbeat Cure song to check out is "Why Can't I Be You?", the band's first journey into the Top 40.

A bunch of college guys from Athens, Georgia formed R.E.M. in 1980. The first hit R.E.M. had was in the early 80s with "Radio Free Europe" but their first mainstream hit didn't happen till the late 1980s (check out "The One I Love"). You've probably heard the song "Shiny Happy People."

Music changes every decade, but not necessarily every 10 years. The sound of the 80s more or less ended in 1991, when an alternative, college-radio band from the Seattle music scene called Nirvana released a single called "Smells Like Teen Spirit." The song was gigantic, and after that, almost everything about music changed. College radio became more mainstream and started to influence other pop music. The baggy flannel shirts and ripped jeans from the grunge scene replaced the bright, dressy colors of the 80s. Lyrics became more Nirvana-esque—vague, hard to understand, and open to interpretation. Grunge was a mash-up of hard rock, college radio, a bit of punk, and some heavy metal. Messy, distorted guitars and moody, introspective lyrics distinguished grunge from its college radio cousin.

And, of course, it carried over into Christian music, too. In 1995 grunge hit Christian music, DC Talk released "Jesus Freak," and suddenly Christian teens had their own grunge anthem. Modern skate culture and moshing have their roots in grunge. Christian punk and Christian alternative rock find their musical roots in college radio and grunge music.

Check out college radio and grunge this week. Here's hoping you find something new!

image © istockphoto / thinkstock.