102. WMA vs. Nothing As It Seems

Post by **stip** » Tue March 01, 2022 2:25 am

WMA vs. Nothing As It Seems

Post by **Bammer** » Tue March 01, 2022 2:32 am

Don’t fuck this one up, RM.

Post by **stip** » Tue March 01, 2022 2:33 am

Two epic mood pieces - and WMA deserves credit for its ahead of its time subject matter. But Nothing As it Seems is the successful Binaural soundscape. If I am in the mood for a certain type of pearl jam song, this is probably the best version of it. Easy vote for NAIS

wease · Post by **wease** » Tue March 01, 2022 2:45 am

WMA every day of the week and twice on Sunday

Post by **Bammer** » Tue March 01, 2022 2:47 am

stip wrote:Two epic mood pieces - and WMA deserves credit for its ahead of its time subject matter. But Nothing As it Seems is the successful Binaural soundscape. If I am in the mood for a certain type of pearl jam song, this is probably the best version of it. Easy vote for NAIS

Ban stip

liebzz · Post by **liebzz** » Tue March 01, 2022 2:51 am

NAIS.

WMA is not ahead of its time in topic. The theme simply has hundreds of years of relevance.

Post by **stip** » Tue March 01, 2022 2:53 am

im pretty sure pearl jam discovered racism in 1993

Post by **stip** » Tue March 01, 2022 2:53 am

but i meant as a subject for a song on a best selling mainstream rock album

PHATJ · Post by **PHATJ** » Tue March 01, 2022 3:04 am

Higgs · Post by **Higgs** » Tue March 01, 2022 3:12 am

All the way WMA.

Kevin Davis · Post by **Kevin Davis** » Tue March 01, 2022 3:40 am

stip wrote:but i meant as a subject for a song on a best selling mainstream rock album

Not trying to be rude but I really don't think "WMA" was the breakthrough you're selling it as. I don't know, maybe in a really specific area of heavy rock music it was somewhat rare to hear a song like this, but racism has been a theme in popular music for a long time. From Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" to Sam Cooke singing "A Change Is Gonna Come," Neil Young singing "Southern Man" to Bob Dylan singing "Hurricane," NWA doing "Fuck Tha Police" to RHCP doing "Power of Equality" -- PJ were on pretty well-traveled terrain here. I do like "WMA" a lot though, and think it's a powerful song. Not enough to vote for it over "NAIS," though.

Post by **evenslow** » Tue March 01, 2022 3:41 am

N
A
I
S

Anders · Post by **Anders** » Tue March 01, 2022 5:52 am

Easiest vote so far in the competition for NAIS.

thesound · Post by **thesound** » Tue March 01, 2022 7:32 am

Love both of these songs!

Birds in Hell · Post by **Birds in Hell** » Tue March 01, 2022 7:45 am

wease wrote:WMA every day of the week and twice on Sunday

LetMeSleep · Post by **LetMeSleep** » Tue March 01, 2022 8:37 am

Post by **stip** » Tue March 01, 2022 10:37 am

Kevin Davis wrote:
stip wrote:but i meant as a subject for a song on a best selling mainstream rock album
Not trying to be rude but I really don't think "WMA" was the breakthrough you're selling it as. I don't know, maybe in a really specific area of heavy rock music it was somewhat rare to hear a song like this, but racism has been a theme in popular music for a long time. From Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" to Sam Cooke singing "A Change Is Gonna Come," Neil Young singing "Southern Man" to Bob Dylan singing "Hurricane," NWA doing "Fuck Tha Police" to RHCP doing "Power of Equality" -- PJ were on pretty well-traveled terrain here. I do like "WMA" a lot though, and think it's a powerful song. Not enough to vote for it over "NAIS," though.

I still think it was ahead of its time - certainly within mainstream rock music, which I should have clarified. Not unique, and not even trailblazing (it did not lead to a surge in explicitly political rock music - even Pearl Jam didn't return to those sorts of songs until Do the Evolution in Yield. But this was a potentially risky and certainly underutilized idea to explore - especially from arguably the world's biggest band, and white artists. Even groups like REM weren't tacking race (did u2 have anything, and did they especially have anything at the height of their power and influence). It was not subject mainstream rock musicians would talk about - especially with a real risk of alienating your audience (if they actually paid attention to lyrics)

Strange Fruit -1939
A Change is Gonna Come-1964
Southern Man -1970
Hurricane -1975

Most of what you listed below was fairly old by that point too (with the exception of NWA - which is a very different artist with a very different reach playing to a different audience, and the RHCP song I wasn't aware of and I would say in that case is another song ahead of its time). I guess Rage needs to be in there as well - certainly as a band they were way out in front, and while you can argue that there was less risk involved in their first record (you can say what you want when no one is listening they obviously kept to their core commitments).

Farmer John · Post by **Farmer John** » Tue March 01, 2022 3:41 pm

Birds in Hell wrote:
wease wrote:WMA every day of the week and twice on Sunday

Chris_H_2 · Post by **Chris_H_2** » Tue March 01, 2022 9:47 pm

it's

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as
it
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Red Mosquito