Rob Janicke Talks His Book "SLACKER" and How Music Can Change Your Life
1991 was a landmark year for music. Nirvana's Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Metallica's Black Album - the list goes on... 1991 felt like lightning in a bottle that changed the course of Generation X and the generations that followed.
However, how did this happen? 1991, the year that punk (or grunge) broke, didn't happen out of nowhere. For that strike, a perfect storm of circumstances led to an alternative music explosion. Music journalist Rob Janicke explores where, why, and how that occurred, and tells a bit of his story and how the music impacted his life along the way in his book SLACKER: 1991, Teen Spirit Angst, and the Generation It Created. As Rob discusses the beginning, peak, and impact of 1991, Rob details his memories through music alongside major historical events that shaped the trajectory of pop culture.
Rob shares stories of societal change and insights obtained from interviews conducted with musicians, writers, scientists, professors, promoters, etc. Some of the people interviewed for SLACKER include DJ John Richards of KEXP, Nico Hoon, daughter of Blind Melon's Shannon Hoon, Dr. Kelly Jakubowksi, Assistant Professor of Music Psychology at Durham University, Dr. Donna Gaines, sociologist and author of Why the Ramones Matter, hip-hop producer and PhD. Configa, and more.
Rob is also the founder of Generation Riff, a website dedicated to archiving and celebrating the music that defined Generation X.
I spoke with Rob Janicke for Vinyl Apothecary about the impact of grunge music, how music can change people's lives, why music sticks with us after a certain age, the duty of passing music to the next generation, and the role of social media and streaming in modern music discovery.
We're the ones who should be writing about this now because we were there. It's still fresh in our memories. Some of us were closer to it than others, but we should be telling the story because we were there firsthand. And then, people in your generation and all the generations that are gonna come, they'll have a really good account, hopefully, of what it was like, and then they can pass it down their own way to future generations.
This episode of Vinyl Apothecary is available below:
For more information about Rob Janicke and SLACKER: 1991, Teen Spirit Angst, and the Generation It Created, visit robjanicke.com.