Their will to survive made them figuratively nonexistent. Throughout the late ’80s and early ’90s, various bastardized incarnations of Sabbath released a string of subpar albums that temporarily cheapened the memory of the band’s canonical work. A useful comparison is the career arc of Black Sabbath, perhaps the only band whose sonic influence on hard rock is more pervasive. The cyclical nature of cultural significance has not worked in their favor. For Van Halen, however, the opposite has occurred. That decision was justifiable, particularly since perseverance is traditionally rewarded by the sands of time. But they were too young to retire and too popular to quit, so they just kept going (albeit erratically and devoid of schedule). Had Van Halen disbanded after their tenth album (1993’s Live: Right Here, Right Now), their catalogue would border on bulletproof. Yet the past 20 years have been complicated for Van Halen, for reasons both self-inflicted and beyond their control. Only Led Zeppelin is more archetypal of the genre. The singularity of their aesthetic was so recognizable that it became a kind of representational shorthand for youth-oriented movie directors: the soundtrack for burnout disenchantment in Over the Edge, the Platonic dream of Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the language of extraterrestrial life in Back to the Future, and the validation of rockist sensibilities in Airheads. Van Halen were pure monoculture, emerging within an era when that aspiration was still common and respected. They were copied constantly and no one ever got it right. There are simply no other bands like this. An embodiment of American exceptionalism, spearheaded by two Dutch Indo immigrants who could barely speak English when they arrived in Pasadena. A caricature of leering masculinity that proved unusually inclusive to female audiences. A legendary live act consistently criticized for their terrible live performances. Van Halen is, in many ways, the high-profile exception to otherwise inflexible rules: classically trained virtuosos who make music for getting hammered in parking lots. With the lone exception of AC/DC, no other rock group has ever bifurcated its career so successfully (though Fleetwood Mac and Genesis come close). In fact, it’s a bit disingenuous to even say they’ve been “together” these five decades - the Van Halen timeline is notoriously comprised of two strikingly different units (and officially three different units, and arguably four). The band has now been together for more than 40 years and is technically still active, although it doesn’t really seem like it. Their debut album was the first rock music I ever loved, before I knew who they were or what they were doing. This article originally ran in 2018 and is being republished in light of Eddie Van Halen’s passing.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2022
Categories |