BONUS: Y2K feat. Colette Shade
Added 2025-01-14 20:40:15 +0000 UTCAuthor Colette Shade joins us to discuss her new book “Y2K” on the millennial era of ~1997-2008. Will and Colette review how the boundless optimism of ‘the end of history’ curdled into the permanent pessimism of the 21st century, how computer doomed everything even if the specific prediction of the “Y2K bug” maybe didn’t literally come to pass, how nostalgia can be both useful and a trap, and of course, how everything is 9/11.
Purchase “Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything”:
Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Y2K-Audiobook/B0D3G5JV6P
Catch Colette on here book tour, dates here: https://www.coletteshade.com/
Comments
so is your mom
One Sound Every Day (santino)
2025-02-02 06:34:45 +0000 UTCWill is such a generous interviewer.
Destino
2025-01-25 13:06:20 +0000 UTCGood ep and for whatever it’s worth, I think the “rock is dead” claim was just in regard to mass culture. That rock no longer has a hold over people like it once did (or in the way rap did in this y2k era) and that there are obviously tons of cool underground bands around can both be true
old crispin
2025-01-25 00:03:42 +0000 UTCHow do you listen to this podcast?
Chuck Skooch
2025-01-24 19:43:55 +0000 UTCoh hell yes. this can get consumed before I finish Fren.
Chuck Skooch
2025-01-24 19:30:10 +0000 UTCYour best resource is probably YouTube this dude acid Marxist has uploaded all their shit over the years and linked keywords and stuff to where if you search “chapo trap house neoliberal Clintons” I’m pretty sure you’ll get some related stuff. They review Hillary’s book, her Apple TV series “gutsy”, … a lot of the old 2016 era stuff would probably be what you’re looking for. Best thing to do is SoundCloud or whatever just start at the beginning and go… upon checking if you google “chapo trap house Hillary Clinton” there’s a 3 hour comp of different shows discussing her.. hope that’s helpful, cheers mate
Anthony koz
2025-01-24 19:28:44 +0000 UTCI'm American and even I was taken aback 😅 The classic, read a word and have never heard it IRL. That's actually an indicator of being well educated so no shade.
Sean Macalrooneystein-Smithschidt
2025-01-24 19:19:23 +0000 UTCIf you’re australian and you want a jumpscare listen to how americans say “bondi beach”
Adam Foster
2025-01-24 00:58:13 +0000 UTCYou think Theseus12 was bad, I was Pentheus5
Jon
2025-01-23 17:01:05 +0000 UTCGreat interview! Definitely want to read it.
Matt Murray
2025-01-23 13:59:58 +0000 UTCOh god this looks exactly up my alley and is something I think about a lot. It’s hard to articulate the feeling of being miffed that I’m heading into my mid-30s and have never really experienced anything like the bewilderment my parents must have felt upon first hearing hip-hop or other cultural novelties. Thanks for the rec!
Sam
2025-01-22 17:33:14 +0000 UTCI enjoy listening to spergos talk over each other. It’s really not that serious man. I somehow found all the sensitive lame chapo fans with a single comment
Isaac Andersen
2025-01-22 02:03:40 +0000 UTCYou could just not listen if you don’t want to
No Relation to Henry
2025-01-22 01:49:08 +0000 UTCWhy do you feel the need to tell us this?
No Relation to Henry
2025-01-22 01:42:59 +0000 UTCThe only issue was that was pretty much over by 2010, when the GOP went mask off fascist just a lot of libs didn't notice.
NLC
2025-01-21 17:18:11 +0000 UTCYou probably don't like being gay also, but some things you just can't change what is.
TheHairyClevage
2025-01-21 10:25:25 +0000 UTCI don’t like this broads voice
Stinkamus
2025-01-20 20:04:22 +0000 UTCunc’s detected
mariol struga
2025-01-20 14:40:17 +0000 UTClegit hit me with them links, I wanna listen OG
Chuck Skooch
2025-01-20 01:51:56 +0000 UTCWhole family gathered around the monitor, watching the dial-up graphics like it was Christ on the Mount and the Sermon was about to start. Simpler times, more complicated brains.
Equality State Of Mind
2025-01-19 20:11:32 +0000 UTCand yes I started listening about 2 years ago. immediately subbed.
Chuck Skooch
2025-01-18 17:08:21 +0000 UTCOK that's fair. I would love more episode links from those. legit want to go back and listen. this pod reinforces so much of what I struggled to coalesce from different sources. So definitely link me some bc that reply made hella sense.
Chuck Skooch
2025-01-18 17:05:53 +0000 UTCtheseus12 mentioned
Craven Moorehead
2025-01-18 15:30:51 +0000 UTCThis would probably be fair analysis but for the likely hundreds of hours elsewhere that chapo critiques the Clinton’s impact politically and culturally. Taking a shit on the neoliberal turn that this era solidified forever is their bread and butter. Your version of this episode would have been redundant; if would largely just be stating their overall thesis…. This author wrote a collection of essays about her goopy Apple, AIM, my stealing the cover of my sisters’ Britney Spears cd and hiding it between sheet/mattress, hip hop replacing rock (what’s the most lasting radio rock band of the millennial era, foo fighters or something? Could anything be more mid?… too generous, just bad) and Luda “back seat windows up that’s the way” ……maybe you’re new to the show? Because I’d say the analysis you’re looking for out of this episode is already firmly implied
Anthony koz
2025-01-18 11:37:16 +0000 UTCHey Little homie, I'm just trying bring flavor to your colorless life.
Khemith
2025-01-17 22:32:18 +0000 UTCoh cool you thought of more riffs to edit in?
etienne
2025-01-17 21:23:56 +0000 UTCOhh incel! Lets get 2019 in HERE! Hey I heard the pussy hat march will be named "The people's march" 🤣 Not enough pet parents this year for a proper women march.
Khemith
2025-01-17 20:53:21 +0000 UTC"ugly feminists are bitter about other women being sexy" is a top tier incel take
etienne
2025-01-17 20:03:31 +0000 UTCI love the pop culture analysis. But I feel like discussion really jumped the shark in this episode, not getting anything in about the content of all watched over by machines of love and grace (BBC documentary). Its impossible to discuss this without discussing Greenspan and Clinton's contribution to this cultural movement or the "all boom never bust" mindset
Chuck Skooch
2025-01-17 13:27:14 +0000 UTCTeach me how to get ass by crying to PJ Harvey.
Khemith
2025-01-17 08:26:26 +0000 UTCYep, saw Dieselboy, Dara, Craze, Andy C and others multiple times
Drunk Millennial Parent
2025-01-17 07:33:59 +0000 UTCI was 20 in '97. That was really the year that felt like rock musics time had passed. Post- Cobain and Oasis were the last hurrah (here on this side of the Atlantic anyway) but by '97 they'd ran out of Beatles songs to rip off and brought out a coke bloated 3rd album. We were coming close to the 21st century so it felt like music had to be looking forward to the future. It's was platinium plated rap music and electronic music that seemed much more relevant for the time
Michael Bourke
2025-01-17 07:07:50 +0000 UTCI think it depends on your age, as far as Nirvana goes. I was just entering my teens and my head really did explode the first time I heard them.
Brad Plumb
2025-01-17 05:43:29 +0000 UTCWHAT? IS? IT? *flops around like a dead fish*
Brad Plumb
2025-01-17 05:42:07 +0000 UTCIn my day, "hard disc" was an actual distinction!
Brad Plumb
2025-01-17 05:39:49 +0000 UTCHanging out with Primus "too much" would have presumably produced stranger and cooler music. I still love Primus.
Brad Plumb
2025-01-17 05:37:43 +0000 UTCMy college housemates and I were all convinced that the NFL rigged the Feb 2002 Superbowl so that the patriots would win.
Brad Plumb
2025-01-17 05:36:37 +0000 UTCThis has been a very fun “remember some bars” episode
Cameron Young
2025-01-17 05:02:41 +0000 UTCdude who gets no ass has opinions ^
DR
2025-01-17 03:11:40 +0000 UTCthis mtv news examines the 80's special from 1989 is an important time capsule. https://youtu.be/tIVExtODswQ?si=jVk0dp7SGgShuzbz
Eon Gattignolo
2025-01-17 02:42:09 +0000 UTC10 crack commandments is a neoliberal anthem
Cardboard
2025-01-17 02:33:33 +0000 UTCwhen she mentioned "The Israel Gene" I could physically hear Felix not being there to comment
etienne
2025-01-17 02:06:12 +0000 UTCwe as a society fixed ONE problem and they never forgave us for it. they're never going to allow us to fix anything ever again
etienne
2025-01-17 02:05:01 +0000 UTCIt absolutely was in 2001.
Mountain Dew Code Bipolar
2025-01-17 01:38:24 +0000 UTCDr Peterson is that you? ⬇️
Howard Zyn
2025-01-16 23:17:12 +0000 UTCHer fun nostalgia is gilded with rabid 3rd wave feminism. I almost stopped listening to the interview because it got bogged down on how "sexy" everything was. Almost to the point of bitterness.
Khemith
2025-01-16 22:33:25 +0000 UTCAlways
Peter Sullivan
2025-01-16 22:27:43 +0000 UTCSo true, it has a similar feel to SoundCloud era rap
C. Ries
2025-01-16 22:08:37 +0000 UTCI did know a guy who was sexually into whipped cream and honey. His grandparents were siblings.
Clammy_Damp
2025-01-16 21:50:03 +0000 UTCProbably already mentioned but the Britney interview has to be from Chuck Klosterman IV
Clammy_Damp
2025-01-16 21:41:55 +0000 UTCHave you ever had Simon Reynolds on the show? Retromania seems more and more pertinent. Ironically though, his new book Futuromania argues the opposite.
Sam Worthington
2025-01-16 19:47:24 +0000 UTCWill getting horny on main
Jud
2025-01-16 19:30:53 +0000 UTCThis eps' definitely the dessert to my veggies in terms of Chapo pod consumption. Not that I'm complaining. Gobble gobble.
I Let the Dogs Out. Me, Me, Me, Me.
2025-01-16 18:55:42 +0000 UTCThat was excellent, I really enjoyed this one. I might just be haunted by the spectre of rock and roll but I also just wanna let everyone know that actually its not dead.
Riverbank Frank
2025-01-16 18:15:39 +0000 UTCPunk rock was a constant through this period, just not as a mainstream commercial "industry"
Nick Robinson
2025-01-16 17:58:53 +0000 UTCMy AIM was redheadgirl911 pre 9/11 😬
Leah Lynn
2025-01-16 17:27:02 +0000 UTCdoes anyone have her venmo? I'd like to donate a pop filter
Harry
2025-01-16 15:09:31 +0000 UTCI’m starting to have reading series withdrawals
A person you vaguely know
2025-01-16 14:37:22 +0000 UTCFound the spergo
Isaac Andersen
2025-01-16 13:25:10 +0000 UTCThesiusNutz69
DAW
2025-01-16 10:06:29 +0000 UTCYeah it’d be way better if they weren’t passionate about what they’re taking about at all. It’s so fucking lame to be excited about anything. What are you 12? calling people spergo. Fuck you dude
Jack Gude
2025-01-16 07:40:58 +0000 UTCI was Ebola12 on AOL
Jerry Hernandez
2025-01-16 07:34:51 +0000 UTCThere was of course a lot wrong with the music biz in the 60s and early 70s, but there were executives who let their A&R men take chances that none would think of now.
Phil Hostak
2025-01-16 07:02:01 +0000 UTCI called it A.I.M.
Jon
2025-01-16 03:41:49 +0000 UTCYou're the man now dog.
July17
2025-01-16 02:26:49 +0000 UTCEverything is Chrome in the Future
S.E. Nyarady
2025-01-16 00:55:18 +0000 UTCNo one called it Aim ever
Mike Goulis
2025-01-16 00:40:01 +0000 UTCYou’ve had nearly a decade to get a podcasting mic, Colette 😂 Enjoying the commentary/discussion though!
Brendan Kneeland
2025-01-15 23:31:10 +0000 UTCNo, it was not. I was a senior in high school when it came out, literally ground zero for this. It shifted the paradigm precisely as much as “Epic” did the year before. (And “Epic” was a much better song.) I was not “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” and even after that, middle-of-the-road bands held sway in the US charts for years. It took a few years for there to be big switches in the number of modern rock stations (which, honestly, was a crap format anyways), and even then, stuff like U2 dominated those charts. Nirvana wasn’t that great or groundbreaking. It got promoted in no small part to promote girls’ underarm deodorant.
Demented Avenger
2025-01-15 23:17:05 +0000 UTCThe unrelated direct to DVD sequel is a cherished American artform. Check out how many sequels there are to Jarhead.
nick
2025-01-15 22:58:48 +0000 UTCPreparing to get pegged?
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:57:49 +0000 UTCLast song I heard that blew my mind as something totally new was "I Luv U" by Dizzee Rascal in 2003 & his subsequent "Boy in da Corner" album
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:57:00 +0000 UTCIt was a paradigm shifting song, the other one about 11 years that had that same effect (at least on me) was "I Luv U" by Dizzee Rascal, also it was the first song I heard on a computer before a 💿, tape, or record (I'm old BTW)
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:55:16 +0000 UTCWe love our grill pilled boy, don't we folks?
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:51:52 +0000 UTCYeah, whatever happened to coffee favored coffee?!
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:50:50 +0000 UTCYou want it that way?
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:50:13 +0000 UTCI am a Gen Xer & huge jungle/drum & bass fan in the 90s
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:49:58 +0000 UTCBreak out the MAGA hats
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:48:41 +0000 UTCWait, is this Barenaked Ladies erasure?
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:48:22 +0000 UTCX-Pac just weighed in: "Suck it!"
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:47:08 +0000 UTCNot to mention their collaboration with Lou Reed
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:46:28 +0000 UTCI like to listen to gangsta rap on my way to the farmer's market
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:45:43 +0000 UTCBill Belicheck in his short sleeve hoodie nods in agreement
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:45:05 +0000 UTCFellow Gen X here, brought back memories for sure.
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:43:57 +0000 UTCSimon Reynolds, "Retromania"
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:43:21 +0000 UTCNice, my old ass was born in 1968 & this was very interesting to me.
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:42:50 +0000 UTCRe: Will's nostalgia take, a good book on that is Retromania by Simon Reynolds
Christian Johnson
2025-01-15 22:41:36 +0000 UTCEntertaining conversation and great analysis of that time.
DNygk
2025-01-15 22:00:24 +0000 UTCTo follow up here, I don’t think it is possible to seriously argue that the amount of investment in artist development that was sloshing around a place like Greenwich Village in the 60s is anywhere near how music is funded and sustained these days. I’m sorry, but that fucks with innovation.
Michael
2025-01-15 21:33:04 +0000 UTCGreetings from A fellow millennial from NOVA! We got the best of all of it!
Darbi Simmons
2025-01-15 21:32:49 +0000 UTCI’m gonna change my username to Theseus12!
Fernslinger
2025-01-15 21:28:38 +0000 UTCWill getting ready to interrupt a woman mid-sentence: *insert lebron all of the lights clip*
Kyle Smyth
2025-01-15 21:25:52 +0000 UTCRegarding country music popularity, I think it exploded primarily because it gives people an excuse to tailgate outside of the college and pro football season.
Steve D
2025-01-15 20:35:05 +0000 UTCgoing to skateparks these days and every kid has jncos, bleached tips, slipknot shirts and even tribal tatoos. It's absolutely mind blowing
etienne
2025-01-15 20:22:22 +0000 UTCPodcasting is full of spergos but this one was like listening to Adam friedland talk to Adam friedland
Isaac Andersen
2025-01-15 19:21:25 +0000 UTCIt’s called “Aim”. No one calls it A.I.M.
Hey_Blinkin
2025-01-15 18:35:28 +0000 UTCHaha "Mo Money Mo Problems" is Biggie, the first verse is Ma$e though. The song is just Diana Ross - "I'm Coming Out" with raps on it. Seems like Will is just trolling not knowing the songs. He did it with Wu-Tang too.
Robert Sayre
2025-01-15 18:29:00 +0000 UTCThe part about country music being more attainable is spot on analysis. I have several friends who grew up in suburbs who were bigger on country than rap and explained it in the same way of be more relatable. It probably varies by personality whether you like that or like the grandeur associated with rap
kron
2025-01-15 18:03:37 +0000 UTCAre you new to podcasts or
Whistle Dog
2025-01-15 17:34:36 +0000 UTCSo many haters here. Black Album and Load are incredible albums
Mark Herrera
2025-01-15 17:22:17 +0000 UTCGen X here. That did hit hard.
Laurie G
2025-01-15 17:21:23 +0000 UTCWell, where do you look?
Michael
2025-01-15 16:50:00 +0000 UTCAs someone born in 1997 - technically a zoomer but came up in the wake of the millennial world - this interview did a lot for me. Gave me so much context for a cultural landscape that I don’t fit neatly into and have felt very adrift in.
Peter Gambino
2025-01-15 16:31:15 +0000 UTC*Jlo voice* I’m real
Colette Shade
2025-01-15 16:17:29 +0000 UTCIt's because Kirk was hanging out with Primus too much!! Lol
Matthew
2025-01-15 15:48:19 +0000 UTCMy joke re: culture hasnt changed in 20 years is that 20-somethings in the 2050’s will be throwing 2020’s-themed parties where everyone dresses up like the era when everyone dressed up like it was the 90’s
Sam
2025-01-15 15:20:18 +0000 UTCunderground rock, metal, and punk are very much alive and thriving if you know where to look.
Collin Slutzky
2025-01-15 15:07:38 +0000 UTCThis is good pairing with the last episode of Hell of Presidents
Beej
2025-01-15 14:51:56 +0000 UTCYou can’t cancel the pure of heart
SlowTrickle
2025-01-15 14:32:24 +0000 UTCThat was great, but I did die a little when Will did the KK quote
SlowTrickle
2025-01-15 14:31:32 +0000 UTCVery true. By the time 9/11 happened, there was a whole pop culture based on longing for (my God) World War II. It started with Holocaust education slowly morphing from a cautionary tale about what racism can do into a reason why everything the US did was Right and Justified and anyone suggesting otherwise was Chamberlain (the culture sliding from a fascination with Schindler’s List to a fascination with Saving Private Ryan). By the time those planes crashed into WTC, it was a whole thing to want this to be a new Pearl Harbor. Such bullshit.
Michael
2025-01-15 14:05:56 +0000 UTC"Smells Like Teen Spirit" didn't have a greater impact on the teenage psyche than "Epic" by Faith No More did the year before. Literally everything you said applied to how we responded to both songs.
Demented Avenger
2025-01-15 14:01:12 +0000 UTCGreat episode for us geriatric millennials. I heard Danny Besner in my head saying "that's correct" when Collette talked about the death of Kurt Cobain leaving a void.
Warbs
2025-01-15 13:57:39 +0000 UTCCreated specifically for the purposes of extinguishing a truly creative and new genre, shoegaze. Instead we got a pair of thick-as-pigshit Mancunians drawling their way through their latest sibling rivalry
drewb
2025-01-15 13:51:25 +0000 UTCAs a European i didnt know Bring It On and went to the wiki page of the movie and this escalation of its sequels is really reflective of the analysis of our times, especially the change after 08 and the title of the most recent sequel: It was the first of the Bring It On film series and was followed by six direct-to-video sequels, none of which contains any of the original cast members: Bring It On Again (2004), which shared producers with the original, Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006), Bring It On: In It to Win It (2007), Bring It On: Fight to the Finish (2009), Bring It On: Worldwide Cheersmack (2017), and the TV film, Bring It On: Cheer or Die (2022).
Creemi
2025-01-15 13:29:35 +0000 UTCYa'll doing a Landman episode?
Chris Guest
2025-01-15 13:29:16 +0000 UTCEverything after Justice was varying levels of trash. Though Death Magnetic had some of the old juice.
Zach H.
2025-01-15 13:26:41 +0000 UTCI loved this interview! Idk what the hell you're talking about tho, I'm 12. Groovy!
Jared Sarnie
2025-01-15 13:25:44 +0000 UTCNostalgia is the real mind virus. 🦠
Zach H.
2025-01-15 13:20:03 +0000 UTCFeminism in this era was in full force throughout pop culture from the spice girls’ girl power to tlc’s no scrubs.
Jake Creighton
2025-01-15 12:52:08 +0000 UTClike i unironically love the st anger snare, a lot of actually good grindcore bands also utilize Small Snare too
etienne
2025-01-15 11:46:49 +0000 UTCfunnily enough I really liked the singles off that album because I was *really* young but quickly moved on to real music lol. the video at the prison was just .. cool?
etienne
2025-01-15 11:43:35 +0000 UTCI’ve commented way too much already but a couple other things. How was the boy band era of the late 90s not mentioned? And as for a music signifier of us leaving the Bush era post-2008 financial collapse will to me always be Kid Cudi’s “Day n Nite” which ushered in the skinny jean, downtrodden, and more drug-centric tropes
Peter Sullivan
2025-01-15 10:37:10 +0000 UTCMaybe this is outsized in my New Englander brain, but I also feel like the Patriots coming to prominence by winning their first Super Bowl in Feb 2002 was also part of ushering in the 2000s era. I distinctly remember them being seen as America’s Team post 9/11, and rewatching that halftime show with U2 where they dedicated the show to the 9/11 victims is embedded deep within my brain. I feel like this was part of that era where we were still “catching up” to the war on terror as the anti-Iraq rhetoric had yet to really pick up steam and it was more about rallying the country
Peter Sullivan
2025-01-15 10:15:59 +0000 UTCThis is the correct answer
Matthew
2025-01-15 09:36:54 +0000 UTCCollette A'clit
justDave
2025-01-15 09:10:24 +0000 UTCFunny, I remember "bad Metallica" starting with the Black Album.
Brad Plumb
2025-01-15 09:06:54 +0000 UTCYou’ll never convince me that Will isn’t talking to an AI here
Seymour Butz
2025-01-15 08:09:05 +0000 UTCYeah I thought there was possibility in indie rock, too, but it was over pretty fast and I don’t think ever achieved real cross-pollinating scenes beyond maybe Toronto and Montreal.
Michael
2025-01-15 07:43:58 +0000 UTCAs much as it seems apocryphal, I too remember where I was when I first heard Smells Like Teen Spirit (in my room, pretending to be asleep, listening to a clock radio with the "sleep" button on). Indie rock seemed to be thriving when I left college in 2003, but then it was gone before you knew it. All Spotify has ever done is encourage me to get into ever older and more specific genres/artists
Brad Plumb
2025-01-15 07:39:40 +0000 UTCFuck that. What about ICQ?
Brad Plumb
2025-01-15 07:33:45 +0000 UTCmy 7th grade year was dominated by guys playing with yo-yo's and people wearing austin 3:16 gear
calvin kilby
2025-01-15 07:16:07 +0000 UTCi caught an episode of remember shuffle with colette on it just a few days ago. it's a nice podcast.
calvin kilby
2025-01-15 07:14:45 +0000 UTCyou're like finn mckenty but not a soulless piece of shit
calvin kilby
2025-01-15 07:14:06 +0000 UTCLove to listen to white women recite rap lyrics
spacerainbow000
2025-01-15 06:54:17 +0000 UTCOh God I remember the attitude era. The height of Steve Austin smashing people with chairs and drinking beer like it was nothing.
Benny Ortiz
2025-01-15 06:46:04 +0000 UTCBy the time St. Anger was released it was five years after Napster and we were all accustomed to bad Metallica. The real shock was (as Metal Hammer magazine put it) Metallica "dropping a Load on the fans" with their 1996 post-haircut albums. Too soft, too bluesy, too many weird lyrics about feelings. That was the beginning of the end.
Plainwrap
2025-01-15 06:44:43 +0000 UTCI'm so glad that they started talking about the death of rock music. I always had a feeling that the one two punch of Metallica releasing the flop that was St. Anger and also their very public whining about music sharing and pirating laid bare how rock was so very out of touch with the youth of that time and removed from anything rebellious or anit establishment.
Benny Ortiz
2025-01-15 06:17:01 +0000 UTCOne blind spot in the episode (and I imagine in the book) is the absence of the pop cultural impact of late 90's pro wrestling: the WWF 'Attitude Era' and WCW's 'nWo Era'. Between 1997 and 2001 the most innovative entertainment medium wasn't movies or music or publishing but instead two competing male soap operas with simultaneous live TV broadcasts every Monday night essentially doing nonstop sweeps week stunts to try and keep their audience from changing the channel to watch the other. The most tasteless and shocking gimmicks alongside an almost Andy Kaufman-esque audience participation element that predicted the hyper-brand fan identity you see all over the internet today. Gotta get some dirtbags to consult on your Y2K nostalgia book.
Plainwrap
2025-01-15 06:16:47 +0000 UTCHearing Will sing Dirty made me giggle so hard. Thanks Will. 🤣
Ralley Taura
2025-01-15 06:02:06 +0000 UTCSpot on. It was in this period I got a guitar and dreamed of being a musician. By the time I was out of college in 2003, the assumptions of that world were already overturned. A scene like Greenwich Village in the 60s, as portrayed in A Complete Unknown, was simply unavailable and now has been for a while. So many songs haven’t ever been written, I feel. But maybe that is what 43 does to a mf.
Michael
2025-01-15 06:01:34 +0000 UTCListen to two spergos talk over each other for one hour and six minutes
Isaac Andersen
2025-01-15 05:42:19 +0000 UTC"Smells Like Teen Spirit" had a major impact on the music industry. Within less than a year money was flooding into Seattle in search of the next Nirvana. Money flooded into indie labels across the country. Bands that would have been labeled as "college rock" a few years earlier and that could have only been heard on college radio stations were being featured on MTV and were getting airplay on FM stations high on the dial in major media markets. The "voice of a generation" bit was just pure marketing b.s. However, the impact of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was no joke. Part of the deal was that the hair metal bands had some level of technical sophistication and polish. Nirvana was just simple, straightforward rock. Someone with rudimentary guitar training could figure out the chorus and lead to Cobain's guitar riff in a single afternoon (speaking from experience). It was highly accessible pop music. I remember hearing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" when it first hit the radio and it was one of those rare songs that really made you sit up and listen. I have to imagine that it was probably like hearing the Beatles for the first time on the radio. Stations that were playing classic rock or hair metal, changed their format overnight in response to the new sound. I can tell you exactly when and where I was when I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first time. I can't really say that about any other band or song (especially Silverchair). I can't remember another instance too where people in school the next day or two are talking about "that song". It was a really unique moment. One of the parts of this that is hard to convey too is just how unusual the sound was. Within a year or two the sound may have been absorbed into the culture. There were plenty of bands that sounded "like Nirvana" or grunge. However, when the familiar frame of reference was hair metal or classic rock, Nirvana sounded like it was coming from a completely different universe. There was nothing like it. Because the music was so accessible too, it was something that encouraged people overnight to start bands, and organize local music festivals. You didn't have to go to New York or LA either to make it in the industry either. For a brief period of time there were dozens of small and medium sized cities that launched viable national acts (e.g. Chapel Hill, NC (dozens of bands); Akron, Ohio (the Breeders and Guided by Voices); Washington, DC (dozens of bands); etc). The thing that really started to burst the bubble was iTunes in 2001 and and Napster in 1999 and rising rents in major metro areas. Bands that occupied the "middle class" of the industry could no longer really sustain a career through album sales, because people started buying singles only, or just trading digital music files without any compensation. Similar to the rest of the economy, the market transitioned into a "winner-takes all" system, where a handful of major acts were able to prosper regardless of distribution systems, or where you really had to be a kid with rich parents in order to sustain any kind of a professional career. That wasn't the case from 1991 to about 2000.
J P 3
2025-01-15 05:40:28 +0000 UTCMSN messenger baby!
Savannakhet
2025-01-15 05:39:59 +0000 UTCNah, the rot was beginning to set in in the 90s - in Britain you had Blur and Oasis which were very self-conscious fascimiles of sixties rock.
Savannakhet
2025-01-15 05:34:05 +0000 UTCAs someone who was busy being homeschooled by the kind of people who listened to Gen 1 of the ghouls from Looking for a Fren (focus on deez nuts), I will enjoy listening to this as reassurance that I wasn’t missing much
EvilCorgi
2025-01-15 05:28:31 +0000 UTCLots of love. Fantastic interview, Will you're really adept in dialogue (also where tf is Felix?! this is Felix territory!). Yes, there is a way through, It's up to us to imagine it. There are really clever guides to novel sociopolitical formations in fiction, that i think can synthesized into something useful. Look at Ada Palmer's Too Like The Lightning series or U. K. Le Guin's"Dispossed." Compiling and making such dreams digestible to people is a long time ... what i wish my life were about, but keeps getting interrupted by work and real life and fact that i'm stupid as shit.
seasound
2025-01-15 05:19:19 +0000 UTCas a tr_nny in nashville with a Toby Kieth tattoo i cant believe they said my favorite jingoistic cynical war profiteering patriot country star sucks. wth? lol “beer for my horses” is like a jan 6th, vigilante classic and i cant believe willie nelson hasnt been cancelled because of it
Creamer
2025-01-15 04:35:44 +0000 UTCSong of the summer since 1999. Len is probably like 29% of Canada's GDP (complementary: it's not like Our Lady Peace could keep a dental clinic running)
Grease Witherspoon
2025-01-15 04:31:04 +0000 UTCI mean my dad was in the military enlisted and we were on WIC growing up but as I got older and he stayed in longer we were firmly in the specialist side of the working classes or as most Americans say middle class. My parents family was poor but we grew up with alot of poor people living on base.
Matt Colston
2025-01-15 03:53:24 +0000 UTCGod damn it Chapo. My reading list was already five long
Shane-A112
2025-01-15 03:46:31 +0000 UTCI should prolly listen to the ep first.... but, I'm 30 years too old for it and still going to shitty diy punk shows cuz those kids fucking rip.
chairman bs
2025-01-15 03:30:40 +0000 UTCI was also in middle school. Yes, STP was the first commercial creation to ride the wave but literally nobody when I was a high school freshman in 1995 thought of Silverchair as legitimate. Grunge people were already onto either metal or industrial and everyone was starting to ironically (at first) get into rap. Talking white suburbia here.
Michael
2025-01-15 03:27:04 +0000 UTCWho do you consider a peer though? Are we talking same class position here?
Michael
2025-01-15 03:22:59 +0000 UTCI would hope not, and it sounds like a pretty subjective metric, but insufferable is certainly something I've been called before. *shrug*
Brad Plumb
2025-01-15 03:22:43 +0000 UTCThe fuck even is MSN?
Michael
2025-01-15 03:21:34 +0000 UTCAre you one of these insufferable Xers?
Michael
2025-01-15 03:20:58 +0000 UTCSteal My Sunshine was the last fun song.
Michael
2025-01-15 03:20:03 +0000 UTCThis one’s for the gays and the girlies
Jared Bauer
2025-01-15 03:19:40 +0000 UTCI'm about to buy the hell out of this book.
chubbs941
2025-01-15 03:07:45 +0000 UTCIt pains me how much I've only come to recognize this in retrospect.
Brad Plumb
2025-01-15 02:41:07 +0000 UTCWell, you have to remember that it all happened quickly and in a very compressed span of time. Basically 91-94, which coincidentally coincides exactly with my junior high years. Silverchair was on the latter end and Bush was definitely aftermath, but STP were already popular in 92 or so. Sex Type Thing was a big hit on MTV way before Nirvana crashed.
Brad Plumb
2025-01-15 02:40:12 +0000 UTCYou guys are just a few years younger than me but you see. It was even worse If yiu were a bit older.
Christopher Girard
2025-01-15 02:26:57 +0000 UTCFair enough but Silverchair/STP/Bush were just the commercialized response to the breakthrough. Grunge definitely died with Cobain.
Michael
2025-01-15 02:13:53 +0000 UTCI’m so fucking sad about the end of rock. I’m sorry, A Complete Unknown sent me into a spiral about how nobody gets paid to write songs like that anymore.
Michael
2025-01-15 02:09:18 +0000 UTCYes
Sean Carton
2025-01-15 01:53:22 +0000 UTCOne interesting thing -- and maybe this is just me -- but as an Xer on the cusp, I can remember this longing for a return to 60's counter-culture that existed in the mid-90's. along with the sense that politics had gotten "boring." I felt (and heard other people articulate this too) that the generations before me had had clear enemies, whereas our enemies were all hidden out of sight and it was harder to discern what you should be be against. That definitely changed with 9/11 and the Bush years, and it was that psychic trauma that made me vulnerable to Obama/hope & change. But in retrospect, and this interview highlights that, 9/11 didn't change anything. It was just the moment when the things that were obfuscated became visible. I got what I wanted and it sucks.
Brad Plumb
2025-01-15 01:48:43 +0000 UTCI remember this time, and I remember missing the grunge movement that came before it. I rejected the shallowness of this time and instead hung out with the gen xers and went to raves.
Drunk Millennial Parent
2025-01-15 01:45:17 +0000 UTCGotta also reference the album cover of Backstreet Boys’ “Millenium” album to capture that late 90s style
Peter Sullivan
2025-01-15 01:39:56 +0000 UTCBut yeah, "rock is dead" was inherently baked into the concept of alternative rock from the beginning. I really am a product of that aeshetic and its related nihilism and to be honest, I don't have many regrets about that. I'd still take it over the y2k culture brought up in the interview.
Brad Plumb
2025-01-15 01:37:28 +0000 UTCThose bands are how we knew it was over. (with the exception of Foo Fighters who were at least decent for their first couple of albums)
Brad Plumb
2025-01-15 01:34:22 +0000 UTCIt’s Xena Warrior Princess. Not Xena Princess Warrior
More Human than Human
2025-01-15 01:34:14 +0000 UTCIRC for me! This is what I'm talking about.
Brad Plumb
2025-01-15 01:32:42 +0000 UTCJust the conversation about sexuality and blackness during the 90s and the 00s. The vibes were cool but growing up during the crack era was tough. Cousin's going to jail constantly or being killed surprisingly by mostly cops. Like she brought up Katrina but like as a black teen that was like 911 times ten for a lot of us watching a part of the US just being completely abandoned but knowing that it's possible to happen to my family.
Matt Colston
2025-01-15 01:32:13 +0000 UTCI was MSN!
Eddie Siv
2025-01-15 01:20:37 +0000 UTCWhat about the butt-rock phase of the late 90s and early 2000s? I.e. Foo fighters, Creed, Lifehouse, 3 Doors Down. Staind, Nickelback, Finger Eleven, Jet, Shinedown, etc?
Peter Sullivan
2025-01-15 01:20:31 +0000 UTCAny examples? Not saying you’re wrong btw
Peter Sullivan
2025-01-15 01:18:05 +0000 UTCI (heart) y2k. I have a snow globe for y2k and the snow is all 1 and 0s and I am not kidding.
Sean Carton
2025-01-15 01:03:13 +0000 UTCGreat interview, but it's really reinforcing the gen-x/millennial divide for me. It explains how close and how far away I feel from Will & Co culturally sometimes.
Brad Plumb
2025-01-15 00:53:24 +0000 UTCThe “Y2K bug” was a real problem that required a huge effort and billions of dollars to fix. It became a punchline because that collective effort succeeded. Truly a living monument to an era of dumb yet enduring takes.
Chuck
2025-01-15 00:52:59 +0000 UTCi was a baby working in tech so yeah it was very clearly real
Shivvy
2025-01-15 00:46:44 +0000 UTCThis episode is making me feel like my brain is releasing the DMT 💀
Matthew
2025-01-15 00:46:35 +0000 UTCAlso I have 3 minutes left in the episode… waiting for Felix to pop in with a question…
Anthony koz
2025-01-15 00:46:12 +0000 UTC+1
Shivvy
2025-01-15 00:45:27 +0000 UTC🤝 me every time they say dianne fineSTEEN - i mean fuck her but it still grates. love from Cali where we know how to say Bondi!!
Shivvy
2025-01-15 00:44:08 +0000 UTCThe IRC/AIM/MSN divide 😂 (I was an AIM kid, my sn was foolycooly24)
ab
2025-01-15 00:42:10 +0000 UTCFun episode as soon as it started I couldn’t wait to hear about wills AIM life. Maybe not the right place for this insight but I’ve always thought an under reported on phenomenon is how the vast speed of tech growth in the oughts created micro generations amongst millennials… as someone born in 89 this stuff is all super relevant for me, but my sister born 4 years later had an entirely different youth culture experience as did my sister born 4 years after that. Neither ever knew what it was like to sit around in a Taco Bell parking lot waiting for the crew to assemble and figure out who was “having people over”… last thing, I reported on my 66 year old fathers turn to chapo through the gateway drug of hell of prez about six months ago. On Xmas eve I was excited to tell him about the return of …. He cut me off and told ME, how happy it made him that matt was back… tears to my eyes folks we love to see it
Anthony koz
2025-01-15 00:35:43 +0000 UTCWow... This shows me that my white peers were and are so sheltered.
Matt Colston
2025-01-15 00:33:10 +0000 UTCKey thing to remember about the Y2K hysteria is that a few people did take it seriously: the computer programers who were responsible for identifying and fixing all the bugs in various systems that actually would have caused problems had they not been fixed. Because they did their jobs, it looks like there was no reason to be worried in the first place. This matters because right-wingers use Y2K as an example of “fake” panics when they argue against addressing current problems, like climate change.
Eric Herde
2025-01-15 00:26:04 +0000 UTCAwww you always know just what to say to me. Sorry, I mean "yes mistress"
Eamon Short
2025-01-15 00:11:55 +0000 UTCPay up piggy, you aren't getting out of this one
Timothy Buttons
2025-01-15 00:10:30 +0000 UTCOh yeah I wish there was more than the, what? 6 episodes of Table Top Game Theory plus the live Epstein-killed ep. Hearing the first for free on YouTube was why I became a patreon so I could get the original one, the Russian interface and Musks of Nyallathyrtap (I don't know how it's spelt at all)
Eamon Short
2025-01-15 00:09:26 +0000 UTCTwo of my besties had the best AIM handles back in the day - "tanstud" and "womanlesbo".
Miles_B
2025-01-14 23:44:09 +0000 UTCUgh … Kurt Cobain was not the voice of GenX, which had no voice, and his death had no immediate impact on rock. Silverchair, which was pretty much a clone of Nirvana, had a big year in 1994. It took until 1996 for the alternative music bubble to burst. Rap was already on the rise before grunge. People talk about how grunge displaced hair metal, but that was already on the wane; grunge displaced the MC Hammer-era of rap among white teenagers. Grunge was already a last hurrah. We just didn't realize it as it was happening.
Demented Avenger
2025-01-14 23:37:00 +0000 UTCTheseus12! That’s so good 🤣
Cody S
2025-01-14 22:53:59 +0000 UTCCollette Shade would be a great drag name
Sam
2025-01-14 22:27:33 +0000 UTCI run those xmas specials and d&d eps a lot, side note thank you chris for playlists esp hell on earth & presidents ❤️❤️❤️
The True Horror
2025-01-14 22:26:57 +0000 UTCEver increasing circles
NYCM&AHole
2025-01-14 22:01:26 +0000 UTCI think what y'all are referencing at the end is postmodernism we have copies of copies of copies until the original is no longer in sight. It felt like the '90s and the early 2000s were the last era of original everything now just feels like slop. I can't tell you the last time I went somewhere looked at something or seeing something and thought wow what an original all inspiring thing place etc that wasn't the side of a mountain or nature. All we do is follow the same profit model over and over and over again and even now indie music isn't even independent it's hypercurated music it's just pop labeled independent and bands that are signed on a major labels
SkeepyBeeper
2025-01-14 21:58:59 +0000 UTCThe Obama era brought a second optimistic End of History imo: apps and self-driving cars were going to save us, stocks go up. Government couldn’t accomplish anything good, but it didn’t matter bc Elon (and watching documentaries on Netflix) would solve global warming anyway
J.P. McD.
2025-01-14 21:58:26 +0000 UTCLoved her on Remember Shuffle! Can’t wait to read the book.
Jake MacLennan
2025-01-14 21:56:17 +0000 UTCIt was a wild time
NYCM&AHole
2025-01-14 21:38:51 +0000 UTCI was 13-24 in the time period this book covers, she really nailed it.
kmd
2025-01-14 21:28:49 +0000 UTCI might check it out, although I'll emarassingly admit, I have a long reading list, it's been almost two months since I last cracked a spine
Eamon Short
2025-01-14 21:23:30 +0000 UTCDef will be checking out this book! 🫡
jay alan
2025-01-14 21:21:22 +0000 UTCYou can do this by purchasing her book with money.
Scoundrel Babe
2025-01-14 21:20:33 +0000 UTCI gotta say, Colette Shade is a hot dominatrix name. I'd "sub" to her if you get what I mean.
Eamon Short
2025-01-14 21:17:10 +0000 UTCYeah, I musta listened to their JFK and 300 reviews collectively 50 times
Eamon Short
2025-01-14 21:14:44 +0000 UTCAlso the design on Colette’s website is 🧑🍳💋
Scoundrel Babe
2025-01-14 21:14:12 +0000 UTC😎 bonus
Pablo
2025-01-14 21:13:18 +0000 UTCSome of us are chronic listeners of old movie review episodes, you’re never alone.
Scoundrel Babe
2025-01-14 21:12:19 +0000 UTCOft. It hurt my Aussie heart to hear Bondi pronounced like that. Like you yanks fuck up a gotta our pronunciations but Bondi is so world famous you guys normally get that one right. For those wondering its pronounced "bond-eye"
Eamon Short
2025-01-14 21:12:07 +0000 UTCHow do they do it
J. A.
2025-01-14 21:10:51 +0000 UTCHey time flies.
Sam Zeng
2025-01-14 21:06:18 +0000 UTCremember shuffle is so good lol
etienne
2025-01-14 21:04:25 +0000 UTCOnly 90s kids will understand 😤🤯🤯🖥️🌐🛹🇮🇶🇸🇦✈️✨👽 post Soviet neoliberal induced mirage utopia
interzoa
2025-01-14 21:03:28 +0000 UTCJesus fuck you ain't wrong. And thats a fair response to it.
Eamon Short
2025-01-14 20:58:27 +0000 UTCAw thanks guys. I was hurting bad during your break. I needed some chapo methadone so I was listening to old eps but now in a week you've dropped off like 2 grams. I mean I'm junkie, it's never enough, but spacing it out and not over-indulging I've managed to stay in the sky for the week. Thanks for that Speed-Boat Dope Dry Boys.
Eamon Short
2025-01-14 20:57:38 +0000 UTCCue story of my life by social distortion https://youtu.be/oh8zcbC_Dcw?si=5RQI7gagJYUmSgf0
NYCM&AHole
2025-01-14 20:52:26 +0000 UTC"It's OK, we still love you"- Mom + Dad
Militant Agnostic
2025-01-14 20:52:01 +0000 UTCI just realized that in like 11 months it will be 10 years since 2016 and for some reason it gives me existential despair
Elijah Crawford
2025-01-14 20:51:38 +0000 UTCJust hook it to my veins!
Scoundrel Babe
2025-01-14 20:49:42 +0000 UTCAmerican prestige, remember shuffle and now chapo...quite the book tour already lol
Marcel Szabo
2025-01-14 20:45:57 +0000 UTCPresident Bohrok Obionicle
Notpickinganame
2025-01-14 20:45:43 +0000 UTCBonus episode!? We gooning tonight boys !
Goonba
2025-01-14 20:45:30 +0000 UTCGod I just farted up all the cum in my ass out of excitement for the extra slop, thanks boys
Shawn
2025-01-14 20:45:10 +0000 UTCAlso, I’m gay
WillyGetSilly
2025-01-14 20:44:59 +0000 UTCThe new y2k movie rocks btw
WillyGetSilly
2025-01-14 20:44:53 +0000 UTC
