In November 1998 The Offspring released their 5th studio album, Americana, to widespread success. The lead single 'Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)' made it to number one in the UK charts, and thanks to that I learnt what punk rock was - and I was hooked. That's also how it became the first CD album I ever bought.
By 1998 BritPop was dead, and while I knew what it was, I'd missed most of the fuss. There wasn't much music played at home; my dad would listen to classical or Rhythm & Blues in his study when working in the evenings, and my mum preferred to read.
I had no older siblings to be a bad influence, so all I really knew was chart music from the radio, and that was OK for helping to while away time while doing homework, but nothing really grabbed me, most of the songs were bland love songs that I didn't relate to, and the rest passed me by1. I also had a Walkman with a few Now! compilation albums2, plus a Simon & Garfunkel greatest hits tape.
There were a few songs I liked more than others, but the concept that an artist would write a whole album of songs, and if you liked one, that you'd probably like others that didn't get played on the radio, didn't really cross my mind. I didn't think music was anything important, and didn't understand why some people talked about it like it was; I assumed music wasn't something that I was interested in.
So when I heard 'Pretty Fly' it felt like something else; not only did it have a heavier guitar riff, certainly heavier than anything BritPop had ever offered, but the lyrics were a social commentary I could understand and not some saccharine love song. While the North West of the UK didn't have a lot of wiggers; there were still plenty of people in school I could see trying to be things they weren't, some succeeding more than others. I was also confused about the arbitrary behaviour that would make some people cool, and others not, and this song seemed to make fun of the whole weird social competition that I never remembered signing up to3.
Once 'Why Don't You Get A Job' came out, I managed to put two and two together, and at some point in mid 1999 buy the album, which was then quickly copied to tape on my Dad's stereo, as I had no way of playing the CD myself.
Compared to what I've heard since, Americana isn't a very heavy, or a deeply insightful album, but to early teenage me, it was. I'd heard nothing like it, and some of the lyrics spoke directly to the teenage angst growing in me, like 'Have You Ever':
Have you ever buried your face in your hands
'Cause no one around you understands
Or has the slightest idea what it is that makes you be?
Have you ever felt like there was more
Like someone else was keeping score
And what could make you whole was simply out of reach?
To which a teenager's answer is obviously 'yes'.
'Staring At The Sun' is a combination of frustration, but also resistance and hope with lines like:
There's more to living than only surviving
Maybe I'm not there, but I'm still trying
And then there was 'The Kids Aren't Alright', where I was hooked by that opening riff so hard I must have played it twenty times before I let the rest of the song play.
This was the start down the well trodden path to other artists, now that I knew what to look for: Green Day, Metallica, Nirvana, Foo Fighters and more all flowed from this, quickly expanding from Punk Rock in all directions.
Soon I became pretty obsessed with music, probably insufferably so, especially in the first couple of years of university. Sharing recommendations with people, pointlessly arguing the merits of various acts.
In hindsight it was probably a slightly angry overreaction. Now I understood why people were obsessed with music, and I was too, now that I'd found the music that spoke to me. But for years this had been hidden, I'd been listening to crap on the radio that masked amazing music, human communication and emotions. Instead of playing the good stuff they were peddling trash - the people should be told; and I was going to tell them with sniffy comments and snooty opinions!
The consequences kept coming, only eighteen months after buying the album that I'd decided that I wanted to learn to play guitar, managed to buy one and started teaching myself how to play.
Looking back at Americana almost twenty five years later, some parts have aged better than others; but that's probably more a maturing of my taste. Now the social observations in the lyrics seem to be following the obvious follow up: why aren't the kids alright, what's causing all these people in the same neighbourhood to suffer the same fate?
As a white suburban teen living in a relatively quiet town, the message of taking more responsibility, and fixing the problems yourself, independent of the world around you seems pretty appealing - it means you don't need anyone else, you can do it all yourself if only you want to, and so can anyone else. That's a view that I feel has aged less well, a lot of people's agency is based on their environment, and just telling people to 'get over it' or 'get on with it' isn't really helpful.
The worst example of this is probably on She's Got Issues; Initially just a "Girlfriends are crazy, amiright!? ahah. Now there's a another wooowooo bit to sing along to." to what I understand to be the intention behind the song being, that is you shouldn't blame circumstances for who we are, but take some action to decide who we are.
That's a view that I now struggle with, being much more aware on how circumstances and experiences shape you, meaning it's almost impossible to have an 'independent' view of yourself, and identify behaviours that you do that might be problematic. And even if you did, there's probably a reason why you developed them, and can't just 'leave them behind'.
Now I almost think the song, on a album throwing a spotlight the things wrong with modern life, makes more sense if the protagonist is the problem being highlighted; wanting to start a relationship with someone, but then showing no interest in their feelings or personality, then why do it? instead of selfishly trying to manipulate someone for your own ends.
Even if the album now isn't one I listen to regularly, it's one that opened up a new world to me, and led me to discover things I enjoy to this day. Even now, when I try to dial in a 'good' distorted tone on the guitar, 'The Kid's Aren't Alright' is still one of the first riffs I play.
Something like The Manic Street Preachers 'If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next' is an overtly political song about the Spanish Civil War and successful on the radio, but I didn't get that. ↩
I specifically remember two "Now That's What I Call Music!" (double cassette!) compilations, volume 32 (1995) and volume 35 (1996). There are playlists on most music streaming services, if you want maximum nostalgia. ↩