How much did The Byrds influence alternative rock?
No one would ever doubt that The Byrds had a great deal of influence on the development of rock ‘n’ roll. From The Eagles to Tom Petty, some of the most prominent acts of their generation have credited Roger McGuinn and the band with enabling them to follow the musical path and change their perspective on a personal level.
The tale of the Los Angeles outfit is a well-known one. In their early days, The Byrds featured vocalist Gene Clark and controversial guitarist David Crosby, with this iteration making an indelible impact on psychedelic and raga rock. In another chapter, they pioneered country rock, typified by the 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, during which they featured Gram Parsons, the storied figure behind ‘Cosmic American Music’.
Notably, the band had such an impact that George Harrison of The Beatles admitted that he lifted the riff from ‘The Bells of Rhymney’ for the Rubber Soul song ‘If I Needed Someone’. Even the great Jimi Hendrix heaped praise on The Byrds, claiming that they were on “a different kick”.
Whilst The Byrds impacted some of their most eminent peers, their work has long been cited as more important for its defining influence on the development of alternative rock and indie. Ostensibly, this comes via the jangly sound of Roger McGuinn’s 12-string Rickenbacker, which is hailed as a progenitor to the works of The Smiths’ Johnny Marr and Peter Buck of R.E.M.
Elsewhere, the influential C86 movement of Britain, which sprung up in the mid-1980s in the wake of The Smiths and R.E.M., is also regarded as a successor to The Byrds. A loose-knit group characterised by jangly guitars and powerful choruses, it draws together early works by Primal Scream, The Wedding Present, The Soup Dragons, The Pastels and more.
In addition to McGuinn’s jangly guitar, his proto-power-pop choruses also connect these bands to The Byrds. Just take the tracks ‘5D (Fifth Dimension)’ or ‘I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better’, for example. Even today, you can hear their influence alive and well in the music of contemporary artists.
It has also been noted that The Byrds impacted the post-punk movement, which had its first wave in the late 1970s and early 1980s and preceded alternative rock. Since then, the subgenre has enjoyed two popular resurgences, with the influence of The Byrds becoming apparent once more. For instance, original post-punk guitarists such as John McGeoch exhibited their influence through his jangly sound and busy arpeggiating. More recent bands, such as Preoccupations, have done the same through their psychedelic-tinted style and sporadic use of the 12-string.
This is all well and good, but what is really interesting about The Byrds’ impact on alternative rock is that the two acts that are invariably tied to their sound – Johnny Marr and R.E.M. – have both been dismissive of their influence.
Although there are many similarities between The Byrds and Marr’s work in The Smiths, with there even a rumour that one of his Rickenbackers once belonged to Roger McGuinn, he told Magnet in 2002 that he had never listened to them before critics started drawing parallels. He said: “It was only when the press started mentioning the Byrds that I went and checked the Byrds out. It’s kind of nuts to talk about this stuff. I only know about these things because people have told me.”
Following this, in a 1983 interview with Trouserpress magazine, R.E.M. discussed how they were broadly regarded as a 1960s-styled outfit and direct descendants of acts like The Byrds. They, too, shrugged off the parallels between them and McGuinn’s band. “That’s not invalid, but it’s not very valid either,” Peter Buck said. “There’s no conscious ’60s influence. The idea that you can do whatever you want with pop songs, and play around with structures, as we do, is more punk to me than anything else – not that we’re a punk band. Maybe it’s because we’re melodic rather than buzzsaw that we come across as a ’60s band.”
Of the comparisons to The Byrds, he continued: “I probably listen to people that stole from the Byrds more often than the Byrds. I’ve got one Byrds album, and it’s the one that doesn’t sound anything like them – Sweetheart of the Rodeo – because I love Gram Parsons. The Byrds are OK, but none of us ever paid much attention to them.”
The remarks from Marr and Buck are fascinating, as they bring into question how much of a direct influence The Byrds actually had on alternative rock, contrary to what fans have been led to believe. Of course, they laid down the foundations on which many others would build, but it does make you wonder if their relationship to rock needs a re-evaluation. At this point, it seems as if their influence is characterised only by using a specific type of instrument, which gets rather tenuous.
Compounding this, when scouring the internet, it becomes readily apparent that outside of their generation, few bands have openly cited them as idols. One of the most prominent members of the latter category is The Bangles, who, when forming in 1981, called for band members who were “into the Beatles, Byrds and Buffalo Springfield”. Hammering home the point, The Bangles are a pop rock band.
