The 1990s genre Joey Ramone couldn’t stand: “All this crap”
The punk movement was born out of hatred: a hatred for politics, for convention, and for what was happening to a lot of music at the time.
The political element came a bit later than the Ramones, thanks to the likes of John Lydon and the Sex Pistols, and while a lot of those British bands would make the case that they invented the punk movement, it was catching the attention of listeners in the US first due to the likes of the Ramones. That hatred for convention is well and truly present in the music that they made and the way they performed, as it was pretty hard for anyone remotely tapped into the music industry to ignore them.
It was clear from the first gig that the Ramones played that they had no intention of following the norm that existed within the industry. They wanted to carve their own path, and that meant both musically and personally, writing songs that channelled a sound and energy that was pretty alien and putting on gigs in spaces that weren’t supposed to hold crowds.
That first gig took place in a studio which was predominantly for rehearsing, but the Ramones wanted to hold a private party for some close friends. The whole thing was pure chaos, as the set was falling down and the limitations of the space became clear. It might have been a mess, sure, but it’s nice that they started as they meant to go on.
This authenticity is something which followed the band around for their entire career. No matter what period in their lives they were in, they were trying to make music that was a real reflection of who they were. It won’t surprise you to hear that this is the kind of music that Joey Ramone liked to listen to in his spare time as well. The moment he was listening to an artist and felt like they were following a formula, he wanted nothing to do with it.
Towards the back end of the 1990s, there were a lot of musicians who were channelling the punk movement of the ‘70s in the form of grunge. Joey Ramone was a big fan of the genre and liked listening to bands such as Hole and Pearl Jam, who were all making a name for themselves. The adoration was mutual as well, as Eddie Vedder was a huge fan of the Ramones, so much so that he gave a speech when they were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
That being said, while Ramone was a fan of a lot of grunge bands, he didn’t like some of the groups in this punk resurgence who seemed to be following a pretty strict formula. These were bands who lost any kind of personality and instead just copied what seemed to be working, standing essentially as a blend of punk and grunge, two styles of music that Ramone was a fan of, but that he hated people taking advantage of.
“There are some really good bands out there,” he said, “I guess my favourite new band is Hole. I find [Courtney Love] to be totally unpredictable and primal, kind of spiritual, and she’s just herself, she’s not buying into all the [expletive]. I like Rancid, I like Green Day. I like the bands that have more of an edge to them.”
He continued, explaining how he hated the groups that followed a new formula rather than making something original with an edge. It wasn’t a specific genre, but a style that some musicians simply refused to deviate from. “There’s this whole formula sound goin’ on where everybody kind of sounds like the Ramones and the singer sounds like a cross between Eddie Vedder and the singer from the Stone Temple Pilots,” said Ramone, “That’s the new sound, like Silverchair and Sponge and all this crap. That’s the new alternative formula.”
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