Alright, I’ll admit upfront that I’m a little biased here. Pearl Jam was my favorite band growing up and retains a place in my heart. I like them so much, that they got me to visit the new social networking whipping boy, MySpace, today. Why? Because the band’s new single, “The Fixer” premiered exclusively on MySpace Music.
Now, I know Pearl Jam was one of the most popular bands on the planet during its heyday in the grunge-stricken 90s, but these days, they’re no match for the likes of Daughtry, and whatever else American Idol throws at us. So that’s why it’s fairly surprising to see that Pearl Jam’s new single has just about 100,000 plays in just a couple hours.
Pearl Jam, long a fighter against the establishment (see: the band’s testimony before Congress against Ticketmaster), went with MySpace Music to debut the single rather than iTunes or Amazon (where you’d have to pay to buy it) or other streaming sites like Imeem. Not sure why, but hey, it’s free and I’m back on MySpace listening to it.
If MySpace wants to slow its descent in the traffic race with Facebook, it seems like exclusive single releases like this are a solid way to go. Just tweet them out and watch the traffic roll in. Not sure that they’re making much money off it, but it’s pageviews and people on the site, clicking around.
Bands who use MySpace to promote themselves are very smart. I respect their music property more and more every day.
They’d do well to consider shifting focus of the site toward the bands, since the socialization aspect is clearly tanking.
Pearl Jam was never half as a cool as Nirvana…
Wow, don’t think I’ve had this debate in like 14 years.
yeah, Nirvana were the kings.
I’ll play this game. The Foo Fighters are better than Nirvana
lol are you kidding me?
what about soundgarden?
Dangerous words
lmao @ Foo Fighters better than Nirvana. How old are ya? I would prefer Bar Tranquilizers any day, on the rocks.
Quite possibly the dumbest comment ever on TC, and there’s been a ton of ‘em
what about Temple of the Dogs?
do you think myspace paid pearl jam any money for the exclusive launch?
There’s no debate dude – it’s like historic fact!
Boom!
Let us not forget Smashing Pumpkins if we are going to have this debate. Probably the most “refined” of the three.
well, proves an MG point — (even though i think you are 20 years younger and a northwesterner with a bias), that myspace *could* be the place where people get social about their passions for media (music, vid, art, self-promotion). when they get to we 40+ guys with not just great grunge (love it) and rap, but also the Husker Du Replacements, etc. genre, i’m in.
You must be drunk
Pearl jam was nothing but a Nirvana wanna-be, cashing in on the grunge popularity of the time. If you don’t believe it, ask Cobain.
? Listening to the records outside the hype, I can’t tell the two bands are from the same era or apart of the same scene. Check out ‘Even Flow’ from Ten compared to say ‘Lithium’ from Nevermid.
The main common thing seems to be a strong lead vocalist.
Love the both of ‘em though
Nirvana is not half as alive as PJ
I guess finally MySpace got something right. Pearl Jam is one of my favorites too. I’ll check out their song. Thanks for the post.
MySpace just wont die will it?
pearl jam fav while growing up? damn you old
I always thought MySpace was the wrong place for musicians. But then I saw iTunes and changed my mind.
MySpace learns an old lesson: if you can’t change the product, change the packaging. If you can’t (or already have) change the packaging, get a celebrity endorsement. If you can’t (or already have) a celebrity endorsement, have a product (or tchotchke) giveaway. If you’ve already given something away, have a contest.
Rinse and repeat.
They did it because they are doing this album without a record label.
And, dude, Nirvana? Come on now.
Skip myspace though, and listen on my site
I wouldn’t go to myspace if Jesus himself put his debut album up there.
Nirvana were the kings of grunge. Pearl Jam was never grunge.
Pearl Jam = best alt rock band of all time. Give Nirvana the grunge title…
^ Truth
and the Screaming Trees never got their due. Sweet Oblivion is one of the best albums from that time
I fully agree with you Mr. Blaylock
I guess we can call it flannel rock if we must.
The only beef I have with this article is that not only do you try to compare Pearl Jam to Daughtry, but you have the audacity to say Daughtry is better.
I have to ask: are you retarded?
And Peter, Pearl Jam was indeed grunge. It seems like none of you actually listen to the music you debate. True, Nirvana was good, but how much of their present hype do you think is attributed to Cobain’s ill-timed (and predicted) demise and not so much their actual talent as a musical act. Not to say they weren’t talented, but let’s get real here.
in no way did i indicate daughtry is better than pearl jam. i’m pretty sure i’ve never even heard a daughtry song, i just saw them (him?) on top of itunes album charts.
Daughtry is an insult to music
You seem to be a rock-poser. How can you write something about which you don’t even know.
Things aside, what’s your top 5 band(rock/metal/etc) picks of all time?
“…but these days, they’re no match for the likes of Daughtry, and whatever else American Idol throws at us.”
Sounds like a direct comparison to me. And if you’ve never heard a Daughtry song (don’t worry, they all suck ass) what the hell are you doing 1.) writing about them, 2.) drawing comparisons to them, 3.)making blanket statements concerning American Idol gimmicks versus legendary American musical acts.
For shame.
and the Screaming Trees never got their due. Sweet Oblivion is one of the best albums from that time.
agreed. love screaming trees.
MG-
Loved the post so much that I put a link to the MySpace page on my Facebook profile. Funny thing is, now the link is gone! Does FB monitor and delete content like this? Shady stuff.
What the F !?! I tried this and my post is gone, too. That really pisses me off !!
You guys seem pretty clueless about Myspace. Yes, Myspace sucks for the most part. And yes, Facebook is kicking its ass from a social network perspective. However, Myspace is way ahead of Facebook when it comes to bands promoting themselves. A ton of bands (Especially in the metal/rock/rap genres) use Myspace as their de facto websites. The CSS customization options provide each band with a good opportunity to create almost any type of page they’d like. And many bands gauge their own success by how many Myspace audio plays they get per day. Bands/musicians are pretty much the only thing saving Myspace right now.
And as for exclusive streams, Myspace has been doing it for years now. It’s not like they just started doing this with the Pearl Jam thing.
I’ve used their “CSS customization options” and you should be ashamed of yourself for posting this. Don’t think for a second that the momentum can’t be switched to some other social network, FB or otherwise. Heck, the only advantage MySpace has at this time is the ability to post 800×300 gig flyers on someone else’s page.
Ashamed for posting what? If you know what you’re doing, you can do some pretty sweet stuff. Check out art shops like Sons of Nero and the Myspace layouts they’re doing.
And of course momentum can be switched, but thousands of bands are not going to drop their tricked out Myspace profiles with tens of thousands of “friends” at the drop of a hat.
In terms of the 90’s: Nirvana were the Beatles and Pearl Jam are the Stones… They are still playing, while the other may have been arguably more influential on music, they are dead now…
People that say they only had one good album or that they were only big in the early 90s… well, they are the types that listen to Daughtry. Only hearing what the radio and top 100 wants you to hear. Just because a band faded from the spotlight doesn’t mean they lost it. Au contraire…
They still manage to sell out world wide stadium tours… and sometimes it’s just on a whim without a new album.
Pearl Jam is hands down the best rock and roll band currently playing on the planet… It is pointless to argue.
“Pearl Jam is hands down the best rock and roll band currently playing on the planet”
WTF! Firstly, Pearl Jam is a Grunge-Rock band, a genre that is like fast/junk food. Rock is a broad genre. PJ prolly figure in the top 10 “Grunge Rock” bands of the day, may be the latter 5 . Please do a sanity check over your axiomatic f statements.
Pearl Jam doesn’t even figure in the top 25 ROCK bands of the day. Ever heard of Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Dylan(Folk Rock), ACDC, U2 etc. ? Even Seattle doesn’t play their sound these days.
I’ll give you Metallica and U2, but ACDC, Maiden, and Megadeth? Pearl Jam is way more consistent in song writing ability than those three IMO.
I agree with everyone that says the mention of Daughtry as a comparison to Pearl Jam is disgraceful. But I think I caught (hope) the underlying statement is that modern rock is now regurgitated overly produced garbage that needs to be destroyed.
As for Pearl Jam vs Nirvana (yes I grew up listening to those bands and I don’t consider myself OLD)… Both of them had their place, Nirvana is incredible, but the premature ending of the band has increased it’s idolization of music in the early 90’s. Much can be said for Sublime as well, who for thier genre I would say was an equal powerhouse as Nirvana.
Overall the quality, depth, and variety of music that Pearl Jam has placed them above Nirvana in my book.
If Foo Fighters and Nirvana were both around at this moment (yes I understand the paradox), I think Foo Fighters would still be a better band. Could Foo Fighters ever exist without Nirvana, now that’s another question.
Ur old even if you don’t think u are
Whatever! Nirvana were great but were channelling The Pixies, Bob Mould and the sound pioneered by bands like StraightJacket fits from Dunedin, New Zealand. Pearl Jam were awesome and have always honoured the fact that they were heavily influenced by Split Enz – also from New Zealand. The Smashing Pumpkins took it to another level!
With recorded music only making up about 6% of a supergroup’s revenue these days aligning yourself with MySpace and Target is the fastest way of announcing we’ll be coming to your town soon to make real money.
Wow some of you must not have been around in the early 90’s because you have no idea what you’re talking about. At the time of Cobain’s death, Pearl Jam was much more popular than Nirvana, which is why Ten outsold Nevermind and Vs. outsold In Utero. Then the herion junky shoots himself in the head and becomes immortilized as some god.
FYI, the reason Cobain talked sh*t on Pearl Jam was because of a fued when Green River split up between Jeff, Stone, Mark & Steve. Mark felt Jeff and Stone were just in it for the money. Kurt took Mark’s side and the rest is history. However, Mark must have made peace with Jeff and Stone later as Mark’s band Mudhoney has opened for Pearl Jam numerous times.
And lastly, I grew up as a huge fan (and still am) of Metallica, Maiden, AC/DC, U2 etc… Pearl Jam is better than all of them. Go to one of their live shows and you’ll see why. Best live rock act out there! Which is probably why they still still sell out arenas all over the world with little radio airplay. And it’s probably the reason why they were chosen to be the last band to play the historic Spectrum in Philadelphia (2 shows sold out so far, 2 more rumored to be announced).
love how this post has turned into a music forum debate. wasn’t the main topic MySpace getting the PJ exclusive over iTunes & Amazon?
btw, (forgetting about the awesomeness of Ten, etc.) has anybody acknowledged how freaking AWESOME this new PJ track is??? great to have them back on top of their game!!
The early 90s for me was a blur of spilled spaghetti sauce and baby clothes, but I still know enough to say that half the comments in this forum are absurd. First off, people who were old enough in the early 90s to be able to fully appreciate the grunge movement and its impact on our society are NOT OLD! I happen to work with a “grungester” and he is far from what I would call old. You are all retarded.
Second, how bout we stop badmouthing Cobain. What did the guy do wrong besides make great music and live his life the way he wanted to? His suicide should come as no surprise; if any of you young kids took the time to read the memoirs of the bands you’re bashing, you would know that Cobain never wanted to be famous, he just wanted to express himself and try to escape his shitty childhood. His suicide bordered on a planned self-murder, if that’s even a grammatically acceptable phrase.
Could we all just do some research before we spout off our diarrhea of the mouth? My two cents…
You’re all a bunch of poseurs.
Everyone knows that Tad was the king of grunge.
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