We Don't Talk Enough About 90's Musical Greats Like Blues Traveler
I posted this tweet the other night and it went lunar. I was shocked.
I got down a rabbit hole late the other night searching online for a famous interview Howard Stern did with Liam Gallagher way back before the band broke up, that I heard on Sirius, and have never been able to find since. (Sidebar - if anybody has this or knows where I can find it, I will owe you for life.)
One of the videos that popped up while I was scouring, was this one of Blues Traveler. And it knocked my socks off.
I posted that snippet on twitter and couldn't believe the response. An overwhelming amount of people agree, that we don’t talk enough about the real legends of the '90s music scene enough.
Everyone remembers the boy bands, the grunge movement, and, of course, the pop princesses, but there was a whole other side to the ‘90s music revolution, one that deserves more attention than it gets today. One of the biggest casualties of that shift is Blues Traveler, in particular their charismatic lead singer, John Popper.
Blues Traveler didn’t just belong to the era of CDs and tapes- they were the heartbeat of it. These guys toured relentlessly (still do in fact), pumped out catchy jams, and with Popper’s signature harmonica, they laid the groundwork for what could’ve been a new era of American rock.
Tracks like "Run-Around" and "Hook" are still classics today, but the sad truth is that they don’t carry the same weight in the pop culture conversation as they should.
Their lead singer John Popper is one of one. The guy wasn’t just the lead singer, he was the band’s soul. With that deep, raspy voice and his insane harmonica skills, Popper was an anomaly in a sea of cookie-cutter ‘90s frontmen. He didn’t fit the mold of what you’d expect from a rock star, but that’s exactly what made him stand out.
His harmonica skills are next level- and his ability to seamlessly weave it into the band’s signature blend of rock, blues, and soul set Blues Traveler apart.
I have a theory on why they, and bands like them, got somewhat overlooked. And I think the reason they might’ve been swept under the rug of history has to do with the transition from physical music to digital.
They were at the perfect crossroads, smack dab in the middle of the CD era, right when Napster and the early days of illegal downloading turned the music world upside down. For a band that built its name on strong album sales and relentless touring, this shift hit them hard.
Their music was everywhere. Too much, in fact, thanks to the internet, often pirated and swapped around more than it was purchased.
In some ways, they got caught in a generation gap. The music industry was changing, but the infrastructure to support those changes wasn’t yet there. The streaming revolution hadn’t quite arrived, and piracy was a huge problem that a lot of bands, especially those that hadn’t quite made it to the top of the mainstream mountain, had a hard time recovering from. Blues Traveler's music, so deeply rooted in the culture of '90s rock, suffered a fate similar to a lot of great bands from that era: their legacy was diluted, lost in the shuffle of the massive transition the music world was undergoing.
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Fast-forward to today, and while some '90s bands have seen their music enjoy a resurgence (Nirvana), many of the greats from the alternative and blues-rock scene, bands like Blues Traveler, Gin Blossoms, and Collective Soul to name a few, are underappreciated.
The music world has moved on to a digital landscape that rarely rewards depth, instrumental prowess, or meaningful songwriting in the way that the '90s did.
Sad stuff.