music in 2002; Muse, Eminem, Gorillaz

In 2002, with nothing like a Myspace network around yet, American music

dominated the lives of UK teenagers living outside of the cities. The rebellious strains

of punk and metal kept trying to burst through the filter-system of the hugely

influential MTV where pop-punk, nu-metal and heavily censored hip-hop vvyed for

the attention of kids looking for something more ...

While The Foo Fighters and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers retained some credibility,

Good Charlotte were moving in on Blink 182, Limp Bizkit were holding a national

audition for a new guitarist, Linkin Park and Nickleback were going multi-multi-

platinum ... and, with 2002 being hailed as the second golden age of hip-hop, good

old Eminem was everywhere ...

Meanwhile, just below the radar in the US, a garage-rock revival was happening.

Spearheaded by The Strokes, many of these bands used a post-Brit-pop UK to build a

head of steam in order to help launch their careers back in the States, in much the

same way Nirvana had done almost a decade earlier. The British music press

responded warmly, hailing The Strokes as 'the saviours of rock' whilst at the same

time welcoming Kiwi band The Datsun's as 'the future of rock'.

In the frantic search for a homegrown equivalent, a band called The Libertines

had been signed and quickly stole everyone's hearts with the arresting chemistry of

frontman combo, Carl Barat and one Pete Doherty, opening the doors for other UK

bands to save the airwaves from the 'nu-sensitive' sound of Coldplay and Star sailor.

While everyone wondered if imports The Hives and The White Stripes were clever

pastiches, with an unmistakeably British sense of irony, The Darkness were getting

ready to take the limelight ...

However, none of this lot seemed really 'new' as far as the older characters in our

story were concerned. Even the cutting edge screamo/emo or new dance stuff that

was beginning to take hold way below the radar, though interesting, would not have

sounded particularly new.

Many younger kids were looking back to bands like The Pixies and Nirvana or

even The Doors. Looking at the profiles of some of the younger characters of the

story, we find that the contemporaneous UK acts of some interest were Muse,

Gorillaz ... and a scottish guy called Rico ...

But before you judge the tastes of our younger heroes remember 2002 was also

before Arcade Fire ... and Pendulum ... Way before Hadouken! ... And even before

Test Icicles ...

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