I’ve been listening to the new Rapture album In the Grace of Your Love a lot lately, as you might have read in my previous post. To me, it’s a nice welcome back for the Brooklyn group, who I consider to be one of the quintessential bands from the past decade. For me, the likes of The Rapture, The Strokes, BRMC and Yeah Yeah Yeahs help revive rock and roll in America, which had been dying a slow and painful death in the 90s with acts like Limp Bizkit, Korn and Everlast running wild. They were also a staple at local indie night club, The Dance Cave where the track House of Jealous Lovers would get regular play (always followed by the Raveonette’s Great Love Sound) for those formative adult years of my life (2003-2006). It’s fairly obvious that I have quite a fond history with the band so it came to a complete surprise when I casually mention to a younger indie blogger friend of mine how much I liked the new album and then she had no idea who they were/never heard their songs*.
What?
The Rapture?
House of Jealous Lovers?
I was initially shocked. However, I took a step backed and looked at the facts:
a) The Rapture’s first album was released in 2003
b) The Rapture’s second album was released in 2006
c) The Rapture’s third album was released in 2011.
That’s a five year gap between albums. So basically, if you took your average 18-23 year old (the type who goes to Dance Cave), subtract five to eight years, then you realize that most of the hip taste makers of today (according to advertising agencies) would have been mere preteens the last time The Rapture was popular. It’s not unfair to think that they were probably listening to Miley Cyrus or Hilary Duff in those days instead of hip disco-funk indie acts.
I’m not sure what my point is, but it seems entirely weird to me that a band was popular just about five years ago could be potentially unknown an entire generation of cool kids of today. Maybe the point is I’m getting old and should stop over-analyzing random passing conversations made on facebook.
Then again, maybe they weren’t THAT popular.
Here’s House of Jealous Lovers
* parts of this interaction might have been dramatized for greater effect
