Reagan’s Lull:

            In 1975 America finally was able to get out of Vietnam. Of 

course this was only one of the major problems plaguing our 

nation at the time. America was thigh high in the Cold War with 

the Soviet Union. The Cold War was an up and down time and was 

causing our country great stress. The music of the era reflected 

anti-war and anti-government sentiments. Punk was first 

conceived during this time. The crooning of The Beatles was gone, 

the bayou ditties of Credence Clearwater Revival were gone, and 

now an influx in Disco and synth music began to take the forefront.

            After the turmoil of the Vietnam War, the US craved 

stability. The stability would come some five years later in the 

form of Ronald Reagan. He took the White House by storm in 1980 

and retained his stranglehold on the country until 1988 when he 

handed it off to his protégé, George Bush. Most conservatives 

consider Reagan a hero because he was both a well-respected 

politician and a great person. Reagan sought to restore America to 

the happy go lucky days of the 1950’s. The bland 50’s had 

spawned rock and roll as a means to escape from the cookie cutter 

mundane life of the average American. A few new genres of music 

was forged from the throws of Reaganomics, among them indie 

rock and grunge. 

            Reagan’s attempts to lull America back to the 50’s worked 

like a charm. Reagan is arguably one of the most influential 

presidents as far as politics go. He was also one of the most 

influential presidents in term of musical innovation. The music 

that was popular during Reagan’s tenure was stuff like Wham! 

Genesis and Soft Cell. The 80’s were the era of wet drums, 

synthesizers and pre-programmed loops. Genesis is pretty much 

the least offensive music ever and was a perfect soundtrack to 

Reagan’s presidency. But with the rise of any trend there comes 

backlash, and this time it happened to be in the form of indie or lo-

fi and grunge. Along with indie rock and grunge, punk and rap 

were just two of the most obvious examples of new types of music 

that arrived during this time. The arrivals of these types of music 

signaled that there was a youth demographic that was completely 

unsatisfied with the Reagan friendly mainstream culture.

            Kids, especially college aged, turned to music such as 

Pavement, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Nirvana, The Pixies and Sonic 

Youth as a means of dealing with the crap they heard everyday on 

the radio. Lo-Fi and grunge spawned similarly to the beats in the 

50’s, in retaliation to everything commercialized and meaningless. 

Modern Ginsberg’s and Kerouac’s began to sprout up in the form 

of musicians and bands. These forgotten rockers were expressing 

the views of an entire unhappy subculture that couldn’t exist 

within the mainstream as Reagan had created. These indie rock 

shows were smaller, more personal, the music more lackadaisical, 

and the lyrics easier to relate to (Fonarow 2006). The stadium rock 

anthems of Asia and Van Halen just didn’t provide the same 

experience. At lo-fi shows you had a group of people who were 

there for the same reason, the music.

This video is a perfect example of an lo-fi show. The crowd is 

small and compact. The venus is small and often indoors at a place 

like a bar. The camera work is amateur at best and the sound 

quality is usually sub-par.