I've always found it interesting when there is some sort of media within media. I mean things like Itchy and Scratchy, which is a fictitious show within the Simpsons universe. It just seems kind of sureal when pop-culture has to look inward and create fake versions of itself. I mean, Itchy and Scratchy is probably better remembered than many actual TV shows, even though it never really existed. It was a great satire of American cartoons, but it's also fascinating when they do a bad job of creating the fictional media, and it sticks out like a sore thumb. That often happens when they need to create a musician that exists within the story. You can read about plenty of them in the Rocklopedia Fakebandica.
I had that experience recently while watching a Frasier rerun. There was a brief scene with Dr. Crane dealing with noise from his upstairs neighbour, who turns out to be a rock star, I believe named Johnny Chainsaw. It's kind of surprising he'd have such problems, since people have speculated about how preposterous expensive his condo must be, given its spaciousness and perfect view of the Space Needle. I assumed that such expensive digs were immune to these mundane troubles.
But there were plenty of unrealistic aspects. For one thing, the music was rock, and it was coming through fairly clearly; as someone who's had troubles with loud neighbours I can tell you that it's really only bass that gets through building materials, particularly with dance and hip hop. But it made me think about how rock was depicted in 80's and 90's sitcoms. It was always shown in a very superficial way, only used for cheap jokes about noise or uncivilized teenagers. To be clear, I wasn't expecting a backstory about the upstairs neighbour. And no, I wasn't expecting a nod to the Seattle Scene, as that wouldn't really fit with the show. Though strangely, that's the first time I've ever realized how weird it is that the city's two claims to 90's pop-cultural fame were so different. Great, now I'm going to be thinking about that all day.
But back to my point: this isn't the first time I've encountered this sort of vague, inaccurate depiction of rock in other media. In particular, there seems to be a specific type of rock that never existed anywhere outside the imaginations of Baby-Boomers. It's a kind of atonal blending of punk, glam, and heavy metal that clearly exists for no reason than to annoy others. Of course, the interesting aspect to this fake rock is that it tells us how older people saw the rock of the 80's and 90's. It was kind of a vague vision of unfocused rebellion, with no notice taken of the variations or nuances.
I don't know if early rock got a similar treatment from the media of the 50's and 60's. I haven't seen many episodes of I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners; did they have references to the music young people were listening to? The impression I get is that in that era people preferred to ignore what they didn't like rather than address it or even ridicule it.
Also, I haven't noticed a similar approach to hip hop in recent decades. I guess that's because traditional sitcoms are fewer and farther between. And because it's harder to work it into shows that are dominated by white casts. Too bad, that would have been fun to watch white writers creating a fake rapper every few seasons.
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