How music affects you when you’re young (or, the joys of Jane’s Addiction)

“In the late 1980s human beings were your YouTube algorithm. Flesh-and-blood people introduced you to the music that changed your life.” —Rolf Potts

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and and Tod talk about Tod’s experience of being in the Jane’s Addiction “Stop!” video (3:00); Rolf reads his essay about discovering the album “Nothing’s Shocking” in 1989 (7:00); Rolf and Tod discuss what it was like to see Jane’s Addiction in the southern California music scene of the mid-late 1980s, versus what listening to AOR radio music was like in the middle of the country (19:30); how radio programming, independent record stores, and personal relationships dictated musical tastes in the 1980s, and how music enabled certain alternative lifestyles (30:00); how Jane’s Addiction influenced the sound of certain 1990s Seattle grunge bands, (38:00); what it’s like when you’re older to listen to music you loved when you were young, and how online algorithms and new technologies have changed the way people now listen to music (44:00); and the legacy of bands like Jane’s Addiction and how they changed the way we listen to music now.

Novelist Tod Goldberg (@todgoldberg) is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books, including the novel Gangsterland, which is currently being developed into a television series for Amazon. He is also the director of the University of California-Riverside Palm Desert Low-Residency MFA, and the co-host of the Literary Disco podcast.

Notable links:

• The 33 1/3 B-sides: Authors on Beloved Albums (book)
• Jane’s Addiction (alternative band)
• Nothing’s Shocking (Jane’s Addiction album)
• Ian MacKaye on the official history of rock music (Deviate episode)
• Jane’s Addiction’s “Stop!” MTV video
• Andrew McCarthy on how travel changed his life (Deviate episode)
• Dramarama (1980s alternative rock band)
• KROQ (radio station)
• High Fidelity (movie)
• Grunge (heavy 1990s “Seattle sound” rock music)
• Nirvana (1990s alternative rock band)
• Pansexuality (sexual orientation)
• Alternative Press (magazine)
• John the Baptist (biblical figure)
• Mother Love Bone (pre-Pearl Jam alternative band)
• Temple of the Dog (1990s rock supergroup)
• Bruce Springsteen’s cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain”
• New Order‘s “Age of Consent” (song)
• Gary Numan‘s “M.E.” (song)

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Tod Goldberg and Jane’s Addiction bassist Eric Avery at Mt. Baldy in 1990.

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.