44 Days That Changed Music and Defined Gen X Vol. 1
A Story Unfolding Across Timelines.
Intro
As the clock counts down to a new year,
and I invite you to join us for the first part of our journey back down memory lane to 1991. These are the moments and memories that defined not just a year but a generation shaped by music that connected us from all corners of the world.Current Time.
Liat Portal: The year 2024 was challenging for me in every way. I went through a metamorphosis. I’ve changed, yet something within me remains the same. It’s hard to find the right words, but I feel that I’ve undergone a kind of transformation on deep levels - spiritual, emotional, biological, and even in my everyday language.
In recent years, I’ve experienced many situations that felt like I was repeating them for the second time or more in my life. It wasn't déjà vu; it was reliving scenarios I had to face in the past, and from what I recall, I wasn’t satisfied with the way I handled things. But this time, with the life experience and insights I’ve gained, I was able to recognize these situations, navigate them much better, and make the right choices for myself.
When we make wise and thoughtful choices in life, it feels good. Even when we find ourselves in less-than-ideal circumstances or facing challenges, making the right choice strengthens something deep within, and the soul grows stronger. This inner strength impacts our spirit, filling us with energy even when all other reserves are depleted.
I'll share much more about 2024 and the experiences it brought, but not today. Today's story will be different. Today, I'll share with you my journey in discovering music, memories I cherish, and pieces of my life. This is how I discovered my path in grunge music, and the tunes have become inseparable from who I am.
Music educated me in so many ways, though I only realized this in my 30s and 40s. The music of the 1990s was powerful in many aspects of life, reflecting real societal problems. That’s one of the reasons why some songs remain immortal. Their message is far more impactful than their melody or tune. Looking back, the 1990s marked a significant era in rock's history and grunge's rise.
Along the way, my journey intersected with Kevin's, and we discovered that we share similar music tastes. Although I shared the draft with him at the last minute, he agreed to collaborate for the second time and also share his memories.
Today, I want to share with you several albums that made me who I am. The first is an album that came out at the beginning of the year, changed my life completely, and made me fall in love with a band I still adore to this day. A few months later that year, I’ll tell you about the 44 greatest days in the history of music from my perspective as a GenX teenager. During those 44 days, seven albums came out, giving us so many unforgettable songs. Seven albums and 44 days that shaped an entire decade. The era of grunge. Together with that life-changing album, these eight albums have become the foundation of my musical journey.
So, let's go back in time to 1991. Israeli newspapers reported on the IDF in Lebanon and on a prisoner exchange deal being forged with Hezbollah. Ahmed Tibi, a Palestinian-Israeli politician back then and Knesset member since 1999, shared reports from his PLO sources claiming that Ron Arad, the navigator held captive in Lebanon, was alive and in good condition. Back then, Ron Arad was still alive, and the government could have done more to bring him back. Whether alive or dead, Arad is still in captivity after 38 years, and none of the governments since 1986 have brought him home.
Kevin, the Knesset is Israel’s parliament, similar to a House of Representatives, with members elected by the public. While Israel includes Palestinian representatives in its Knesset, the governing bodies in the West Bank and Gaza have very limited representation of religious minorities, including Christians and people of other faiths. Jewish representation is effectively nonexistent.
Newspapers' front pages opened with daily reports from the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin barricaded himself in Parliament, calling for a general strike. The United States and the United Kingdom suspended economic aid to the Soviet Union. A state of emergency was declared in Moscow, with tanks patrolling the streets. In 2024, the weight of power struggles remains a constant reminder of history’s unfinished lessons.
Still traumatized from the Gulf War during January and February 1991 and the intensity of living with daily siren alarms announcing that rockets from Iraq were on the way, I was 11 years old and about to start sixth grade. 1991 was the year many GenX and GenY developed PTSD but didn’t know it or even what it was until later in their lives. The Gulf War scared us, the Israelis, in a new way. It was the first time we experienced war with a country that did not border us and launched nonstop missiles daily at civilian targets for over a month. Before that, wars were on battlefields and far from civilian areas, which were off-limits even for our enemies. That war changed the rules of the game for Israelis.
My siblings and I weren’t typical latchkey kids; we were a mix between latchkey kids and being raised by our grandparents. We spent a lot of time with them, and they were obsessed with politics. They read every single item in the daily newspaper and analyzed it from every direction. So, I grew up in an environment where politics was present and discussed all the time. Even though kids my age or older in high school in the 1990s couldn't grasp the full extent of it, it was clear that we were living in an era of global change. While the grownups saw the geopolitical impacts of the events, I felt these changes through music.
The walls had fallen, the Eastern Bloc had disappeared, and it was clear that alongside hope, there was fear for the future, which was reflected in the culture. A new world order. The alternative is becoming mainstream. The fringes became the center, and this is exactly what happened that year, especially during those 44 magical days.
Kevin Alexander: 1991, Portland, Oregon: There was something new coming out every week, and each release took us in a different direction. It wasn’t just chart-friendly pop anymore (though there was still plenty of that, too).
College radio was moving from low-watt campus stations into the mainstream and being rebranded as “alternative,” whatever that meant.
Industrial music was continuing to shapeshift, veering into grittier sounds that reflected a geopolitical era that was kinda sketchy.
Still, other established artists took things into new directions (see you at #6, Siouxsie).
This was the year my divorce from pop radio was finalized.
At the same time, this was the year I turned 16. As I’ve written about before, this also happened to be a wonderful time to be in Portland, where it felt like new bands showed up every weekend. On top of that, I finally got my license and could drive downtown to 2nd Avenue records instead of taking 2 buses to get there.
As for going to shows, I could go to the ones I wanted to, not just the ones the older guys on my block wanted to see. I spent most of this time either listening to music with friends, making mixtapes, blasting it out of my car, or going to shows. When I wasn’t doing that, I was reading about new bands in Flipside and/or saving money to go buy more records.
Sometimes, I even managed to go to school.
In the 90s, people took existing models and bent them to their will…or they just tore them down altogether and built something novel.
And we did it together. People collaborated long before your Instagram timeline was polluted with spammy “DM to Collab” comments from bots. It felt like everyone was in a band. And if you weren’t playing, you were writing. And if you were writing/making a ‘zine, you were doing art for record covers or t-shirts. It was a fantastic time!
No wonder it gave us so many good sounds.
Sure, some will say 1967 or ’69 should be here. Maybe some years punch above their weight because of life events. But look at this list, and you’ll notice something: all of the titles hold up well. They sound as good now as they did 31 years ago.
Pearl Jam-Ten
Nirvana-Nevermind
R.E.M.-Out of Time
Teenage Fanclub-Bandwagonesque
My Bloody Valentine-Loveless
A Tribe Called Quest-The Low-End Theory
Green Day-Kerplunk
Good luck trying to pick a favorite from this list!
I added in my bit here as a contrast to what you were experiencing in TLV. Reading both, it's interesting how fraught life was for you, while in PDX, it was frankly a wonderful time. That said, it's wild to me that we were essentially living opposite existences yet playing the same records.
Liat Portal: R.E.M. has a special place in my heart. Out of Time was the album that taught me how to feel the music just by closing my eyes and letting the tunes flow into my body. The first clip I saw on MTV was “Losing My Religion,” a life-changing line for a girl who was raised in a traditional Jewish home in the suburbs of Haifa.
But as early as I could remember, when I barely understood English, that line was powerful and made me wonder why and how we could lose our religion. While this song felt like hard homework, the contradiction on the other side was "Shiny Happy People," featuring Kate Pierson of the B-52s in the happiest video clip ever.
Two songs on one album show the extreme sides of life, indicating exceptional abilities in shaping the album's frame story and setting the stage for the stories that make up life. They convey the message about the essence of life alongside the wondering, questioning, and doubting thoughts that reflect the complexities of existence.
A few years later, I connected even more to "The Radio Song." The movie Pump Up the Volume made me adore underground radio hosts, so I immediately added almost every song about or related to radio to my playlist.
Kevin Alexander: A lot of R.E.M. fans tend to frown on Radio Song, but I love it. It’s a great song on a record full of them. From that opener to closer “Me In Honey,” it’s just one great track after another.
Liat Portal: We have to listen to it. Let's wrap up the first part by playing The Radio Song.
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Liat
In this journey, I weave together episodes from my life with the rich tapestry of Israeli culture through music, food, arts, entrepreneurship, and more. I write over the weekends and evenings and publish these episodes as they unfold, almost like a live performance.
Each episode is part of a set focused on a specific topic, though sometimes I release standalone episodes. A set is released over several days to make it easier for you to read during your busy workday. If one episode catches your attention, make sure to read the entire set to get the whole picture. Although these episodes are released in sets, you can read the entire newsletter from the beginning, as it flows smoothly, like music to your ears - or, in this case, your eyes.