What happened to Hootie?

A bit too hot to be writing outside today! Going to discuss what I planned to do yesterday… Just a fun one about Hootie & The Blowfish. 

I loved Hootie & The Blowfish, which I feel a great deal of America did as well, it really swept the nation. I always say he has such a full voice, great country singer as well… But Hootie & The Blowfish went from like the most popular band to kicked to the curb in what felt like an overnight happenstance… 

I have this theory about what happened… I think just enough “cool kids” (trend setters) decided to say Hootie sucked one day and it just rippled down the social hierarchy. They became too cool, they were so cool that they were uncool. Often times trend setters are after just that, setting the trend, then after it becomes so popular, they want nothing to do with it anymore. On to the next thing to be declared cool… 

So, I think a lot of people still liked Hootie, they just stopped because it became uncool, in fact it did an about face to a, they suck type of deal… It was a shame, I was always amazed by it, as you can see… to go from the biggest thing to out of the game so fast. 

It almost seems one of the worst things that can happen to someone is that they become to cool with teenagers… Can put them right out of business. The goal is then to hopefully survive the uncool phase and continue on with a loyal fanbase. That or never get too cool, and just play to your niche. That was what really got me about Hootie though, they weren’t a one hit wonder, I listen to an album sometimes and can’t believe how many songs they had on one album that were top of the charts. 

They also seemed at a time when like that type of music was dying out, and like grunge was becoming the popular music… I feel Hootie would have done great in like the 70’s… 

It was sad, he came to almost despise the nickname after a while… It was nice to see recently they did a little comeback concert! 

It always stuck with me though, because everybody seemed to be listening to them… then this like social phenomenon happened… You don’t really see it as much anymore, youth have a different attitude at the moment. Hootie time was at a bit of a cultural upheaval…  

It was a time as well, when many young adults from like broken or abusive homes were finding their voice, sparked a lot of research and debate about a lot of family and parenting issues… It was a time of like venting frustration and anger towards parents and society… I think that was a big part of the grunge, it was a bunch of young adults finally coming out and saying what they were feeling on the inside about different issues. More openness about depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and the like. In keeping with that, it also ushered in an era of metal music as well… A lot of people had something to say about things they wanted changed! A lot of pent up emotions came out in the form of music and became a whole cultural change… 

In the same way of like the peace and love movement… this was a different movement centered around more childhood drama, along with other things, much more complex than I am making it sound! 

I think Bill Burr said it well one time… He said, you spend your 20’s and 30’s getting over all the trauma of your childhood…  

Which I will say, I was lucky to have a very good upbringing… so I can’t relate very much to the childhood trauma and neglect… I more was making an observation about a time in our countries history. I hope all of you suffering with issues find peace and comfort… 

Music has certainly led to many emotional cultural upheavals in more recent time… Somebody sings about it, they give you a voice… which you also start to realize how many people are suffering from the same problems… which can cause some big changes… power in numbers for sure, plus the confidence to then share your stories with other people and take action. 

I could probably start talking about music in general, but people spend their whole lives researching the effects of music on society, I could never do it well enough justice in a 500-1000 word blog entry… Let’s just say it is pretty amazing the effect of music on society… the world… 

Well, as usual, this blog got away from me again… You could probably write a book inspired by the phenomenon that happened to Hootie & the Blowfish, they just got caught up in a crazy situation that was also during a new cultural revolution. Always stuck with me though, been trying to understand it all this time, at least 15 or more years now… 

I think I will have to have a little Hootie Jam session after all this discussion! 

Hope you are having a good weekend.