Beck Goes Back To High School

It is true that we are in the middle of a 90s revival.  Hole, Stone Temple Pilots, Hole and Alice and Chains are all on tour this summer, and if you haven't noticed in my obsessive blog posts, a Kurt Cobain bio pic is in the works.  Now, I don't know if you can really call Beck straight 90s because he never really went anywhere, but I feel like high schoolers are seeing a lot more of him.

I am not ashamed to admit that I watch "Glee".  I know I make fun of American Idol for essentially being karaoke,  but at least "Glee" is professional karaoke with a plot.  I am sadly getting more and more into it the more I watch it as well, and I was beyond thrilled when I heard that opening guitar line for Beck's "Loser".  I thought, this can't be "Loser" can it?  Then I remembered how dark "Glee" can get and was reminded why the show is so good.  "Loser" was released in 1993 and was responsible for Beck going mainstream.  After the success of this genius of a song he was signed to major label, two years later we had One Foot In the Grave and then a year after that the world was introduced to the masterpiece that is Odelay.  I applaud Beck for allowing "Loser" to introduced to a new generation of fans, and hope they look into his other work as well.

This is not the only instances of Beck hitting the high school market.  Beck is one of what has become an amazing line up of artist for the third "Twilight" Soundtracks, "Twilight: Eclipse". Vampire Weekend, The Dead Weather, The Black Keys,  Muse and Beck all have new songs on this album making it possibly the best soundtrack of the 21st century so far.  Interesting that the song Vampire Weekend submitted was written by Ezra Koenig in high school.  He knew his audience.  Beck's contribution is a song called, "Let's Get Lost" and is a duet with Natasha Khan of Bat for Lashes.  I think this is another great way to introduce the musical genius to a new younger audience.  Also maybe it will get crazy tween girls off Taylor Swift and into some of these other amazing artists.

While I appreciate that Beck's music is reaching new audiences I doubt his intentions were entirely artistic.  Both "Glee" and "Twilight" are huge franchises that make tons of money.  With records sales barely holding on, tapping into these two bases is probably one of the easiest ways for an artist to make money.  I'm sure this was not lost on Beck, or at least not his manager.  Either way, bring on more Beck!