In Spin’s September issue, David Marchese profiles Muse—a trio from small-town England who have become one of the country’s biggest bands. They’ve recently headlined festivals at Glastonbury, Leeds, and Reading, and sold out Wembley Stadium… twice. And yet, Muse has remained relatively unknown in the U.S.—at least until next month when they’ll open up for U2 at Giants Stadium.
So why the Stateside obscurity? Well, as Spin notes, much of it had to do with common misunderstandings between the band and its U.S. label, Maverick Records. But the more germane issues have to do with larger differences in American and British tastes and the music media that feeds and informs them.
In every sense—musically, thematically, philosophically—Muse make massive rock ’n’ roll. Singer/guitarist Matt Bellamy has a soaring, mournful falsetto that falls somewhere between Thom Yorke and Freddie Mercury. And his band plays sweeping, blindingly Technicolor prog rock that falls somewhere between Emerson, Lake and Palmer and (again) Queen, but is somehow bigger, bolder, and more ridiculous that both. (For those of you already familiar with Muse, forgive the lecture.) Bellamy claims Chopin, George Orwell, and evolutionary biologist (and noted atheist) Richard Dawkins as influences for his band’s latest and most retardedly ambitious record yet, “The Resistance,” due out next month. Bellamy is one of the few rock stars who can, sans irony, say things like this: “We’d like to be remembered amongst the best bands in the history of rock.”
Muse, in other words, are rock stars in the traditional sense. The band’s belief that bigger is always better—that riffing on Chopin’s “Nocturne No. 2 in E Flat,” which the band does on “United States of Eurasia (+ Collateral Damage”),” is a bold artistic statement—is vintage pre-punk rock star.
Today, these kinds of rock stars simply play much better in England. While the U.S. passed on the band (Muse’s first record, 1999’s “Showbiz” flopped in the States, and Maverick rejected their follow-up, 2001’s “Origin of Symmetry,” after Bellamy refused to tone-down his operatic falsetto), the U.K. quickly embraced them. 2003’s “Absolution” and 2006’s “Black Holes & Revelations” sold five million copies worldwide. The British music press, though seriously weakened, still has a much stronger grip on taste-making than its American cousin, and, in a country of only 61 million people, it has an easier time rallying fans around bands and focusing their energies. This, in turn, makes rock ’n’ roll myth-making a more straightforward business, and folks like Muse, artists who live for the big-time (literally and aesthetically), feed off the energy and prosper. Bands who want to be the biggest in the world, still can be… at least in Britain.
This just isn’t the case in the U.S. There are only a handful of music mags left with a national audience (Spin, Rolling Stone, The Source, maybe Paste), and, of course, the U.S. dwarves the U.K. in terms of size and population. All of this makes consensus much more difficult to produce and sustain. Even more importantly, over the last decade—the length of Muse’s career—the Internet has become the primary engine of pop music culture in this country, thus making it even harder for tastes to coalesce around particular bands over the long term. (Much of this has been confirmed in conversations I’ve had with U.K. musicians, namely Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit.)
Furthermore, blog culture—independent, localized, eccentric—is, broadly speaking, suspicious off bands like Muse, and rock stars in general. It’s no coincidence that as the Web has become pop music’s central marketplace and debate room, so too has independent music come to dominate U.S. pop. But while America’s Jack White, Caleb Followill, and Beth Ditto are certainly rock stars, aesthetically, they’re miles away from Muse, with their schizoid light shows and three-part symphonic tributes to the birth of mankind.
Oasis—a band notorious for their gleeful embrace of rock star histrionics—met with difficulty in the U.S. for many of the same reasons. While American fans largely abandoned the band after 1997’s overblown, coke-addled “Be Here Now,” Brits, egged on by NME and other pubs, continued to follow the Gallagher brothers’ every move. (Though it looks like the band’s fans may have finally run out of luck. Noel split with Oasis last Friday, saying he “simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.”)
Blog culture is, of course, alive and well in England. The country is chock full of musicians (big and small) who aren’t operating under the assumption that their next record will change the world. And there are certainly bands in the U.S. who would love to lead us into the fifth dimension—Of Montreal’s front man Kevin Barnes has been known to ride out on stage on top of a horse. But there are shockingly few, if any, bands left in the U.S. with Muse’s chutzpah operating at Muse’s level. And there won’t be anytime soon. The kind of rock star Bellamy represents died a long time ago.
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Jonathan-X- says:
Well done John. Great perspective! I grew up on Supertramp, Rush, Yes, Pink Floyd and Queen, so I really appreciate the genius Muse represents. This kind of rock really originated with Sergent Peppers, spread to Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon and went on from there. I love Muse even more than those that have come before and that is perhaps saying too much but Muse has captivated me and made me feel like a Groupy level fan.
I once played Origion of Symetry for a woman who was classically trained, loved Opera but not Rock at all. Her mouth continually opened in awe and said that she had never heard such amazing classically based music in her life!
Many accuse them as being pretentious but I sure the likes of Mozart met the same opposition...
David Whiteside - Producer says:
Not sure if I agree with your point that Muse has remained unknown in the US. For the past three years it has been virtually impossible to tune into a major corporately owned rock music radio station without hearing either "Knights of Cydonia" or "Starlight." Or maybe they're only big here in Los Angeles?
lulu says:
Great article! This band WILL be big time in the US, just like the UK greats before them. I can't believe that the VMAs will be their first performance for American TV! Everyone is in for such a treat... I want my friends who have never heard of them (other than Starlight or from Guitar Hero) to remember I told them so - 5 years ago.
andrews says:
what a piece o shit!!! it is just worse than get your finger trapped with the door! please,I loose my precious time playing that video...what is fucking going on with the musicians today? well...musicians...big word for that kind of assholes...
dan says:
@David -- no play in Ohio / Michigan until the past year on corporate radio ... now they can be heard daily on "shuffle rock" stations.
Susan says:
@Dave - Here in the Boston area there is only 1 radio station that plays Muse, and that station caters to a smaller alternative rock audience...so Boston hasn't been primed for them. When Muse shows up at Gillette Stadium with U2, Bostonians are in for a treat.
"The kind of rock star Bellamy represents died a long time ago."
Perhaps this is true, but maybe it's time for a resurrection. Even if this type of rock star "died", the fans did not.
MuseRockrFAN says:
Muse plays incredible music ... classical waves with rich mixtures of rock.
Seeming them live is even better ... because some of the riffs, bass and drum themes build and swell to incredible energy levels.
Just a blast to hear ... have seen them in Dallas and loved them.
When they come here for U2 ... it will be a Massive Plug in Baby thrill !!!
Plug In Baby says:
"But there are shockingly few, if any, bands left in the U.S. with Muse’s chutzpah operating at Muse’s level. And there won’t be anytime soon. The kind of rock star Bellamy represents died a long time ago."
The reason that we don't have any bands of that ilk is because unlike across the pond, no record label has the balls to take on such a band. They want something that they control, that they can manipulate. Hence why Muse got dropped from their American label, because they refused to bow down and become what they wanted them to become, a manufactured corporate rock band. Sure it resulted in "Origin of Symmetry" not being released in the US for 5 years, which meant that Americans were introduced to Muse at a much later time than the rest of the world, but at least they didn't compromise their integrity in exchange for popularity. Another thing that separates Muse from most modern bands. Second, I concur with the statement that the kind of rock Muse represents died a long time ago. In fact, I'm shocked that a band like Muse exists in this day and age. Their music seems too good to be from this era, they seem like they would be more in place in the 70s among counterparts like Led Zeppelin, Queen, Pink Floyd, The Who and such. Today, there is no band that can give Muse that kind of competition. But I'm glad they do exist today. They give me hope, in the barrage of mediocrity that surrounds me. Muse is the most talented, most original, most innovative band today. At least they're one thing that keeps a music lover like me from tearing my hair out of frustration. One might say that when Freddie Mercury died, the kind of rock star he represented died too. And there will never be another Freddie Mercury or another band like Queen, so his premature death will always remain a big, tragic loss to the world of music. But rock ISN'T dead. Not with Muse. And although I would still give anything to travel back to the seventies and experience great bands that I adore like Queen and Led Zeppelin, the fact is I can't. I never will be able to. It sucks that I was born in the early 90s, but on the upside I have Muse. I'm alive for them. I can look forward to their latest album, to seeing them live on tour. And hopefully when I have children of my own, I can share with them my great love of Muse, as well as the other bands that I mentioned. Hopefully, Muse will still be together and making great music twenty years from now.
And Jonathan-X, I'm glad that fan of classic rock can recognize and appreciate the genius of Muse. You could've easily been a snob about it and dismissed the band as a Queen-wannabe or a Radiohead clone, as some ignorant people have. The example you gave about turning a classical music-lover who's not a fan of rock music into a Muse fan is a familiar scenario I've heard before. People have the same experience with Queen. In fact, Queen and Muse are the only bands that can have a fan base broad enough to unite metalheads and classical music snobs because their music is just that diverse.
BeautifulTragedyx21 says:
"The kind of rock star Bellamy represents died a long time ago."
^^Wonderfully stated. I live close to NYC and although they just sold out the Garden (EPIC CONCERT BTW) nobody in my school knows who they are. It's rather sad. There is only one radio station (these are NEW YORK radio stations) that play Muse and the DJ introduced them at the Garden. The 'hit' radio stations never play Muse. They play all that lady gaga, kesha, taylor swift, crap. I was in an argument with a friend who is into ACDC. I said I liked Muse and he said that they were probably all ametures and I couldn't stop laughing. NOBODY knows who they are. It's depressing.
Someday...