(Which is not to say cultural appropriation isn’t a problem, but let’s parse that line some other time.)Ģ) “Authenticity” is now basically a marketing tool, usually for overly earnest (and usually boring) singer-songwriter types that get a lot of NPR burn.ģ) Admitting that you want to be popular and then writing pop songs is far preferable to bemoaning the spotlight while also chasing it.Ĥ) If something sounds good or great, why not let yourself enjoy it?ĥ) That high horse will give you a nosebleed. This idea is more commonly accepted than it once was. When news of Weiland’s passing hit, I tweeted “I loved STP back in the day, but being an insecure teenager felt weird about it because of Pavement/critics/’authenticity.’ Different times.” and went on to talk with some of my music writer friends about how unthinkable it would be today for a popular band to get crucified for being “inauthentic.” There’s multiple reasons this once-common concept now seems so alien, but I think the main five are:ġ) As Brian Eno once said, nobody owns any particular sound or idea, and stealing from someone and then making their thing your thing is how art works. Stone Temple Pilots were a great band, and one of their greatest albums, Tiny Music… Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop, turns 20 tomorrow. That’s how, above all else, they should be remembered. On a sad day, this gave me a small amount of solace. A great band with a troubled singer, sure, but a great band nonetheless.

My younger friend mainly knew of Stone Temple Pilots as a great band. (The editor later pushed me to write about this topic. That is, you might do that if you’d recently decided to get into Sebadoh but still loved your alt-rock radio titans, even if you weren’t sure you should. I started talking with the the news editor, a fellow old, about how everyone ragged on Stone Temple Pilots back in the ’90s, calling them alternative-rock carpetbaggers, and even if you liked them, you might be inclined to downplay your fandom in order to maintain your cool points. He did a great job, though I was struck that he called Weiland and his band Stone Temple Pilots “iconic,” and spoke of the singer strictly in glowing terms. For the most part, I didn’t handle breaking news at my old job, so it fell upon one of the younger staff members, a very smart and funny man fresh out of college, to tackle the terrible news of Scott Weiland’s untimely passing last December.

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