I think we take nostalgia for granted these days.  At one time, pioneer music makers created a brand new style that would spark a revolution in the music industry and in popular culture overall.  That style would be copied and improved on and then be ubiquitous.  By typical lifespan burnout, it would eventually burn out and be replaced by the next fad or style.

Trust me, no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people.

By the time the 90’s rolled around, our society burned thru 4 decades of constant shifts in popular styles in music, and by that point the idea of nostalgic parody became in and of itself a style of its own.  Think B-52’s as a perfect example of that concept, although Weird Al Yankovic created his own style thru masterful parody all by himself. 

In 1990, a group out of Atlanta called The Black Crowes hit the scenes with a truly iconic album, Shake Your Money Maker.  A callback to classic blues mixed with soul inspiration from 70s rock gods like Faces or The Rolling Stones, the entire album’s tracklist reads like a greatest hits album, highlighted by a revamped rocking version of Otis Redding’s Hard To Handle.  They even mixed in their reworking of 80s ballads with She Talks To Angels, and suddenly these guys were giants on rock radio.

Two years later, they followed up with their sophomore album, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion which was just as popular but had double the musicality and skill.  It was the very first album in history to feature four separate #1 hits on the rock charts.  Everything these guys touched turned to gold.  Suddenly, they were rock cornerstones for their generation playing their version of inspired rhythm and blues southern rock that was all but dead up until that point.

Led by brothers Chris and Rich Robinson, the group then set out to create their masterpiece album.  However, as brothers are sometimes apt to do, Chris and Rich began fighting for creative control, both in the studio and in physical altercations.  That dynamic of strife coupled with personal crisis created a toxic environment.  The final product was a commercial failure but one of the most brilliant albums of our generation.