Big Star - Musical Style and Influences

Musical Style and Influences

Bell took up guitar when twelve or thirteen, but only on hearing the first Beatles records was he motivated to play the instrument regularly. He acted as lead and rhythm guitarist and vocalist for a sequence of bands, performing songs by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Zombies and The Animals. Chilton's first awareness of music came at the age of six when his brother repeatedly played a record by The Coasters. His father's liking for jazz then exposed him over the next few years to the music of Glenn Miller, Ray Charles and Dave Brubeck. Chilton's enthusiasm for music took hold when at age thirteen he first heard Beatles records; he recalled having known of 1950s rock and roll but "by 1959 Elvis was syrup and Jerry Lee was pretty much gone, and the rockabilly thing was sort of over so I didn't get really caught up in the rock scene until the Beatles came along".

Chilton took up electric guitar at thirteen, playing along with Beatles songs, later saying, "I really loved the mid-sixties British pop music all two and a half minutes or three minutes long, really appealing songs. So I've always aspired to that same format, that's what I like. Not to mention the rhythm and blues and the Stax stuff, too". Chilton abandoned his guitar-playing when with The Box Tops, then took up the instrument again; he met Roger McGuinn, guitarist for The Byrds, and developed particular interest in electric guitar and acoustic folk. Stephens enjoyed the music of Otis Redding, The Isley Brothers, The Who, The Kinks and, in particular, The Beatles. He first played drums at home with his brother, then with a handful of bands in the years before Big Star formed. Hummel likewise was a member of more than one band during his early musical years, again influenced by The Beatles and other British Invasion acts. The bassist also played acoustic guitar for personal enjoyment, following the styles of Simon & Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell and using finger-picking techniques to play folk and bluegrass. Most songs on the first three albums are credited to either Bell/Chilton or Chilton, but some credit Hummel, Stephens and others, as either writer or co-writer. At the only seven live performances in the original era, the last of which took place before the second album's release, all four members contributed vocally.

While primarily inspired by the music of The Beatles and other British Invasion bands, acknowledging too the jangle pop and power pop of the period, Big Star also incorporated dark, nihilistic themes to produce a striking blend of musical and lyrical styles. The body of work resulting from the first era was a precursor of the alternative rock of the 1980s and 1990s, at the same time yielding material today considered an outstanding example of power pop. The stylistic range is evident from modern day critiques. Bogdanov et al., commenting on #1 Record in their All Music Guide to Rock, perceive in "The Ballad of El Goodo" a "luminous, melancholy ballad", whereas John Borack's Ultimate Power Pop Guide singles out Radio City's "September Gurls" as a "glorious, glittering jewel" of power pop. Borack notes too that Third/Sister Lovers is "slower, darker and a good deal weirder" than the first two albums, identifying "Holocaust" as "Alex Chilton at his haunting best", yet finds "Thank You Friends" exemplifying "left-field gems" also present in which "the hooks are every bit as undeniable" as before. Jovanovic writes that when recording what Peter Buckley in his Rough Guide to Rock terms the "snarling guitar rock" of the first album's "Don't Lie To Me", the band, deeming conventional instruments inadequate for the task, wheeled two Norton Commando motorcycles into the studio and gunned the engines to intensify the song's bridge. Bogdanov et al. reserve "snarl" for a Radio City song, "Mod Lang"; here Buckley writes that "the power of the performance and the erratic mix gave a sense of chaos which only added to the thrill".