Interesting! I know those albums and the era better than any (teenage years), so it's fascinating hearing behind the scenes. I think a lot of what made that er

Interesting! I know those albums and the era better than any (teenage years), so it's fascinating hearing behind the scenes. I think a lot of what made that era productive was a peaking of tension between slick commercial music and grittier, "underground" sounds and themes. Ozzy & Black Sabbath went from shocking to mainstream. Punk became a main street cafe aesthetic. In the 90s, after the grunge explosion, "underground" was ironically mainstream and that contradiction resulted in some terrific albums. Nirvana and Kurt certainly traded in this tension. My favourite example is rage against the machine. Extremely dissident sound and vibe. I think they recorded very raw. But, they still achieved pop music ideals. Ratm songs are catchy and iconic in exactly the same way a Michael Jackson song is. You start tapping your pencil to it from the first note.