The Jesus and Mary Chain

While the tug of war about the merits and defects of guitar feedback may rage on, there is no denying that acts who have adopted it as their key musical aesthetic have made a substantial impact on the general state of rock music, for better or worse. The Jesus and Mary Chain are one of the prime movers of the erstwhile noise-pop movement, a sub-genre of indie-rock that employs jarring guitar feedback as a main means of expression. Basically, the Chain work in a seemingly contradictory musical style: their songs had a bubble-gum melody foundation, borrowing some of the bright, poppish affectations of the Beach Boys and the Lovin' Spoonful, but the tracks were wrapped snugly in swirls of aggressive dissonance and atonal white noise. Ironically, the resultant soundscape made for a rather accessible and surprisingly sublime brand of rock that became one of the most inventive evolutions in contemporary music. Check out a 1985 live-on-television reading of one of the Chain's most well-loved standards, the cacophonous, claustrophobic 'Just Like Honey', which boasts a surprisingly sweetly poppish essence.