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Great Rock Band
Dire Straits
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Straits emerged during the post-punk era of the late '70s,
and while their sound was minimalistic and stripped-down,
they owed little to punk. If anything, the band was a direct
outgrowth of the roots-revivalism of pub rock, but where pub
rock celebrated good times, Dire Straits were melancholy.
Led by guitarist/vocalist Mark Knopfler, the group built their
sound upon the laid-back blues-rock of J.J. Cale, but they
also had jazz and country inflections, occasionally dipping
into the epic song structures of progressive rock. The band's
music was offset by Knopfler's lyrics, which approximated
the winding, stream-of-conscious narratives of Bob Dylan.
As their career progressed, Dire Straits became more refined
and their new maturity happened to coincide with the rise
of MTV and the compact disc. These two musical revolutions
from the mid-'80s helped make Dire Straits' sixth album, Brothers
in Arms, an international blockbuster. The band -- along with
Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, and Steve Winwood -- become one
of the leaders of a group of self-consciously mature veteran
rock & rollers in the late '80s that designed their music
to appeal to aging baby boomers. Despite the band's international
success, they couldn't sustain their stardom, waiting a full
six years to deliver a followup to Brothers in Arms, by which
time their audience had shrunk significantly. |
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