Oops, Missed Another Decade
In 1992 I realized I'd missed the 80's and did a major project to identify great music of the era. I found both of the songs and put them on a mix tape. This project has since been superceded by the superb GTA: Vice City soundtrack.
Sooo...the Sea Lord makes a good point. There has been great music recorded in, say, the last ten years, I just haven't heard much of it. Three trends have ensured that most of it has escaped my attention:
- Narrowcasting - the New York Times Magazine, in its review of Beck's Sea Change pointed out that the album could have been another Sergeant Pepper or Nevermind, but that the mass distribution system that helped create the popularity of those albums is extinct. (I never listened to the album because why pay to be depressed?) Today music is pushed out to niches, designed by marketers for particular demographics, making it harder for people to find good (as opposed to demographically suitable) music. As result, I get force-fed crap from Wilco that looks right, sounds right, fits my needs, and, upon closer inspection, sucks. Green Day's going-through-the-motions Boulevard of Broken Dreams can go in that box as well.
- The End of Art as We Know It - Old people have been saying this since Glen Miller's plane crashed, but most of the music these kids listen to is crap. I mean in the past five years it's just freaking garbage. I'm up for the Shock of the New, and all I get is pimpin' and posin' and sweatsuits and lame dance routines (I'm seeing better pop dancing on Hong Kong TV for God's sake).
- The screaming of small children drowns out most of the music in my household anyway.
So I'm doing what I did in the late 80's - submerging in retro. Slim and Slam, JJ Cale, American Analog Set (founded in 1994, they are now almost a nostalgia act) now dominate my playlists, punctuated by occasional old favorites.
So, to frame the question as precisely as possible: what music of the past ten years has been overlooked, that could be regarded by sophisticates like ourselves as real good? Stuff that would be the equivalent of the Pixies' Cactus or Big Black's Kerosene back in the day.
One I would recommend to all is Gospel Plough from the Screaming Trees' critically acclaimed final album Dust (1996). (Thanks to First Sea Lord for the tip.)
I can spare a kind word for The Postal Service. I was going to spare another for Pulp, but they've been around since 1978, which sort of returns us to the original premise.
First person to mention Coldplay or OK Computer gets a mysterious package in the mail from a reclusive friend of mine in Idaho.
posted by Anonymous at 8:52 AM
1 Comments:
Indeed. My commitment to pop music has wavered and waned as well, and as the music culture industry grows ever more rapacious, the great flowering of music is hard to navigate. Although there is far more music in most genres, and a far greater ability to reject the music market by musicians, and there is huge repository of excellent bands where there are no stars. They don't crack the recording industry surface often, not on radio, not on cable, not in big venues.
Much of this is as it should be.
My last twinkling shards of hipness are from 1) KEXP, a true radio model, non-commercial, comprehensive, tasteful, searching and professional. 2) Younger girlfriends dragging me to shows in target-rich Seattle, whose music scene absolutely shines- I always have a better time than I think I will. I even enjoyed the worst band in Seattle - Heavyweight Champions. (Do I go much? no. I can't afford the rock and roll lifestyle.)
3) The college kids in my art classes - remember that a lot of progressive music has been done by art school drop-outs. And they know the history, connections between brilliant old fogies the Clash or the Gang of Four and recent punkly revivals Interpol, the White Stripes, or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Even Johnny Lyden is out there still, making the world uncomfortable for the life-sucking music industry.
So I can't tell you with certainty what the great contemporary pop music is. I can confirm that it's thriving.
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