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Post by kds on Dec 31, 2019 13:47:26 GMT
Another decade is about to draw to a close in a few hours. Overall, I believe the quality of new music continues to decline, and fear that it will continue to trend down in the 2020s as we inevitable lose more of the old guard.
Although, for me, the decade provided one very bright spot in terms of new music - the band Ghost. Since forming in 2010, Ghost has released four stellar albums, and two decent EPs, and are one of the better live acts I've seen in recent years. But, to be honest, other than them, the 2010s has not seen much in way of new talent.
For me, the 2010s was the decade that I officially checked out on new music (sans Ghost). In the 00s, I tried my best to find some new groups to like, but the effort did not pay off. Instead, I spent the 2010s exploring back catalogs of groups I'd only been a casual fan of prior, such as Genesis, Journey, Uriah Heep, and of course, The Beach Boys. I've found more great music by doing that than I ever would trying to find new groups. Call me a curmudgeon, I don't care. I'm pushing 40. They're not making music for me anymore.
Some of the more memorable events of the 2010s, music wize for me, in no particular order include getting really good reunion albums from two of America's all time greatest bands - Van Halen and The Beach Boys in 2012, Black Sabbath releasing their first album with Ozzy Osbourne since 1978 in 2013, and the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody bringing renewed interest in Queen.
The list of artists we've lost this decade would be too long to type unfortunately, so the 2020s will be able about cherishing the legends we still have. That's why I got a ticket to see Ringo for this summer.
Happy New Year!!!!
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 31, 2019 15:12:47 GMT
I had a different experience of the '10s. Around the beginning of the previous decade--maybe '02ish--I started reengaging indie rock and pop. But the beginning of this decade, I opened up more, including broader pop and hip hop again into my listening. I found a lot I liked! And beginning in 2012, I began my now-annual year-end playlists, which have been a lot of fun both to make and listen back to later.
But I don't want to sound like I diverge from KDS too much either. I actually agree with him on many points. As I age, it becomes increasingly obvious (as it probably should have been long since) that most of the music being released isn't intended for me. And it becomes increasingly obvious how "intended for X" almost all music is: the marketing efforts have become so blatant as to be off-putting, even on music I do enjoy, that was intended for me. When music is truly intended to promote its creator's stint as a reality show guest, or is the product of some awkwardly board-room-constructed, collision-of-demographics duet, I'm turned off.
This decade most disappointed me in its new musicians' rejection of instruments and live singing. I'm not some absolutist, and I actually believe perfectly good music can be (and is) created on a computer by someone who can't play anything, just like a collage artist isn't necessarily a good painter and a classical composer isn't necessarily a good violinist or singer. But to see the concept of a band fade away without anyone much caring, to see bands' "performances" so often based on miming or dancing to tracks, that disappoints me. I hate that a whole generation of kids not only seems to be missing out on getting guitars and playing with their friends, but doesn't even know that it's missing out.
I'm sure every generation has its things like that--things they want to shake and shout into some new, uninterested generation--so I try not to give it much thought. You go your way and I'll go mine.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 31, 2019 15:23:33 GMT
And beginning in 2012, I began my now-annual year-end playlists, which have been a lot of fun both to make and listen back to later. I should note, I'm working on this year's today and hope to finish it off. If not, a day or so late won't hurt anyone. I've debated putting together a decade- or century-so-far list as well, but those might have to wait until we get into January ... or just indefinitely.
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Post by kds on Dec 31, 2019 16:09:33 GMT
This decade most disappointed me in its new musicians' rejection of instruments and live singing. I'm not some absolutist, and I actually believe perfectly good music can be (and is) created on a computer by someone who can't play anything, just like a collage artist isn't necessarily a good painter and a classical composer isn't necessarily a good violinist or singer. But to see the concept of a band fade away without anyone much caring, to see bands' "performances" so often based on miming or dancing to tracks, that disappoints me. I hate that a whole generation of kids not only seems to be missing out on getting guitars and playing with their friends, but doesn't even know that it's missing out.
I couldn't agree more. The rise and acceptable of EDM in particular baffles the hell out of me.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 31, 2019 16:30:08 GMT
I get it more in the true, pure dance music. It's that it has totally overtaken pop and even what would've been called "indie rock" in recent decades. It must be how rock fans felt in the late 70s with not only disco acts making disco, but rock bands. But this has already gone on longer than disco did. Between hip hop, dance, and various programmed elements of pop, it's unfortunate how rarely we see or hear a drummer, a bassist, and a handful of keys, guitars, horns, and such.
It's actually ironic because those styles of music almost inevitably benefit from live performances by good players. I know rap isn't for everyone, but I've always said it's at its best atop a live funk, soul, etc kind of group. And dance? How does a real drum and bass not make a person want to dance more than a synthesized interminable BOOM-chick-BOOM-chick?
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Post by kds on Dec 31, 2019 16:58:36 GMT
I get it more in the true, pure dance music. It's that it has totally overtaken pop and even what would've been called "indie rock" in recent decades. It must be how rock fans felt in the late 70s with not only disco acts making disco, but rock bands. But this has already gone on longer than disco did. Between hip hop, dance, and various programmed elements of pop, it's unfortunate how rarely we see or hear a drummer, a bassist, and a handful of keys, guitars, horns, and such.
It's actually ironic because those styles of music almost inevitably benefit from live performances by good players. I know rap isn't for everyone, but I've always said it's at its best atop a live funk, soul, etc kind of group. And dance? How does a real drum and bass not make a person want to dance more than a synthesized interminable BOOM-chick-BOOM-chick?
I think the fact that you and I are baffled by this concept is further proof that music in 2019 isn't aimed at us. Of course, we're also discussing it on a forum dedicated to a band whose best work is over 50 years old.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 31, 2019 17:16:33 GMT
You know what's funny about that? The decade that was most directly aimed at me--the '90s, when I was roughly 14 to 24 and so in the prime music consumption demographic--is a decade of music I largely didn't ever connect with! The decade started off by sneering at and spitting on rock and roll with grunge. Rap, which had been a lot of fun, became a nonsensical soap opera of the cartoonish MCs turning into cartoonish gangsters, gangstaz, and ending up in real-life violence. And what was left of mainstream rock after metal (and really any fun or over-the-top image) was pushed away and grunge watered down was just a series of mostly anonymous, interchangeable bands. As the decade ended, we saw the rise of the worst of all, nu-metal / rap-rock.
It was rough.
There were bright spots, though a lot of them were things I actually didn't discover until after the fact. Thankfully it was in those late 90s that the internet started making it possible to find those otherwise hidden gems.
Yeah, so somehow if I'm ranking decades of favorite music, somehow the one that was meant for me is probably near the bottom.
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Post by kds on Dec 31, 2019 17:20:16 GMT
I feel the same way about the 1990s to be honest. Around 1993 or 1994, I lost touch with new music. I found this amusing, Billboard's Top 50 "rock" songs of the decade consequenceofsound.net/2019/12/billboard-top-rock-songs-of-the-decade/It's one thing for me to not really care for modern rock, but there's still little actual rock on this abysmal list.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 31, 2019 17:27:52 GMT
My gosh, that is an amazing list. Largely because so many of those "rock" songs aren't remotely rock. But it also just reminds me that I don't understand you, modern pop culture.
Imagine Dragons...they dominate that list as if they were the Beatles. And I can't tell you a single song by them. It's not that I've lived with my head in a hole or intentionally avoided them. In fact, on occasion when I was first hearing that name, I listened intentionally to several songs. I still see them plastered on TV every-other minute as they're promoting the NBA or NFL or whatever the hell all they get paid to ruin the moments into and out of commercial breaks. But they are so nothing that I literally don't remember anything. Multiple listens. Zero recollection. All I ever thought was "well, that sure was heavily produced." Yet here they are with umpteen songs in the top 50. Amazing.
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Post by kds on Dec 31, 2019 17:37:09 GMT
My gosh, that is an amazing list. Largely because so many of those "rock" songs aren't remotely rock. But it also just reminds me that I don't understand you, modern pop culture.
Imagine Dragons...they dominate that list as if they were the Beatles. And I can't tell you a single song by them. It's not that I've lived with my head in a hole or intentionally avoided them. In fact, on occasion when I was first hearing that name, I listened intentionally to several songs. I still see them plastered on TV every-other minute as they're promoting the NBA or NFL or whatever the hell all they get paid to ruin the moments into and out of commercial breaks. But they are so nothing that I literally don't remember anything. Multiple listens. Zero recollection. All I ever thought was "well, that sure was heavily produced." Yet here they are with umpteen songs in the top 50. Amazing.
They're very hooky, and some of their songs are catchy, so I guess that qualifies in 2019. I wish I remembered who wrote it but I recently read somebody say "Imagine Dragons is a band that we're gonna look back and be embarrassed about." And, 21 Pilots? Well, if they're a rock band than I'm a world class figure skater.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 31, 2019 18:22:40 GMT
21 Pilots was for me just a name I know. Like AWOLNATION (which isn't just a name I know, but the worst name I know), Panic! at the Disco, and frankly about 2/3 of what I see on this or similar lists. Names I know, eventually if I work at it hard enough I can find something from them I'd heard and forgotten ... but I'd rather save myself the trouble.
I guess I didn't get (decent) hooks from Imagine Dragons. Frankly if I'd caught any I liked, I'd be very forgiving of everything else. (A little hook goes a long, long way with me.) But for me they were always just colorful noise.
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Post by kds on Dec 31, 2019 18:47:24 GMT
21 Pilots was for me just a name I know. Like AWOLNATION (which isn't just a name I know, but the worst name I know), Panic! at the Disco, and frankly about 2/3 of what I see on this or similar lists. Names I know, eventually if I work at it hard enough I can find something from them I'd heard and forgotten ... but I'd rather save myself the trouble.
I guess I didn't get (decent) hooks from Imagine Dragons. Frankly if I'd caught any I liked, I'd be very forgiving of everything else. (A little hook goes a long, long way with me.) But for me they were always just colorful noise.
Perhaps more catchy than hooky. But, Taylor Swift is catchy too. And her music gets worse by the year. But, seeing this list just makes me thankful that, at least for now, the likes of McCartney and Starr, the Stones, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Purple, the various Beach Boys bands, Iron Maiden, The Who, etc etc are still out there. By the time we're wrapping up the 2020s, we won't be so lucky.
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
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Post by bellbottoms on Jan 1, 2020 15:30:36 GMT
I’m trying to remember this last decade and what defined it, musically speaking, for me at least… and the more I think about it, the more I realize this was probably the most important decade of my life in terms of music appreciation.
In the early 2010’s I was still listening to the radio. Radio was my primary source of music since childhood since I never really had a lot of disposable income to buy CDs and lived a rather transitory lifestyle – moving around a lot prevented me from collecting, even during the times when I did have money. I would occasionally splash out on a new CD but tended to rely on mixed CDs from friends and radio of course.
But in 2010 I was 35, and I went back to school to get a new certification, which directly led to me getting a stable career job in 2012 and finally settling down and staying in one place.
Of course, the radio was getting to be rather disappointing, and I found myself unable to relate to new music at the time, so I found myself switching to the classic rock stations. Anything new I was listening to was the result of recommendations from friends (Ezra Furman being one of those recommendations).
In 2013, I decided to check out an art exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario – the “David Bowie Is” exhibition which was getting rave reviews. That exhibition is 100% responsible for changing the way I listen to music. I had always liked Bowie, but had never committed to going back and listening to his back catalogue because the idea of that was so daunting. But seeing everything put into context in that exhibit made it imperative. So I went down the proverbial rabbit hole and came out of it a different person as it pertains to music appreciation.
Yes, on the surface I came out of it a major Bowie fan, but it also made me hungry for more deep exploration. Rather than feeling daunted by the idea of going backwards, it made me feel really excited.
So the last several years I have spent actual time with artists and bands, appreciating the album as an art form. Being able to hear a band’s evolution, compare their worst album with their best, see their rise and fall and rise again, in many cases, has been more rewarding than I ever could have imagined.
2013 also happens to be the year I bought my first album on vinyl: Ziggy Stardust. And I picked up a cheap-o turntable to play it on. I became a bit of a vinyl addict, and my collection has expanded quite a bit since then, and I upgraded to a nicer turntable to get a better experience out of my records (though I am far from an audiophile type of listener - what I have is decent, it serves my needs).
When Bowie died just a few short years after I had gone down his rabbit hole, I was devastated. It was like losing a good friend, and I’m not even sure I’m over it yet. That’s one sad reality about getting into these bands and artists so late in the game. Many are already gone, and those that are still here have only a short time left. And I think that makes me appreciate them even more.
So now, as we begin a new decade, I can say that I've 100% given up on radio - it would take a miraculous shift in music trends for me to go back. I'm always open to recommendations. But even without them, I know there is no shortage of great music to get me through to 2030 and beyond.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jan 1, 2020 16:06:35 GMT
Looking back at the 2010s, I did not listen to or acquire any new artists' music. I spent the decade basically discovering and/or catching up on old(er) artists, primarily from the 1960's, 1970's, and some 1980's.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 1, 2020 16:24:38 GMT
When Bowie died just a few short years after I had gone down his rabbit hole, I was devastated. It was like losing a good friend, and I’m not even sure I’m over it yet. That’s one sad reality about getting into these bands and artists so late in the game. Many are already gone, and those that are still here have only a short time left. And I think that makes me appreciate them even more. Isn't that a terrible experience? I had only casually flirted with Bowie for most of my life: I had but rarely listened to Ziggy Stardust since I was about 20; probably 10 years later a friend got me to listen to (and half-like) the Berlin albums; in 2013 I fell in love with the song "Where Are We Now?" from his The Next Day album. But in that span I really started digging in again, really enjoying his music, to the point I was excited to hear Blackstar. I got it immediately, was in love immediately, and he was gone almost immediately.
Of course I've spoken before about how similar my Queen experience was, with Freddie dying almost immediately after I dug into my first few Queen albums.
With Prince, Lou Reed, Captain Beefheart, I had already been a fan for years, or even decades. With Michael Jackson, everything was already so strange (between his material being sporadic and subpar for years, plus the creepiness factor). With Frank Zappa, his death actually helped introduce me to him, so it was a whole different experience. And most (or many) of my other favorites who have passed, passed before I was buying music, or in many cases even born.
But there are still some true legends out there: Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, David Marks, Bruce Johnston, Blondie Chaplin, and Ricky Fataar should be named first, considering where we are posting, but also Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Eddie Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne (and the other Sabbath guys), Tom Waits, Joan Baez, 3/4 of Led Zeppelin ... but the point being, there are fewer every year.
I'm not one to say "so we should all get out and see them every chance we get." Some shows suck. Some people don't like shows much to begin with. My I would say we should take the time to think how lucky we are for the chances we have at great listening experiences. Nothing lasts forever.
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