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Post by kds on May 25, 2023 14:11:11 GMT
I really wasn't sure where to put this floating, random thought.
For many years, I considered the 1990s the worst decade in the rock/pop era. I still think it's the worst for guitar driven heavy rock, mainly because many hard rock / metal bands lost their way in the aftermath of grunge, but for music in general, I'm actually coming around a bit.
I don't know if it's pining for childhood, the fact that those songs are no longer heard every 2-3 minutes, or the fact that music at large has gotten exponentially worse, but I've softened the most on those middle of the road, non threating, college band type bands. I'm talking about Blues Traveler, The Wallflowers, Gin Blossoms, Counting Crows, Spin Doctors, etc etc. Nowadays, if I hear this music in a restaurant or a grocery store, I think "ok, this isn't bad." I still don't like any of it enough to buy any of this music, but it's....fine. And, for the most part, this is stuff I detested in middle and high school.
This makes me wonder. Is my palette expanding? Am I just being nostalgic? Or is the music of the 10s and 20s really so bad that it makes the music of the 90s look good in comparison? Hell, I'll even take the bubblepop pop of the 90s over what's coming out today.
Although, this also makes me wonder. At some point in the 2040s, will popular music be so bad that I think "Imagine Dragons and Ed Sheeran weren't so bad after all?"
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Post by Kapitan on May 25, 2023 14:18:06 GMT
It's funny, because the way you are talking about those particular '90s bands is exactly how I thought of them then: inoffensive, listenable...but nothing to go out of your way for (or at least not much, maybe a song or two here or there you might really like).
I think they aged relatively well because they tended to go light on production tricks and trends and were mostly just bands playing music with basic instrumentation. Something along the lines of garage-bar-club rock, which was maddeningly called "alternative" by the mid 90s, will always bubble up every so often and the older versions will hold their appeal (I think) because as long as people play that kind of music, and want to see that kind of music, that's how it works: drummer, bassist, guitarist or two, maybe a keyboardist. No programming required, no massive production required, and it's something you can physically go and see people physically do (as opposed to standing behind a laptop or something).
There are similar sorts of guitar-bands that popped up on occasion afterward, but by then the music scene was so splintered that they just didn't usually hit the mainstream as much as they did for those years in the '90s.
But I do agree, mainstream rock really has gotten increasingly bad, for the most part, in those 20-25 years since.
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Post by kds on May 25, 2023 14:42:56 GMT
I remember somewhat feeling this way about Gin Blossoms and Spin Doctors, even though I found their hits tiresome after a while. But, most of the other bands I mentioned annoyed me immensely at the time. I was also pretty angsty as a teenager, particularly how I felt increasingly like I didn't fit in with my own generation, so the music that was popular just irked me.
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Post by jk on May 30, 2023 9:37:27 GMT
I've been getting into Daft Punk's Random Access Memories of late. My son bought it for me at the time of its release, as an album I had to hear. So I heard it, but I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about! it's grown on me over the years -- and it keeps growing. It has a lot on board, which is why it stands up well to repeated listens. This track eats itself into your brain (just about everything Nile Rodgers touches turns to gold in my book): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_Access_Memories
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