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Artists of the Decade

Looking back ten years, this decade has produced some of the coolest music. Here are my "hits" and "misses":

Hits:

Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and U2 did not rest on their laurels, stayed productive in the studio, toured endlessly with real fire, and ended the decade on top of their game.
Not a bad album in the bunch. Not bad for a bunch of geezers whose collective musical experience rests at 130 years.

The Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear and a dozen other young bands went their own way and proved that indie music, produced on small labels, is the sound for today. Quirky yes; boring no. Made me forget the 1960s,1970s,1980s, 1990s, and actually live in the moment.

Radiohead put a bullet in the heads of every major music label by offering their music up at any price. They could get away with this because of the brilliance of the music. Name a better band that so effortlessly put out work as diverse as Kid A and In Rainbows. The new Beatles? You bet.

Hats off to Timbaland and Kanye West for taking Hip Hop to new places. Hard not to admire the ear candy that diverse artists like Missy Elliott routinely served up. And to M.I.A., who made it global, without borders, mixing in sounds at will like a chef adds spices.

And kudos to Apple, whose creative energy designed a device called the iPod and software called iTunes that brought convenience and portability to hundreds of millions of end consumers.

Misses:

Watching talented individuals like Ryan Adams and Elliot Smith self destruct.

Having America buy into the herd mentality of American Idol.

The vinyl revolution. Way too much hype for a medium that failed three decades ago. 2 million units actually shipped; yet thousands of Audiogon posts waxing estatic. Nobody actually talks about the dead wax they own and the wide range of quality problems. I pity the suckers who bought into the 180 versus 200 gram hype.
bongofury
martykl
3,578 posts
 
Chas,

'50s/'60s rock 'n' roll was about sex - not an innocent good time by the standards of the day. Race music was said to cater to the "primitive" instincts of the Negroes. It's easy to dismiss the idea today, but "Satisfaction" drove some parents to hide the women and children. Over time, people like David Bowie, Madonna, and even Adam Lambert have continued to offend people with their attitudes toward sex (and religion).

I'm not defending rap overall - your comments on the associated culture of violence are IMHO impossible to refute. I also find the incessant posturing tedious in the extreme. OTOH, there is some worthwhile stuff - a fair bit of Grandmaster Flash's music works for me and the occasional "Fear of A Black Planet" or "Handlebars" (by Flobots) strikes me as serious political commentary. For the most part, though, I can live without it.

Marty

BTW - The life story of Jerry Lee Lewis might make a few rap stars blush.
photon46
1,076 posts
 
Chasmal, I'm not a "defender" of rap, I dislike the majority of it. But you're painting the genre with too broad a brush. Not every hip-hop or rap artist postures like a thug or a sexual miscreant. I've worked with a hip-hop artist who has a degree in Fine Art from a great college, reads like a philosophy major, and abhors the elements of popular culture you decry as much as you do. Missy Elliott works pretty regularly with several charities, she really doesn't fit my definition of a debaser of culture. It's fine to take issue with an individual artist's work, but damning a whole genre because of the worst attributes of some artists is resorting to stereotypes. In any event, we risk hijacking the thread. Maybe a new thread on this subject?
gawdbless's avatar
gawdbless
1,235 posts
 
Count me in as a defender of rap music.
Lots of it is very good, and nearly all is cleverly done.
Should I dispel The Rolling Stones as sh1t just because
I do not particularly care for most of their music?
Of course not.
chashmal
605 posts
 
It is a tough issue for me to discuss rationally because rap/hip-hop is really the only music that I actually 'hate'. I ordinarily would not want to hate any music at all, but...I really do hate it. Absolutely nothing makes me cringe like that thumpity-thump rhythm with monotone a-melodic gutter slang on top. I hear it passing by out of car windows and it makes me long for the days when the worst thing you would hear might be 'Freddy and the Dreamers'.
Hey, he is kind of funny....
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,838 posts
 
I wouldn't listen to it intently late at night for relaxation in place of Beethoven, Mahler, Ellington, or even The Beatles, but "Right Round" by Flo Rida (about a chick on a pole in a strip club I believe) is a great tune to press a bar or squeeze out some abdominal crunches to. Very catchy tune! Good R&R and danceable pop works also, but the others do not.

Different forms of music invoke different emotions serve different purposes. I do not mind music that reflects the dark side of society at any particular time, however I do object when it is misrepresented and fed to kids and others by the record companies as something more innocent than it in fact is. Record companies have been doing that with various genres since R&R first broke back in the 50's and became popular.
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