The Last New (popular) Music

[MacDaddy]

If the point was put forward, that there has not been anything in the hit parade since the 90's, that would not have been out of place in the 90's, would you agree?

Has there been any 'new' music?

 

 

[MacDaddy]

To clarify: ELP would have been out of place in the hit parades of the 50's; Iron Maiden would have been out of place in the 60's hit parades. But take this weeks top 10. Is there anything there that would be out of place in a top ten in 1999?

[Dad3353]

I've never really looked at what's in any hit parade, sorry. 

[MacDaddy]

[Lozz196]

I can’t remember back to what was in the charts then, but for some reason I seem to think of insipid and no energy or vitality, aside from Oasis, so chances are everything of today would fit.

[mikel]

1 minute ago, Lozz196 said:

I can’t remember back to what was in the charts then, but for some reason I seem to think of insipid and no energy or vitality, aside from Oasis, so chances are everything of today would fit.

But Oasis were simply re hashing the Beatles back catalogue, so they were out of place then.

[Lozz196]

2 minutes ago, mikel said:

But Oasis were simply re hashing the Beatles back catalogue, so they were out of place then.

I can’t really see any argument in that. I did like them though, def a bunch of ‘erberts making a racket.

[skankdelvar]

Been watching the Ken Burns Country Music documentary. 

During one episode Elvis auditions for Sam Phillips. Sam says 'That sounds different' and signs him. Ten minutes later the doc reports Johnny Cash auditioning for Sam Philips. Sam says 'That sounds different' and signs him.

The Sam Philips' of today audition someone and say 'That sounds the same' and sign them.

[skankdelvar]

2 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

I did like them though, def a bunch of ‘erberts making a racket.

So did I. My immediate reaction was 'That's Johnny Rotten with Neil Young on guitar'. At that point I didn't think they sounded remotely like the Beatles, except when they covered I Am The Walrus. 

That said, they nicked chord progressions and lyrics from pretty much everyone else including Stevie Wonder (chorus from Stevie's Uptight copied and pasted into Step Out)

 

[Pea Turgh]

3 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

But number 9 was from the 90’s!!

[MacDaddy]

24 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

But number 9 was from the 90’s!!

The case for the prosecution rests! 👩🏻‍⚖️

[Crawford13]

The maroon 5 track wouldn’t have been out of place in the 1600’s...

[Maude]

I always thought that at the beginning Oasis sounded far more like Slade, but aligning yourself with The Beatles rather than Noddy and the boys was far cooler. They then grew into the Beatles label over the years. Shame really as their evolving from Slade to The Beatles mirrored their evolving from the exciting rock band they were into the droning pastiche of the band they wanted to be. 

Edited December 18, 2019 by Maude
Typo baby, typo!

[Maude]

3 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

If the point was put forward, that there has not been anything in the hit parade since the 90's, that would not have been out of place in the 90's, would you agree?

Has there been any 'new' music?

 

 

I've said this for a long time. Take the beginning of the 80's various music scenes to the end of the 80's music scenes, the changes encountered along the way were huge. From a decade ago to today there seems to be no change in popular music. 

I know I'm becoming an old git and the above argument is an old gits argument, but do believe music has stagnated. I believe it's a result of far more youngsters having such a good lifestyle, there's nothing to rebel against. Hardship and pain always brought about the best music. Where's the young 'tribes' wanting to take on the world and shout angrily about it? Maybe the music business is actually seen as a business now and making money is more important than making a point. 

Oh my god what has happened to me? I'm not old and miserable really, honest. 🤪

[Lozz196]

There certainly were “tribes” back then, you could tell what bands people were into by their clothes or hair styles, early to late 80s easily identified.

As far as I can see Brit Pop was the last “movement” of any real substance that penetrated regular life - if a rock star having champagne at No 10 is regular life that is. But what I mean by that is that unlike many current rock or metal stars etc that are known within their genre but are totally anonymous outside of it, Liam & Noel Gallagher were of a genre but known to the general public who weren’t into their music.
 

Nowadays people may know the current stars but to me it seems there is a lack of genre, it’s just music. Time for a guitar based revolution methinks.

[Pea Turgh]

There’s a whole ”bedroom beats” Social media scene that anyone over the age of 25 just doesn’t know about.  There are YouTube millionaires that you don’t know about. If you heard it, you may not even recognize it as music!  Face it - we’re old and we don’t “get it”, end of!

 

[Maude]

14 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Time for a guitar based revolution methinks.

Too bloody right!

Rise up angry adolescents, strap on your guitars and gather in your local music venues. We will chant your calls to arms, we will take on the establishment, we will show the world that we mean what we say and say what we mean, we will rise up and....... oooh me bloody knees.... you crack on Lozz, I'll be along in a minute. Now let's have a cup of tea first, I'm sure I had some hobnobs round here somewhere, anyway, did I put the kettle on? Zzzzzzzz. 

[skankdelvar]

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

clothes or hair styles

Something else that stopped evolving in the 90's. 

Not that it's a bad thing.

It just gives us nothing new to laugh at.

[Pseudonym]

I wonder if this is a matter of technological change. It isn't hard to find a relationship between stylistic and technological innovation in popular music throughout the twentieth century. In terms of music production, however, the improvements since the 1990s strike me as incremental rather than revolutionary.

It still astonishes me that my recording kit (total cost of a few thousand including workstation PC) can potentially get results that might have required a high-end studio twenty or thirty years ago. That said, I don't come across much music that a 1990s studio wouldn't have been able to produce if necessary. Up to the mid-1990s, I regularly heard music that depended heavily on very recent technology.

There is certainly some genuine creative energy lurking to one side of mainstream commercial, and risk-averse chart fodder. I wouldn't be surprised if that energy is quickened drastically should new technology emerge, or should a new form gain traction. That's usually how we get from "it all sounds the same" to "this is what the world has been waiting for".

Regarding Oasis and Britpop, my own interest in that era is in the visual arts -- but with art and music both, it's not hard to see by now who had real staying power and who was little more than a reflection of the moment. That moment found all kinds of unfinished business in the recent past, all kinds of potential along with the nostalgia. If there is no new popular music now, might that be because the current moment is somehow unable to shape it? This does seem to be a remarkably incoherent time.

I'm very interested in this kind of topic, so I'm glad MacDaddy raised it. I'm also keen to hear people's thoughts.

[miles'tone]

I was just thinking yesterday that maybe an upside to the current state of our country and the tough times no doubt ahead, will hopefully be that we'll get some great new meaningful bands arising from the debris. 

[RossHetherington]

I think there hasn't been anymore of a technological shift since Cher's Believe which couldn't of happened earlier.

[Pseudonym]

2 minutes ago, RossHetherington said:

I think there hasn't been anymore of a technological shift since Cher's Believe which couldn't of happened earlier.

1998? That sounds about right to me.

[BrunoBass]

There would appear to be nothing new in the ‘hit parade’ but there is plenty of new music around that is consumed by many thousands of listeners. The singles charts today as we remember them are meaningless owing to the way music is consumed. Grime is massive and a totally 21st Century genre and doesn’t make an impression in the singles chart, but had it existed in the eighties or nineties it would’ve dominated the charts. 
 

The term ‘hit parade’ implies the singles chart; if we consider the album chart instead the answer is very different. Stormzy and Post Malone have both figured strongly this year with music that could only exist in the present day.

Edited December 19, 2019 by BrunoBass

[mikel]

11 hours ago, Maude said:

I've said this for a long time. Take the beginning of the 80's various music scenes to the end of the 80's music scenes, the changes encountered along the way were huge. From a decade ago to today there seems to be no change in popular music. 

I know I'm becoming an old git and the above argument is an old gits argument, but do believe music has stagnated. I believe it's a result of far more youngsters having such a good lifestyle, there's nothing to rebel against. Hardship and pain always brought about the best music. Where's the young 'tribes' wanting to take on the world and shout angrily about it? Maybe the music business is actually seen as a business now and making money is more important than making a point. 

Oh my god what has happened to me? I'm not old and miserable really, honest. 🤪

/\ This. The industry now put "Bands" together, male or female, based on a blueprint that includes appearance  and percieved personality, hair colour etc, that equals a popular "Band".  Similar to the trend over the last few years that every pop song must have some scat singing in it of some variety, saves the tedious task of coming up with lyrics I suppose. I know its an old git moan but we started bands with our mates, to take on the world.  We wanted to write our own songs and gig them, making any money out of it would simply have been a huge bonus.  Thats where the honesty and the anger comes from in music not following a blueprint. Oh, and Blur were hugely more creative than Oasis. Shorter lived but more creative.

[BrunoBass]

Music hasn’t stagnated, it’s evolved in the way it’s made and the way it’s consumed. The singles chart is not wholly indicative or representative of music taste or popularity anymore. For example the new Stereophonics single didn’t even make the Top 200, yet the album went to number one and they sold out their arena tour.