Comments on: What Do You Think? Most Important Music of the Decade

By: Tim Anderson

Tim Anderson — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:43:27 +0000

After Eminem, the two most interesting artists of the decade for me are MIA and Gogol Bordello. They are globalization with attitude. And unlike almost every indie rock record I heard this decade, seemed to embody a desperate swagger that, with the exception of the Black Keys or the White Stripes, the baby bumpers never really had. Rock and Hip Hop need that bite. MIA’s “Kala” is arguably the most important record of the second half of the decade, with “Paper Planes” arguably the most important single of the last five years. For me, though, Gogol is the best rock band since The Clash. Gogol live has no comparison. Yes, they are gypsy punks and, no, they don’t make “world music” so much as espouse a world that isn’t necessarily blues based but still demands you boogie.

By: Josh Shepperd

Josh Shepperd — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:25:16 +0000

I’ve been thinking about this lately… At least symbolically, how about Joanna Newsom – ‘Milk Eyed Mender’ (2004)? Looking back, the indie rock movement of the early 1990s was a unique time for musical innovation and business practices, for at least a few years (1990-1996ish) having introduced a viable alternate model to commercialism, with designated independent record stores and mail-order groups serving as distribution nodes, college radio stations devoting entire programming to non-commercial music, and indie labels offering 50/50 (over profit) contracts instead of commercial label ‘advances’. The period also assembled a richer and wider swath of aesthetic variation than commercial music, exemplified by proponents of ‘low-fi’, to post-punk, to riot grrl music–accompanied by newly and (for the first time) _intentionally_ constituted ‘scenes’ that synthesized regional labels and the musical approaches associated with each locality. Consequently, a generation of musicphiles attuned to a richer palette for ‘permissible’ performance, and began to rediscover everything from 1960s Turkish garage rock to 1980s ‘outsider’ musicians to the folk revival–further expanding indie’s imagined canon of influences. By the late 1990s, many labels had already gone out of business or been sold to majors, and indie’s legacy split into two groups: 1) enjoyable commercial/focus group derivations of 1990s indie, such as the Strokes, Vampire Weekend, and Franz Ferdinand, & 2) what I would call the ‘reissue revivalists’, like Newsom, who have interpreted what they see as the anachronistic ‘authenticity‘ of 60s folk music, while maintaining the allure of the ‘credibility’ associated with indie’s limited distribution, intimate audiences, and unorthodox song structures. ‘Milk-Eyed Mender’ was released by one of the ultimate ‘cred’ labels, ‘Drag City‘, and features simple, sad songs by a singer with a harp. The album avoids any nuance of commercialist opportunism or emo kitsch, yet I would argue that Newsom’s ‘1960s revivalist’ revivalism is indebted to the same period that gave us the ‘indie rock split’ in the late 1990s. It’s a great album, and as an industrial and aesthetic artifact an enjoyable example of the shifts in the independent music industry between the late 1990s and early 2000s that set the stage for current musical innovation.

By: Michael Dwyer

Michael Dwyer — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:15:49 +0000

This is a phenomenon also worth watching in terms of the future of the record label: Rock Band / Guitar Hero are already propping up sagging record sales by offering on-demand playable tracks from labels’ catalogs. Between that, the reduced stigma over licensing songs for commercials and the re-birth of the single (via American Idol and Glee) labels are learning to develop alternates to the album for generating revenue.

There’s a great Sound Opinions podcast on this topic, too.

By: Tim Anderson

Tim Anderson — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:06:42 +0000

Record of the decade: For me the record that summarizes the first five years of the decade is Eminem’s “The Marshall Mather’s LP”. On purely symptomatic levels its resonance with the popular horror of 9/11, the Iraq debacle and Katrina make it the most important American pop music record of the period. Indeed, the cover art of Eminem sitting in front of what seems to be an abandoned Detroit home is even more pertinent as the Midwest collapses under a housing crisis and systematic postindustrialism that it could never prevent. So as Eminem espouses fantasies about killing his wife, homophobia and an inability to deal with stardom over Dre’s big fat commercial beats, you hear as much dystopia as say “Children of Men” or “The Wire”. As many people hand the crown to Kanye, here’s the rub about Kanye’s many concerns versus Eminem: somehow they seem to have solutions whereas Eminem’s don’t. Kanye’s ego is inflated while Marshall Mather’s hates himself. I’m all down with positivity, but in the most horrific decade of my life the shivers of “Stan” still consume me.

More later.

By: Christopher Cwynar

Christopher Cwynar — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:58:10 +0000

I am going to nominate Lady Gaga here. She has dominated the pop music scene over the course of the past two years through elaborate videos, carefully arranged fashions, and infectious singles. Although there is little new in this combination of classic influences like Bowie and Madonna with more contemporary elements, I think that Gaga will nevertheless be regarded as a traditional figure. The post heading called for ‘recordings’, yet I think that Gaga’s career to date reflects the manner in which the relative importance of popular music ‘events’ is shifting away from recordings and towards live concerts and videos, which achieved new currency in the 00s through on-demand streaming sites like Youtube.
This is a process that really accelerated over the course of the past decade, which saw Napster, Kazaa, the emergence of ringtones, and now multiple content-streaming options via various websites including Youtube and Spotify. The live performance has always been a key legitimator of so-called ‘recording artists’ in culture, and it now stands as the only popular music commodity that cannot easily be pirated. As a consequence, it has become more important for the industry and more meaningful for fans who can easily access any popular recording or video at any given moment. When Gaga’s detractors dismiss her as a superficial pop confection, her champions trot out the Youtube clips of the younger Gaga doing her unique brand of off-kilter schtick at the piano of some Lower East Side club. Similarly, fans of all stripes have flocked to her recent tours to take in the spectacle. This is no mere adherence to a well-worn rock authenticity trope; it is a tacit acknowledgement that recordings are increasingly ancillary to the one popular music medium that cannot be easily reproduced for pirating or sharing. We see the increased relevance of the live performance in indie/independent music, but it is Gaga who best illustrates that this trend began to take hold in the mainstream during the 00s.

By: Jason Mittell

Jason Mittell — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:15:06 +0000

I was also going to say “In Rainbows,” but I think the most important “music” in the decade was an interface: Guitar Hero/Rock Band. Not only did it relaunch a dormant genre (shout out to the old school Parappa the Rapper fans!), but the musical game mode arguably has the potential to be the most transformative new development in musical culture since MTV. It hasn’t yet happened, but I anticipate we’ll see a band hit big based on a Rock Band track, and maybe even a band whose primary fandom is through this interactive interface. As a fan, I can say that mastering a track on GH/RB is a transformative experience in terms of how I listen to music, and thus is more “important” than any single album/artist.

By: Mike Chopra-Gant

Mike Chopra-Gant — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:07:54 +0000

Jonathan, OK, you got me busted. I have to confess to actually having seen the Jo Bros live. In my defence, I do have an 8 year old daughter.

By: Myles McNutt

Myles McNutt — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:09:28 +0000

Figure I at least have to throw in a hat for Radiohead’s “In Rainbows,” the first example of a major artist having the gall to offer their album for “whatever people want to pay.” Of course, as with any experiment, it’s impossible to say it truly started a trend of digital distribution: after all, this is Radiohead we’re talking about, and I doubt any other album released in this fashion would still manage to grab a Grammy nomination. But it was one of those moments where the music industry saw a glimpse of its future and actually seemed to stop and take notice…for a few months, after which things went back to normal.

Also: Susan Boyle.

By: Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:59:55 +0000

I’m inclined to nominate The Beatles’ remastered CDs too. No, I’m not stuck in the 1960s, but their rerelease was huge, the Beatles Rock Band videogame hype was massive, and the local poster stores on State St. tell me that Beatles posters have overtaken Klimt and Monet (as an episode of Buffy joked) as the undergrad dorm posters of choice.

By: Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:54:49 +0000

oh, Mike, don’t be coy about your love of Miley 😉