O, Music Where Art Thou?
Published February 17, 2003
There are tons of indie bands out there like Dealership with their eclectic blends of sounds that seem to come from various J-Pop sources, They Might Be Giants, Weezer's "Buddy Holly", and Mates of State with their two leads' passion for each other which lead to some very interesting and often time GOOD sounds.
If we look back at the Aughts and say that it was the decade of rap, I will be happy. Rap is about the only music that is going ANYWHERE right now. But it's still not a new sound. I want to see a variation of Rap. Better yet, why not popularize Geek Rock? They Might Be Giants and Weezer have been around for awhile but they are not very mainstream. You can put a unique spin on that sound, especially if you have more than just a couple of bands play under that genre.
You would think that we would have a sound by now, if only because of influence of the Internet. With the introduction of the MP3 and spread of Point to Point file sharing systems, one would think something would be born out of it.I am seriously surprised that we haven't been blown away by a new sound that started on the Internet yet. We're long overdue for something like that to happen. I hope it happens soon, because people have been writing the eulogy for pop for almost 5 years now and I don't want to look back at the Aughts and see that it was kept on life support for another 5.
- O, Music Where Art Thou?
- Published: February 17, 2003
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- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Rock, Music: Metal, Music: Hard Rock, Music: Alternative Rock
- Writer: Speaker
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I think there is also a lot of exciting things happening with DJs who take music and turn it into something new.
The DJs are kind of underground, anonymous types. This makes the signature "sound" of the decade a little bit ephemeral.
It's there, but you can't point to it.
I'm a big fan of TMBG, too. But I don't think they are every going mainstream. If they did, who would we geeks feel superior to, anymore? All the vapid people would be crowding in.
Arik-
I agree, it might not come from rock at all. And I love Eminem, but he was more of a 90's sound. He's still going strong, but what I said is that he's not something unique to this decade anymore. The new sound could come from rap, I only said geek rock as a hopeful joke. If it comes from anywhere it'll be rap or rock, I mean Eminem said it himself "Nobody listens to techno." And country has been stagnant for years, the only way it could make any new money is to borrow from rock. I'm all for a new genre to come out, like with grunge, I just don't see it yet, and my point was ...was that usually we'd be able to see it by now.
Thant's all! As far as getting to old, I'm only 22 . . . it's not a matter of liking it, it's just that it's not new...
-Speaker
Like it or not, the sound of "now" is the monotonous, never-changing, non-challenging beat of hip-hop. It ain't all bad, but very little is good. I take public transportation, and can hear songs through the kid's headphones. What kills me is hip-hop / rap songs all sound as if they are the very same song. Led Zeppelin named something "The Song Remains the Same". Does it ever...
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I understand your sentiment, being born and raised in Rock and Roll, and having come of age with Nirvana et al... I am getting the feeling that Rock is, in fact, pretty close to being dead. This is evidenced by the 'The' band trend and the complete lack of innovation in mainstream Rock at this time.
There seems to be quite a bit of innovation going on in mainstream Rap, both on the pop and the intellectual side (Witness Eminem and the Roots, respectively). I think you may be a bit out of touch in assuming that the next sound will come from Rock at all.
As far as most of the kids are concerned, Eminem is the voice of this generation's angst. Mashups are this generation's bootleg recordings. There is a sound, but many people just aren't prepared to listen. You might be getting too old, man...