For the past year I have had numerous conversations with my friends wondering where the hell the sound of this decade(let's call it "The Aughts") is . Not since the 50's, when it took until 1955 for Elvis to come onto the scene, have we had such a late start finding a defining sound for a decade. Ok, so maybe it took until 1963 for Dylan to popularize protest songs and 1964 for the Beatles to set trends for the rest of existence. Still, it has come MUCH quicker since then. This is the first time that it seems like there isn't much ground left to cover.
Maybe it was because of Woodstock in '69, but right away in the early '70s you had bands like The Moody Blues, Electric Light Orchestra, and Pink Floyd creating "art rock" and the rise to popularity of revolutionary groups like Led Zeppelin.
Sure, the '70s had that awkward transition phase to the '80s called Disco, but it didn't last long. The 80's quickly gained its own sound,possibly because of the start of MTV in 1981. The music of the 70s quickly became "classic rock" and was replaced by glam rock and synthesized pop. I don't know about you, but when I think back to the 80s I think about Tawny Kitaen on the hood of that car in the Whitesnake video and other bands like Poison and Motley Crew.
Oh, did I mention that the 80s was also the beginning of the popularization of gender bending?
Thankfully that ended quickly when Nirvana a brand new revolution in 1991 to pave the way for bands like Pearl Jam and Staind.
Since then, I have been left to wonder, what has happened to the Aught's sound? I mean there was the awkward transitional "music" from the 90s to the Aughts, but . . . IT'S STILL HERE! The only thing I can point to that might be the music of the Aughts is either Rap or Rap-Rock. The problem is, neither of them are distinctive to this decade. Rap was popularized in the early 80s. Rap Rock, which started in the mid 90s, was a natural progression from the popularity of grunge, rock, and rap.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - arik181
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...
2 - murphy
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.
3 - Speaker
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
4 - jackrabbit
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...