6 ms·

we still have Bieber.. stay strong! /s

agumonkey 11y ago
As easy that joke was, I'm very often wondering about generations these days. I often feel this generation is really cheap. Now, surely most people feel this way about how the new one isn't worth their own, but really there were such iconic periods from the 50s to the 90s (in a westerner point of view) .. and this makes his leaving (among other peers who shaped the 70s) as powerful as hurting.
- cageface 11y ago
  There's a ton of interesting, adventurous music being made by young people right now but you will never hear it because the music labels still dominate pop music and they've become more conservative than ever. So don't judge the current generation by what you see in the top 40. Dig around on Bandcamp instead and be amazed.
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    It's funny, Bowie did speak about Labels disappearing. As I said above, the top before had more interesting stuff (if you consider The Police, or Dire Straits interesting that is). I'll seek through bandcamp, I rarely hear things intersting these days but maybe I'm under a passeist phase.
    - cageface 11y ago
      No idea what your tastes are but here's a bunch of interesting stuff that went under the labels' radar. http://hcmj.tumblr.com/post/135300528373/hcmjs-favorite-albums-of-2015 http://hcmj.tumblr.com/post/135300528373/hcmjs-favorite-albu...
- chrisdevereux 11y ago
  They had the Monkees back then. We have real artists now. Have things changed so much?
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    So I only look at the past through what stood the test of time, while failing to see this about this era ...
- eropple 11y ago
  The "50s to the 90s"--which is so laughably general, that's four generations of music, if not more--had The Beatles and David Bowie and it also had The Monkees and Men Without Hats. We have the artists who it's funny to make fun of, like Bieber, and we have Jack White, we have Kanye West, we have Radiohead--and we had David Bowie, he's a modern artist today, have you listened to Blackstar, which openly tips its cap to Kendrick Lamar? Twenty years from now, Bowie and Kanye will be spoken of in the same breath (and sure, that happens today, but that's by the people who pay attention), and that's fine. Great work is done today just as much, if not more, as it was in the past, and you're being That Guy and you should never, ever, ever be That Guy.
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    Isn't the situation reversed ? were men without hats big ? the good music today is in the shadow while the mainstream pours industrialized music overwhelmingly. I don't understand how Kanye West is anything but an arrogant dude, but I'm biased against Hip Hop nowadays. Radiohead is very much a 90s in my eyes.
    - eropple 11y ago
      Well, it's fortunate that Kanye West isn't a "hip-hop" musician, he is a musician, and pulls in influences by the wheelbarrowful. Even were that an adequate definition--congratulations: you know your biases. Now overcome them, because if you can't draw a barely kinked line between David Bowie and 808s and Heartbreak, that is on you. But I don't think that's the problem here, is it? :) He's "arrogant"--and my, but your choice of adjective here is so interesting!--so, well, that's all she wrote. Bowie was just a shrinking violet, right?
      - agumonkey 11y ago
        > > I'm biased against Hip Hop nowadays Congratulations: you know your > biases. Overcome them. Because if you can't draw a straight line > between David Bowie and 808s and Heartbreak, that is on you. But he's > "arrogant" (my, but the coded language, isn't that interesting!), so > that doesn't matter I guess. Bowie was just a shrinking violet, right? I don't get what you mean about drawing a straight line ? you mean judging fair ? I admit it's difficult to understand why I would say "Let's dance" is good iconic music while West is tasteless Pfip Pop. And Let's dance isn't Bowie most beautiful music. I just discovered Space Oddity .. well. I just heard '808s' and I quit before half. I never heard anything from West that was worth being arrogant that what I meant. Most of what I heard from him was just mundane flat post 2000s hip hop that I can't bear anymore. It's far from my definition of music, flat, processed, easy. It's barely even music to my ears. People should dig in Jazzy Jeff, Dilla, D'angelo then reflect on todays mainstream.
- MisterBastahrd 11y ago
  Bowie got as big as he was because of labels pushing him down a captive audience's throats. Was he good? Sure. But there were many other really good artists who never got much attention because the only place to hear music during Bowie's era was on the radio or in a record store. "This generation" has wider tastes and a broader selection than any before it. That they can't be defined by a single sound or genre is a good thing.
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    Good point. The constriction of music production (or TV distribution) before has a deep impact on what people discover and how they experience it.

As easy that joke was, I'm very often wondering about generations these days. I often feel this generation is really cheap. Now, surely most people feel this way about how the new one isn't worth their own, but really there were such iconic periods from the 50s to the 90s (in a westerner point of view) .. and this makes his leaving (among other peers who shaped the 70s) as powerful as hurting.

cageface 11y ago
There's a ton of interesting, adventurous music being made by young people right now but you will never hear it because the music labels still dominate pop music and they've become more conservative than ever. So don't judge the current generation by what you see in the top 40. Dig around on Bandcamp instead and be amazed.
- agumonkey 11y ago
  It's funny, Bowie did speak about Labels disappearing. As I said above, the top before had more interesting stuff (if you consider The Police, or Dire Straits interesting that is). I'll seek through bandcamp, I rarely hear things intersting these days but maybe I'm under a passeist phase.
  - cageface 11y ago
    No idea what your tastes are but here's a bunch of interesting stuff that went under the labels' radar. http://hcmj.tumblr.com/post/135300528373/hcmjs-favorite-albums-of-2015 http://hcmj.tumblr.com/post/135300528373/hcmjs-favorite-albu...
chrisdevereux 11y ago
They had the Monkees back then. We have real artists now. Have things changed so much?
- agumonkey 11y ago
  So I only look at the past through what stood the test of time, while failing to see this about this era ...
eropple 11y ago
The "50s to the 90s"--which is so laughably general, that's four generations of music, if not more--had The Beatles and David Bowie and it also had The Monkees and Men Without Hats. We have the artists who it's funny to make fun of, like Bieber, and we have Jack White, we have Kanye West, we have Radiohead--and we had David Bowie, he's a modern artist today, have you listened to Blackstar, which openly tips its cap to Kendrick Lamar? Twenty years from now, Bowie and Kanye will be spoken of in the same breath (and sure, that happens today, but that's by the people who pay attention), and that's fine. Great work is done today just as much, if not more, as it was in the past, and you're being That Guy and you should never, ever, ever be That Guy.
- agumonkey 11y ago
  Isn't the situation reversed ? were men without hats big ? the good music today is in the shadow while the mainstream pours industrialized music overwhelmingly. I don't understand how Kanye West is anything but an arrogant dude, but I'm biased against Hip Hop nowadays. Radiohead is very much a 90s in my eyes.
  - eropple 11y ago
    Well, it's fortunate that Kanye West isn't a "hip-hop" musician, he is a musician, and pulls in influences by the wheelbarrowful. Even were that an adequate definition--congratulations: you know your biases. Now overcome them, because if you can't draw a barely kinked line between David Bowie and 808s and Heartbreak, that is on you. But I don't think that's the problem here, is it? :) He's "arrogant"--and my, but your choice of adjective here is so interesting!--so, well, that's all she wrote. Bowie was just a shrinking violet, right?
    - agumonkey 11y ago
      > > I'm biased against Hip Hop nowadays Congratulations: you know your > biases. Overcome them. Because if you can't draw a straight line > between David Bowie and 808s and Heartbreak, that is on you. But he's > "arrogant" (my, but the coded language, isn't that interesting!), so > that doesn't matter I guess. Bowie was just a shrinking violet, right? I don't get what you mean about drawing a straight line ? you mean judging fair ? I admit it's difficult to understand why I would say "Let's dance" is good iconic music while West is tasteless Pfip Pop. And Let's dance isn't Bowie most beautiful music. I just discovered Space Oddity .. well. I just heard '808s' and I quit before half. I never heard anything from West that was worth being arrogant that what I meant. Most of what I heard from him was just mundane flat post 2000s hip hop that I can't bear anymore. It's far from my definition of music, flat, processed, easy. It's barely even music to my ears. People should dig in Jazzy Jeff, Dilla, D'angelo then reflect on todays mainstream.
MisterBastahrd 11y ago
Bowie got as big as he was because of labels pushing him down a captive audience's throats. Was he good? Sure. But there were many other really good artists who never got much attention because the only place to hear music during Bowie's era was on the radio or in a record store. "This generation" has wider tastes and a broader selection than any before it. That they can't be defined by a single sound or genre is a good thing.
- agumonkey 11y ago
  Good point. The constriction of music production (or TV distribution) before has a deep impact on what people discover and how they experience it.