Every decade of the 20th century was radically different from the one before it, at least from a pop culture standpoint. Just look at the teen idols of the 50s compared to the acid rock of the 60s, compared to the disco of the 70s, to the pastel colors and big hair of the 80s, to the alternative 90s. Now look at the 00s. We are already more than halfway done with this decade, but from a pop culture standpoint, of styles, films, and movies, the 00s don't seem to be all that different from the 90s. In fact, it seems like everything from about '95+ on has been about the same. The jump between each preceding decade in terms of styles seemed to be much greater.

Agree/disagee?

Yet another bitch-about-the-state-of-today's-music thread.








.
[Edited 5/10/06 2:06am]

Every decade of the 20th century was radically different from the one before it, at least from a pop culture standpoint. Just look at the teen idols of the 50s compared to the acid rock of the 60s, compared to the disco of the 70s, to the pastel colors and big hair of the 80s, to the alternative 90s. Now look at the 00s. We are already more than halfway done with this decade, but from a pop culture standpoint, of styles, films, and movies, the 00s don't seem to be all that different from the 90s. In fact, it seems like everything from about '95+ on has been about the same. The jump between each preceding decade in terms of styles seemed to be much greater.

Agree/disagee?

To be honest, I think there have been some considerable changes in music, though much of the most radical changes have been behind the scenes. Most of the changes have less to do with style or content and more to do with distribution. If you look at the major trends of music these days (really young artists, mp3s, iPods, American Idol, TRL, MySpace), these are all distribution driven phenomena, and it is affecting not only the way we listen to music, but how it is being crafted at the same time.

As for music styles itself, there have been some changes, though they may be more subtle to us. If anything, R&B and hip-hop have been melded together more than any other genres (whether you approve of this or not). The anguish and doom of grunge (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam) and noise of nu-metal (Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park) have given way to new generation garage music (The Strokes, The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Arcade Fire) and emo bands (Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, Fall Out Boy, Death Cab For Cutie). The themes of these bands are different, too. All of the grunge and alternative bands in the 1990s sung about being alienated from people who cared less about them, but the bands these days are lamenting about being overprotected and spied upon; that is, when they are not going all overdramtic when singing about some girl who dumps them. And of course, the east coast-west coast fight gave way for southern crunk.


[Edited 5/10/06 15:28pm]

Mara said:

well the music still sucks so the bitching will continue

Wow, I was just thinking about that earlier today. Nothing has changed much at all and that's why this decade is so boring. It's a shame but it's all these corporations that won't let individuality do it's thing. It's all about the mighty dollar.

purplecam said:

with big record labels thats what u get...