This Decade's Musical Legacy

[RPS]

Lots of great albums and bands have come out to critical and mass appeal in this decade. My Chemical Romance (Welcome to the Black Parade), Arcade Fire (Funeral, The Neon Bible), Modest Mouse (Good News, We Were Dead), The White Stripes (Elephant, White Blood Cells), Arctic Monkeys (Whatever People Say...), Bright Eyes (Wide Awake, Digital Ash), Kanye West (Late Registration, College Dropout), Beck (Guero), Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Self Titled), Gorillaz (Demon Days, Self Titled), Franz Ferdinand (Self Titled, You Could Have It), Outkast (Speakerboxx, Stankonia), The Shins (Chutes Too Narrow), Radiohead (Hail to the Thief), Queens of the Stone Age (Songs for the Deaf), The Hives (Veni Vidi Vicious), The Strokes (Is This It?)... plus lots of older mainstream acts releasing some of their most critically acclaimed work... Madonna (Music, Confessions), Justin Timberlake (FutureSex), Green Day (American Idiot), Jay-Z (Black Album), Bob Dylan (Modern Times), Blur (Think Tank)... I could go on and on and on and on, but I figured I'd stop at that.

Its not that bad music isn't in the mainstream. It always has and always will be. We just forget the shit. Whats happening is the idea of mainstream is changing. Record sales/airplay replaced by the internet. Don't turn on your TV and read Billboard and get fooled.

[zero]

Lots of great albums and bands have come out to critical and mass appeal in this decade.

Huge difference between having mass appeal and having a legacy though. None of those bands you listed I see as leaving a legacy.

[RPS]

I highly disagree as I think that at least MCR, Arcade Fire, The White Stripes, Kanye West will be popular for as long as they choose to release music. Both have two critically/commercially acclaimed CDs released and don't show any signs of slowing down anytime soon. The rest may not achieve the same success, but its natural in music. People always remember the U2s, Led Zeppelins and Nirvana but forget the Dead or Alive, Bay City Rollers and Silverchair. I'd say there are lots of classic albums being released, its just they won't be deemed classics for a while.

[zero]

I highly disagree as I think that at least MCR, Arcade Fire, The White Stripes, Kanye West will be popular for as long as they choose to release music. Both have two critically/commercially acclaimed CDs released and don't show any signs of slowing down anytime soon. The rest may not achieve the same success, but its natural in music. People always remember the U2s, Led Zeppelins and Nirvana but forget the Dead or Alive, Bay City Rollers and Silverchair. I'd say there are lots of classic albums being released, its just they won't be deemed classics for a while.

That's my point though. None of those bands are going to be Nirvanas or Led Zeppelins. There's a huge difference between being great and achieving greatness. I think the days of seeing bands achieve greatness are over; when an album is released, it's here today, we listen, we might like it, then move onto the next thing. There's nothing that really has that staying power anymore of a true classic.

[livid]

I highly disagree as I think that at least MCR, Arcade Fire, The White Stripes, Kanye West will be popular for as long as they choose to release music. Both have two critically/commercially acclaimed CDs released and don't show any signs of slowing down anytime soon. The rest may not achieve the same success, but its natural in music. People always remember the U2s, Led Zeppelins and Nirvana but forget the Dead or Alive, Bay City Rollers and Silverchair. I'd say there are lots of classic albums being released, its just they won't be deemed classics for a while.

That's my point though. None of those bands are going to be Nirvanas or Led Zeppelins. There's a huge difference between being great and achieving greatness. I think the days of seeing bands achieve greatness are over; when an album is released, it's here today, we listen, we might like it, then move onto the next thing. There's nothing that really has that staying power anymore of a true classic.

[Farmer Reil]

I highly disagree as I think that at least MCR, Arcade Fire, The White Stripes, Kanye West will be popular for as long as they choose to release music. Both have two critically/commercially acclaimed CDs released and don't show any signs of slowing down anytime soon. The rest may not achieve the same success, but its natural in music. People always remember the U2s, Led Zeppelins and Nirvana but forget the Dead or Alive, Bay City Rollers and Silverchair. I'd say there are lots of classic albums being released, its just they won't be deemed classics for a while.

That's my point though. None of those bands are going to be Nirvanas or Led Zeppelins. There's a huge difference between being great and achieving greatness. I think the days of seeing bands achieve greatness are over; when an album is released, it's here today, we listen, we might like it, then move onto the next thing. There's nothing that really has that staying power anymore of a true classic.

[zero]

OMG, you totally burned me there.

I'm not claiming to predict the future, but just look at the last 15 years. There hasn't been anyone since Nirvana to do what they did and change the entire landscape of music. And with the music business changing in such a way that it has, I just can't see how it will happen in the future.

Oh and by the way: 4, 18, 26, 43, 2 and the Powerball is 9.

[Skummy]

I don't see it as the lack of a "legacy", though, just the lack of a figurehead, which I don't think is necessary. Like I said, it's a shifting paradigm, not a sign that this decade is musically any "better" or "worse" than any other.

Nirvana didn't "change music" all by themselves, Led Zeppelin didn't "change music" all by themselves. It's not like there was hair metal, then Nirvana turned up and everything changed. They were very much the tip of the iceberg, and just a face given to something that was happening anyway. It may or may not have happened without them...maybe without them grunge would just be a footnote in musical history that never broke through to the mainstream, maybe not...but the fact is, it did happen. The music was out there, and Nirvana were but one band within that movement. And it's still the same today, it's just that changes in the media and the way we discover and listen to music mean that we can see music from so many different perspectives that there's no longer any need to herald any one act in the way we once did, because we've got a deeper appreciation of where that band comes from, and what other bands are out there, and it's this trying to stick to the already outdated ideal of labelling bands as "the next big thing" or one band as being "iconic"...this act of looking for a new Nirvana, or a new Oasis...that leaves music media, especially publications such as the NME, looking fickle and often laughable in how they still try and cover new music.

[David Hassellhoff]

The biggest album so far to me has been "American Idiot". The amount of concept albums in the works and released by major rpck artists (MCR, Nine Inch Nails, Velvet Revolver, and probably more coming) since Green Day released their album makes me believe it has had to me the most obvious influence to other albums of this decade.

Edited April 4, 2007 by David Hassellhoff

[livid]

The biggest album so far to me has been "American Idiot". The amount of concept albums in the works and released by major rpck artists (MCR, Nine Inch Nails, Velvet Revolver, and probably more coming) since Green Day released their album makes me believe it has had to me the most obvious influence to other albums of this decade.

[David Hassellhoff]

I know Green Day didn't invent the concept album, but they revitilized the concept album and made it almost a trend. Do you really think it's a coincidence that My Chemical Romance's latest album was a concept album?

Edited April 4, 2007 by David Hassellhoff

[livid]

I know Green Day didn't invent the concept album, but they revitilized the concept album and made it almost a trend. Do you really think it's a coincidence that My Chemical Romance's latest album was a concept album?

[zero]

Do you really think it's a coincidence that My Chemical Romance's latest album was a concept album?

That's because MCR idolize Green Day.

[Fanku Kaibutsu]

For those that have mentioned rap acts in regards to the state of modern music, I probably should have clarified in my original post that I was specifically referring to rock music. Modern rap music has it's own set of problems(Most of them, I hold Puffy personally responsible for )

I love the way you've basically said "there are no good bands anymore, except <long list>"

[Skummy]

To say that Nine Inch Nails released a concept album because Green Day did is laughable. Practically every, if not every, NIN album is a concept album to some extent. MCR have said flat-out that the idea for a concept album for them came from "The Wall". It's not a new idea, and "American Idiot" certainly didn't kickstart any "trend" for it, in my opinion.

[YI]

I know Green Day didn't invent the concept album, but they revitilized the concept album and made it almost a trend. Do you really think it's a coincidence that My Chemical Romance's latest album was a concept album?

Edited April 4, 2007 by YI

[David Hassellhoff]

Yeah sure NIN has always done concept albums but yeah as Zero said MCR idolize Green Day so that's obviously not a coincidence. Besides NIN what major rock act has done a concept album the past fifteen years before Green Day? Just because you don't like Green Day doesn't mean you can't give credit to a band that has obviously influenced a lot of rock acts and the albums they've made since they released "American Idiot" in 2004. While "American Idiot" isn't the definitive "Nevermind" of the 90's if they ever did a Behind the Music for this decade their album would have to be given a segment.

Edited April 4, 2007 by David Hassellhoff

[Rage]

Is it only me that sees that the Libertines were clearly the greatest band of the 00's?

[livid]

I'm not saying this because I dislike the band, I'm saying it because you're trying to convince me that because Green Day released a concept album that they're responsible for every concept album released after their's, which is ridiculous. You can't assume that just because Green Day released one and that other bands are as well, that Green Day is somehow directly responsible for them doing so, because in most cases, you will find out that they probably had the idea and didn't even think about Green Day. That's my point, you're drawing vague assumptions that because Green Day released one and that others have some planned as well that they're somehow responsible for that and for changing the landscape of the music industry, when I'm sorry, they're not. I think you're reading too much into it.

[YI]

Clearly, it's Box Car Racer who are responsible for the uprise in concept albums.