A decade is a long time

[innerSpaceman]

Saying I like the Beatles is not putting down any other band.


Get over it. Saying the 60's was great and, yes, even unique is not putting down other decades. Sheesh. I did, however, say poor stuff about the 90's and the 2000's in that I think the usual markers of culture have been indistinguishable from some generic median.

Perhaps there hasn't been enough time distance to determine what those markers might be. But I believe I could recognize something "80's" by about 1993.

And I specifically said lots of decades, most I didn't even live through, had recognizable style. That doesn't mean I'd like to live in 1937, just that it had cool artifacts.


I wouldn't even like to live in 1966. I've always liked the current time just fine. 2009 is just as glorious as 1999. The decade flew by for me only slightly faster than that 7-minute YouTube video that led this off.



But please point out where I insulted anyone. That was not my intent, and I don't believe I did that anywhere.

[mousepod]

I remember having a conversation with Heather a while back about "millennial fashion". She explained to me (in a more articulate way than I'm about to say) that while every new fashion movement draws from the past, the trends that occur around the turn of the century are invariably more of a "borrow" from very recent past as well as other times in recent memory. I guess this doesn't surprise me - whenever there's a "landmark" date, we tend to spend a lot of time looking backwards.

This "instant replay" makes it easier for people like iSm to argue that there's not much to distinguish the past couple of decades, and for CP to associate Pop Tarts with the 80s. You're both right, of course.

For someone who's spent more than 20 years around the music business, I can honestly say that most "new music" in any decade is retro crap, and that the cream sometimes takes a long time to rise to the top, or at least for the masses to recognize it. Sure, to some ears, the Grunge scene sounds like generic 70s rock, but I'll bet that 46 years ago, there was an iSm complaining that Dylan was totally indistinguishable from the folk that came before him and that The Beatles were just ripping off American R&B. And he would have been right.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

I'm sure I'm the worst possible person to suggest this, but CP I think you're being a little hard on iSm. I don't understand why you think he's attacking/insulting anyone. I just re-read all his posts in this thread and I didn't see him attack anyone. Curmudgeonly, sure, but not offensively so IMO.

[flippyshark]

As I take a quick break from working on music that probably rips off Leonard Cohen, Frank Zappa and The Residents, among many others, I admit that I long ago gave up trying to figure out how to make sure my own tunes sounded new or now. I just hope something like my own voice emerges somewhere along the line.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

MousePlanet was around long before, but MousePad started the same time DCA did, I believe - February 2001. I joined in August of that year.

I think I joined around the same time and met people at a pot luck in 2002. I was just talking about that with MickeyD - pretty sure it was early 2002.

a 1990's party would be very easy to throw.

that 80s party was easy, I'm sure a 90s one would be easy as well. It's fresh in the brainz.

Grunge, MC Hammer and LL Cool J and C&C Music Factory, Pop Tarts and Bagel Bites, a "coffeehouse and bagel shop" with open mic poetry...throw in a little Bush Sr/Clinton White House and you're set.

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Anyway - anyone else have anything they want to say about the last decade, the changes, the time gone by?

The beginning of the "casual culture" where jeans are dressy and dresses aren't.

A slightly tighter reign on running around until the lights came on as crime became more prominent (not necessarily more crime, but with cable news it was easier to hear more crime more often).

[Ghoulish Delight]

My favorite NPR music program, All Songs Considered, is doing a series of decade retrospective episodes. The first one is here. Mind you, it's majorly skewed to the NPR perspective, which means a lot of indie-pop, out of the mainstream stuff, so it's not the most complete picture. But the do spend a lot of time on general cultural trends and trends in the industry vs. specific music, at least in this first episode. Plus, it's worth it just for the last 20 seconds or so where they start spewing all the things they didn't get a chance to talk about. A lot of, "Oh yeah, THAT!" moments

The host, Bob Boilen, decided to pick an artist that exemplified music that could only have come from this decade. He went with Animal Collective and I couldn't agree more with that choice. While no music can claim complete independence from their predecessors and influences (surely they owe a huge dept to Radiohead, just to name one off the top of my head), Animal Collective I think synthesized all of it into something uniquely Millenial. YMMV, but the track is on the page linked above if you'd like a listen (7th track down).

I definitely feel more connected to this decade over any other. Surely the next decade is going to be a radical change for me as a person, but that's independent of the cultural environment. As a matter of fact, in all likelihood, despite the increased importance in my personal narrative the next decade will undoubtedly represent, I imagine I'll find myself more removed from the cultural narrative than in any other decade as my focus will be largely inward.

Beardy bands, social networks, an explosion of partisanship, a complete sea change in how the public consumes media, a complete sea change in how the public produces media, the seeds of an important civil rights movement, the death (or at least the beginning of the long convalescence) of the printed newspaper. Just to name a few. Whether I can think of witty party decorations to represent what I feel about the last 10 years couldn't be any more irrelevant to me. I find it far more relevant that I can have an real time conversation with someone from just about any part of the world than whether I can guess what year's design of jeans someone is wearing.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Beardy bands

As in facial hair? Was that a trend in the aughts? (I don't follow popular music, so I honestly have no idea.)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by SzczerbiakManiac

As in facial hair? Was that a trend in the aughts? (I don't follow popular music, so I honestly have no idea.)

It was, particularly in the NPR/Coachella circle of popular music. Fleet Foxes, My Morning Jacket, Man Man, Devandra Banhart, Iron & Wine, Band of Horses, just to name a few.

[€uroMeinke]

Another way to view the decade:


Larger image here

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

My favorite NPR music program, All Songs Considered

Hippie!