It depends on what you are talking about,as far as electronica.I think it all comes back to being able to write good music or songs in any genre.I think Paul McCartney's first album as "The Fireman" is great.Like "Standing Stone","Give My Regards To Broad Street',and "Unplugged",it's just another side of a very diverse artist."Earthling" is one of my all-time favorite David Bowie records."Seven Years In Tibet",for example is one of the greatest songs Bowie ever wrote.Would you call "Earthling" techno?
I am a little put off by anybody who talks about "pre 1977" music.I bought Beatles Ventures,and early Who records,new,as a very small child,I listen to a lot of pre-1970 country,and pre-1955 R&B,but I think the entire punk/post-punk/new wave period,of roughly 1975-83,is one of the most exciting periods in all of 20th Century music,and produced some of the most memorable,and lasting songs,and greatest records of all time.I would compare it to what happened in jazz in the twenty years after WWII.Fletcher Henderson is great,but so is Ornette Coleman.The same can be said of The Who and The Clash,The Doors and Joy Division,or Buddy Holly and The Ramones.
Techno,and a lot of what else was going on in the 90s,was some of the last gasps of innovation in popular music.It all died out by the end of the decade.
Roger
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From: Peter Charuza <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2011 5:16 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Interesting review of seemingly interesting book
What a great article.
He makes some really great points, I especially liked the line,
""Music is a herald, for change is inscribed in noise faster than it
transforms society." That music has stopped changing, Mr. Reynold suggests,
reflects something gravely amiss in the wider culture."
there certainly is a lot amiss. But i will say there is more original music
than they give credit to. Electronica / Techno, New styles of rap and hiphop
are constantly coming and going. Now i must say its not necessarily good or
worthy to enter that 120gig iPod of yours at all, but it has been forging
its own way. You get certain amount of retreading in hip hop but for the
most part its taking things in a new direction even though its sampled.
The major focus of the article is Rock Pop and with Bob's comment i'll
throw country in the mix too. I love all the pre-1977 music in these
genre's. They seem to have stagnated. Could they have possibly run their
course? Blues music and jazz in the modern or 'post modern' age as they
refer to it in the article is just sad. While i don't give much chance, I do
ignore it and hope it just goes away. If those two extremely power forms of
music have gone with the Do-Do why not rock? I was listening to modern
country on the radio just this morning, bluegrass seems to be a highly
technically recorded version of what was around in the 50's and 60's.
I wonder if todays electronic holds up as poorly as 90's electronica, my
guess is most definitely.
Peter.
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