soundslike1981
Well-known member
Outkast as canonical I won't mind seeing. They'll be taken as the Sly & The Family Stone of the 90s/00s.
Who are the most 'important' acts of today?
- Thread starter Buick6
- Start date
kingofcars
Well-known member
as fas as canonical early 21st century music, i'd rank timbaland and the neptunes right at the top. they've had more impact on pop music and countless niche facets of 'underground music' than basically everyone else put together.
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nonseq said:
the only thing he did between dreamweaver and bubble up was the 'qv weaver mix' which was the vocals from dreamweaver riddim remixed over a superfast soca-style beat. he's just put out a one-off single from wayne wonder (ie nothing else on the riddim) called perfect combination, also on the 40/40 label.
in specifically canonical terms, not necessarily my favorites, but what I think will be remembered in top ten lists covering the past 10 years or so:
I’ll reiterate the neptunes and timbaland for all things pop, electronic, or hip-hop
the boredoms, boris, keiji haino, and maybe lightning bolt for the noise and the rock, especially the more open-ended kind
tim hecker, wolf eyes and fennesz for more experimental electronic stuff
animal collective, devendra banhart, and jeweled antler collective from the weird (I would love to see some Scandinavian bands like avarus and lau nau get recognized as well.)
venetian snares, donna summer, richie hawtin and dj/rupture from the more beat oriented underground electronic
dipset, swisha house, and wiley for the slightly sub-superstar hip-hop diaspora
of course, all this assumes an english/american music nerd centered viewpoint. it would be much harder to pinpoint who would be canonized on a more cross-cultural and global scale.
I’ll reiterate the neptunes and timbaland for all things pop, electronic, or hip-hop
the boredoms, boris, keiji haino, and maybe lightning bolt for the noise and the rock, especially the more open-ended kind
tim hecker, wolf eyes and fennesz for more experimental electronic stuff
animal collective, devendra banhart, and jeweled antler collective from the weird (I would love to see some Scandinavian bands like avarus and lau nau get recognized as well.)
venetian snares, donna summer, richie hawtin and dj/rupture from the more beat oriented underground electronic
dipset, swisha house, and wiley for the slightly sub-superstar hip-hop diaspora
of course, all this assumes an english/american music nerd centered viewpoint. it would be much harder to pinpoint who would be canonized on a more cross-cultural and global scale.
satanmcnugget
Well-known member
gonna go with Dizzee Rascal, MIA, DJ Rupture and GodSpeedYouBlackEmperor (no, really)
soundslike1981
Well-known member
satanmcnugget said:
If this is true, then things really have fallen considerably in the world of "rock and roll". I mean, I'm not a huge Joy Division fan, but I can still see the confluence of influence and popularity and mythicality. But God Speed You Black Emperor? Yikes.
I've never heard of any of the shmeckeckie bands.
They all sound like that pratty fucken shit that NME and MM useta chapion every week.
SHIT SHITE AND MORE SHITE!
It's amazing how irrellevant magazines like NME become once you get laid or turn 25 or both!
But I remember when I was last in London back in January 1989(!!) and Lou Reed was on the cover after releasing 'New York'(!!)
It seems that the NMW and MM and Select and VOx and all the other crap just became Mojo, Uncut etc..etc et. bloody cetera.
The only UK magazine I may buy once a blue moon is WIRE or SIGHT and SOUND and the odd Mojo.
They all sound like that pratty fucken shit that NME and MM useta chapion every week.
SHIT SHITE AND MORE SHITE!
It's amazing how irrellevant magazines like NME become once you get laid or turn 25 or both!
But I remember when I was last in London back in January 1989(!!) and Lou Reed was on the cover after releasing 'New York'(!!)
It seems that the NMW and MM and Select and VOx and all the other crap just became Mojo, Uncut etc..etc et. bloody cetera.
The only UK magazine I may buy once a blue moon is WIRE or SIGHT and SOUND and the odd Mojo.
Ummm....
in no particular order
K0S
Buck 65
Broken Social Scene (I feel like I am cheating there because I want to include all those who are involved, and that's a lot - Feist, Stars, Metric, etc)
Rufus Wainwright
Arcade Fire
Godspeed...may indeed be 'important' but it's so hard to say what will be canonical in the future, or even who's canonical now. And God knows, when I listen to the radio there's evidence of different 'canons' all over the place - even with this list, some get more across-the-board airplay than others.
in no particular order
K0S
Buck 65
Broken Social Scene (I feel like I am cheating there because I want to include all those who are involved, and that's a lot - Feist, Stars, Metric, etc)
Rufus Wainwright
Arcade Fire
Godspeed...may indeed be 'important' but it's so hard to say what will be canonical in the future, or even who's canonical now. And God knows, when I listen to the radio there's evidence of different 'canons' all over the place - even with this list, some get more across-the-board airplay than others.
piratestyle
New member
wot no Fretblanket?owen said:
piratestyle
New member
Godspeed could be seen as important in how they've led so many self-important male bores with a guitar to drag whatever spark or worth post-rock once had into the widdly overwrought obvious-build-up WOW 27 MINUTE TRACK!!! mire. imho.soundslike1981 said:
I can't decide if this is like blaming Marx for communism's wrongs etc. But after I fell asleep stood-up at the last Godspeed show I went to I've never revisited one of their records. And swore never to buy another after the last 2 Silver Mount Zzzzion ones. More politically/ideologically important in some respect, I can give them that. But people will no doubt conflate that with musical worth, it's already the case now...
Buh yeah. Timba/Neptures, Rupture, Wiley/Dizzee, Radiohead, Snares, Wilco, Lenky, my personal obv ones. Of recent years. For assorted reasons, some more contestable than others. Anti-Pop too perhaps, rather than Anticon... Liars maybe, if the next record is as great a step-up as the last one was from their debut. TV On The Radio, though it's early days yet. I'd like to think Wolf Eyes too (though I wouldn't have said that until I saw them live)...
I get this nasty feeling the likes of Coldplay esp have had 'canonical status' already ascribed to them way in advance by too many quarters, on all 3 levels (sonically/ideologically/politically); or at least will unquestioningly be considered so, a long long time before any of those people have mentioned ever will. Ho hum. I'm wishfully trying to pretend The Libertines/Strokes won't be though, against my better/cynical judgement..
Ness Rowlah
Norwegian Wood
I've got a feeling that the Red Hot Chilli Peppers might create
something really great one day (as in stick to less than 50 minutes
of music and really let those outside influences they sometimes quote
get through).
something really great one day (as in stick to less than 50 minutes
of music and really let those outside influences they sometimes quote
get through).
originaldrum
from start till done
heh heh. this thread is pure jokes, i'm surprised someone has mentioned trim yet
Coldplay may well be canonical now because of the other groups who sound like them that have suddenly sprung up, not to mention their own self-generated competition with U2 - they want to be big. (I can't even tell if the videos for "Speed of Sound" and "City of Blinding Lights" are imitating each other or what.)
I don't think there's many jokes on this thread...to each their own, y'know?
I don't think there's many jokes on this thread...to each their own, y'know?
huffafc said:
Second that; the twin spokes of beardy weirdy sub-rock, acid folk etc etc coming from Finnish scene and the multiple afterthoughts of the Jewelled Antler / Animal Collective/Joanna Newsom brigade will definitely be remembered and re-invoked in years to come if only because they've dragged home-recording back into the frame when every other 'indie' label is really a sub-set of a major or a fishing pool...
In 2023 we'll all be marvelling at the Animal Collective comeback gig at Glastonbury Festival (and by then it'll be entirely under some kind of geodesic dome, air-conditioned for arthritus knuckles and selling mulled wine steeped in salvia by the tumbler-full...)
Looking forward to it, if only so I can be as smug as the tossers who pretended to have seen The Velvet Underground....
Thinking about it, I'd better book my A.C. tickets now...
blissblogger
Well-known member
questioning the question...
"importance" in that sense has ceased to be a possibility hasn't it, really? the mechanisms that create importance in that old rockist (not a dirty word) sense -- ie. the 40 minute album that you listen to all the way through, reverentially, and take as an integrated Statement; the single that is singular and not just a CD-selling marketing tool (remember when rock bands prided themselves on doing singles that weren't on the album? oh, sorry, you're too young aren't you); centralised mass-media outlets (Radio One), rock press that was read and taken seriously etc etc
that particular formation (album/single/radio/rockpress) was ailing from the mid-Eighties, hit by the near-synchronous arrival of the CD (meaning you don't listen to the album reverentially as a Work, but program the best bits), MTV (different mode of engagement -- and severely impacts role of radio), decline of the pop chart in sales terms, explosion of niche markets and fragmentation, decline of serious rock press...
mp3s ipods etc would seem to augur the final absolute demise of that formation
"it's all about the song" now -- ie. the individual unit of consumer pleasure
up til now "importance" in that old rockist/auteurist and social/resonance sense continues as this sort of emptied-out half-life that only has meaning with things like the Mercury Prize, quality newspapers drawing up lists of the best records etc ... cf things like the Oscars, meaningless,,,
but i wonder how much longer even that will survive given the nature of how music is produced, consumed, distributed etc in the mp3 era
...as well as the structures and mechanisms that create "importance", another thing that's gradually faded of course is the will to believe in such a thing -- people aren't looking for it so much, they're more looking for entertainment, diversion, or a drug-surrogate mood-modifier kick-buzz/chill-pill
so all that's left is "important to me -- and maybe a small number of likeminds"
i think this -- both the technological determinism angle and the consumer-side decline in demand for "importance" -- it must have something to do with why the Noughties has not produced a figure comparable with, say, Bowie.... or even with Bjork or Beck.... i'm not talking "as good as" artistically, i'm talking that nebulous quality "important" which is something like "really good artistically" but in such way that it's taken as "significant" by a large number of people, who then listen and await further statements from the artist...
the nearest equivalent to this, this decade...i dunno... kanye?
soundslike1981 said:
"importance" in that sense has ceased to be a possibility hasn't it, really? the mechanisms that create importance in that old rockist (not a dirty word) sense -- ie. the 40 minute album that you listen to all the way through, reverentially, and take as an integrated Statement; the single that is singular and not just a CD-selling marketing tool (remember when rock bands prided themselves on doing singles that weren't on the album? oh, sorry, you're too young aren't you); centralised mass-media outlets (Radio One), rock press that was read and taken seriously etc etc
that particular formation (album/single/radio/rockpress) was ailing from the mid-Eighties, hit by the near-synchronous arrival of the CD (meaning you don't listen to the album reverentially as a Work, but program the best bits), MTV (different mode of engagement -- and severely impacts role of radio), decline of the pop chart in sales terms, explosion of niche markets and fragmentation, decline of serious rock press...
mp3s ipods etc would seem to augur the final absolute demise of that formation
"it's all about the song" now -- ie. the individual unit of consumer pleasure
up til now "importance" in that old rockist/auteurist and social/resonance sense continues as this sort of emptied-out half-life that only has meaning with things like the Mercury Prize, quality newspapers drawing up lists of the best records etc ... cf things like the Oscars, meaningless,,,
but i wonder how much longer even that will survive given the nature of how music is produced, consumed, distributed etc in the mp3 era
...as well as the structures and mechanisms that create "importance", another thing that's gradually faded of course is the will to believe in such a thing -- people aren't looking for it so much, they're more looking for entertainment, diversion, or a drug-surrogate mood-modifier kick-buzz/chill-pill
so all that's left is "important to me -- and maybe a small number of likeminds"
i think this -- both the technological determinism angle and the consumer-side decline in demand for "importance" -- it must have something to do with why the Noughties has not produced a figure comparable with, say, Bowie.... or even with Bjork or Beck.... i'm not talking "as good as" artistically, i'm talking that nebulous quality "important" which is something like "really good artistically" but in such way that it's taken as "significant" by a large number of people, who then listen and await further statements from the artist...
the nearest equivalent to this, this decade...i dunno... kanye?