Slothrop
Tight but Polite
Thought it would be interesting to talk about some acts who were good in themselves but inadvertantly launched an avalanche of drivel. Maybe to the extent that you end up hating the original or maybe not.
A few starters:
Boards of Canada - they're always described as the progenitors of that melancholic melodic style of late 90s electronica. But most of the imitators miss the point that the progression - particularly in the really influential early stuff - is in the drum patterns. The melodies loop and drift endlessly and never properly resolve, and it's the shifts in the rhythms and textures of the percussion that carries the tune. Consequently, you end up with a load of people writing stuff with looping unresolved melodies and tedious percussion.
Basic Channel - utterly unimpeachable tunes, but unfortunately introduced a whole generation to being really boring about vintage equipment and the idea that it doesn't matter if you don't write anything interesting provided you've got a real Space Echo.
Autechre - repeatedly. Likewise the original Mille Plateaux clicks and cuts crew. It was experimental when they did it because they did it first and explored new ideas with it, it is not experimental if you just copy it as a way of sounding up to date.
Massive Attack - how did we get from the skunked up and stripped bare Blue Lines to Morcheeba? Uck.
Pretty much every decent guitar band for the last thirty years - it's still good if you do it really well, but unfortunately one band doing it really well inspire about a hundred doing it abysmally... I'd count The Libertines as about the last example of this.
Any more?
A few starters:
Boards of Canada - they're always described as the progenitors of that melancholic melodic style of late 90s electronica. But most of the imitators miss the point that the progression - particularly in the really influential early stuff - is in the drum patterns. The melodies loop and drift endlessly and never properly resolve, and it's the shifts in the rhythms and textures of the percussion that carries the tune. Consequently, you end up with a load of people writing stuff with looping unresolved melodies and tedious percussion.
Basic Channel - utterly unimpeachable tunes, but unfortunately introduced a whole generation to being really boring about vintage equipment and the idea that it doesn't matter if you don't write anything interesting provided you've got a real Space Echo.
Autechre - repeatedly. Likewise the original Mille Plateaux clicks and cuts crew. It was experimental when they did it because they did it first and explored new ideas with it, it is not experimental if you just copy it as a way of sounding up to date.
Massive Attack - how did we get from the skunked up and stripped bare Blue Lines to Morcheeba? Uck.
Pretty much every decent guitar band for the last thirty years - it's still good if you do it really well, but unfortunately one band doing it really well inspire about a hundred doing it abysmally... I'd count The Libertines as about the last example of this.
Any more?