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What do you think this decades music will say about our times years from now?

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TraceOneInfinite:
-60's is political music, drug music, much of it was influenced by the war in Vietnam and the peace movement

70's- I don't know much about the 70's

80's- I think America was experiencing a lot of prosperity in the 80's just judging by the music.  Whether it was real or false, Reagan did do a good job of promoting that image of America being a leader in the world and "shining city on a hill".  You have Cindy Lauper with "girls wanna have fun" seems like a signature song of the 80's to me. 

90's- first half Bush had us in a major war, I think times were hard as reflected in the LA riots and the music that came out of that like Dre's Chronic album is a signature record of the early 90's.  But then came the internet boom of the Clinton years and you have great prosperity again as reflected by the bling era starting in hiphop and the boy bands, the Britney's and all that, and the backpacker movement that wanted to be counter-culture and against all of that.

-00's... and now you have this decade.  Bush has tarnished America's image all over the world, and I think now music has lost a lot of its creativity and sex seems to be the only big seller in these times.  Its sex and materialism but not really in a fun way but more as a distraction from hard times.


what yall think?

Archetype:
I'd have to agree with you about the sex and materialism without the fun. Music, or at least the mainstream American music scene (Billboard Top 100) is generally made up of shallow, pretentious acts that have to rely on image more so than actual talent.
Let's run down the line of music genres:

Hip Hop - Easily the least fulfilling, negative, idiotic, repetitive shit you can find. "Artists" who wish to make it big must rely on reoccuring themes of sex, material wealth, and the proverbial race to the bottom that was/is their rocky past, usually consisting of selling drugs and other scumbag shit. Living in New York you can see examples every day of stupid youth imitating stupid musicians reflecting their own ignorant upbringing. It's really a mind fuck.

Pop - Pop music used to be fun in the 70's and 80's, and often featured well written lyrics and creative instrumentation culminating in a great record that I am not ashamed to say I like. As hip hop and in the late 80's-90's electronic music pervaded what was known as the pop scene, pop music started to be more about catchy hooks and driving beats, much like the other up and coming genres. Once industry people fully tapped into the marketing possibilities of this new pop music, they stopped taking chances with acts, and settled for familiar routines that would be sure to earn them lots. Hence, most of the 90's-now pop music is interchangable.

R&B - Holy God, this genre has suffered so much in the last twenty years. R&B as it was once known, is a thing of the past, and hip hop has encroached into this once soulful, beautiful art form and is now a safe haven for more crack dealers and sex rhymes. I am most upset about the decline of R&B more so than other genres.

Rock - Androgony is at an all time high, and what was once tough bad ass music is now a bunch of self absorbed ignorant losers whining and screaming into the mic like girls. Whats worse is that since girls make so much of the consumer market, the same dickheads who raped the pop genre are now doing the same thing with rock and making it all a predictable fashion scene to be idolized by it's key demographic, along with other generally young, insecure suburbanites. Rock/emo/scene/hardcore is laughable. I seriously laugh when I see one of their videos on tv.

Country - You know what, I'm not a country fan by any means, but I'll give most music a couple minutes if I'm flipping through stations, and these guys generally have the most sincere, descriptive lyrics about issues that don't fit into the familiar themes of mainstream music. I don't know enough to say whether it's changed a lot in the last few decades, other than I'm willing to bet that in the 90's and before, artists weren't runnign around with a big fat cosrvative stick up their ass trying to call out to their hilbilly bretheren to join the military, or pray for the troops or whatever the fuck some these clowns are trying to feed us.

Overall, in my opinion, mainstream music has just lost it's balls because with waning record sales, execs are less likely to take chances on original, different sounds that may or may not necessarilly make them millions.

To me, todays music reflects the greed of our time. Stale, ignorant, and unoriginal all for the sake of cranking a few more dollars out of the same reputable cash cow.

TraceOneInfinite:

--- Quote from: Archetype on September 28, 2008, 01:05:35 AM ---I'd have to agree with you about the sex and materialism without the fun. Music, or at least the mainstream American music scene (Billboard Top 100) is generally made up of shallow, pretentious acts that have to rely on image more so than actual talent.
Let's run down the line of music genres:

Hip Hop - Easily the least fulfilling, negative, idiotic, repetitive shit you can find. "Artists" who wish to make it big must rely on reoccuring themes of sex, material wealth, and the proverbial race to the bottom that was/is their rocky past, usually consisting of selling drugs and other scumbag shit. Living in New York you can see examples every day of stupid youth imitating stupid musicians reflecting their own ignorant upbringing. It's really a mind fuck.

Pop - Pop music used to be fun in the 70's and 80's, and often featured well written lyrics and creative instrumentation culminating in a great record that I am not ashamed to say I like. As hip hop and in the late 80's-90's electronic music pervaded what was known as the pop scene, pop music started to be more about catchy hooks and driving beats, much like the other up and coming genres. Once industry people fully tapped into the marketing possibilities of this new pop music, they stopped taking chances with acts, and settled for familiar routines that would be sure to earn them lots. Hence, most of the 90's-now pop music is interchangable.

R&B - Holy God, this genre has suffered so much in the last twenty years. R&B as it was once known, is a thing of the past, and hip hop has encroached into this once soulful, beautiful art form and is now a safe haven for more crack dealers and sex rhymes. I am most upset about the decline of R&B more so than other genres.

Rock - Androgony is at an all time high, and what was once tough bad ass music is now a bunch of self absorbed ignorant losers whining and screaming into the mic like girls. Whats worse is that since girls make so much of the consumer market, the same dickheads who raped the pop genre are now doing the same thing with rock and making it all a predictable fashion scene to be idolized by it's key demographic, along with other generally young, insecure suburbanites. Rock/emo/scene/hardcore is laughable. I seriously laugh when I see one of their videos on tv.

Country - You know what, I'm not a country fan by any means, but I'll give most music a couple minutes if I'm flipping through stations, and these guys generally have the most sincere, descriptive lyrics about issues that don't fit into the familiar themes of mainstream music. I don't know enough to say whether it's changed a lot in the last few decades, other than I'm willing to bet that in the 90's and before, artists weren't runnign around with a big fat cosrvative stick up their ass trying to call out to their hilbilly bretheren to join the military, or pray for the troops or whatever the fuck some these clowns are trying to feed us.

Overall, in my opinion, mainstream music has just lost it's balls because with waning record sales, execs are less likely to take chances on original, different sounds that may or may not necessarilly make them millions.

To me, todays music reflects the greed of our time. Stale, ignorant, and unoriginal all for the sake of cranking a few more dollars out of the same reputable cash cow.


--- End quote ---

I disagree with you placing the blame on "greed".  I think greed often drives people to great creativity and success.  Dre admits a lot of the great music he created was for money, women, etc.  He even is quoted as saying that if people download his music for free "then what's the use of me even going to the studio".

Otherwise you had a really nice post.  You kind of broke it down into genre's.  I was looking at it more from an overall perspective.

I've actually been listening late 80's music lately, songs I like as a kid.  I don't think its just a result of nostalgia, but it genuinely sounds like the music was more fun then, people were experiencing happiness and prosperity.  And if sex and materialism are mentioned its in a conscious or fun way. 

-Yet today, its no longer about fun, but rather more of a status symbol, or to throw in peoples faces.  Like you aint shit unless you got this or that.  Also, it does capture your attention, I think a lot of it has to do with distracting people from the hard times America is experiencing in these Bush years.

Archetype:
That's kind of a paranoid, conspiracy theorist way to look at it. You're not honestly gonna tell me that all the record giants are in cahoots with the government and are using idiotic music as a ploy to blind us are you? And that they then in turn tell the artists to make music a certain way..

herpes:

--- Quote from: Archetype on September 28, 2008, 01:53:01 AM ---That's kind of a paranoid, conspiracy theorist way to look at it. You're not honestly gonna tell me that all the record giants are in cahoots with the government and are using idiotic music as a ploy to blind us are you? And that they then in turn tell the artists to make music a certain way..

--- End quote ---

I actually made a post about this a while back ago.  But I think that can be said for pretty much all media now.  Look at the garbage on TV.  Look at what a joke our news media has become.

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