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It seems like the decades from the 90s onward bleed into each other rather than having the distinct identities the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s did. A bit like how the 1920s, 1930s, and '40s, despite their vast political and economic differences, all shared a somewhat similar culture and feeling.
That's not to say the '00s weren't somewhat different from the '90s, they were but even 2012 still has the 'mold' that was formed in the early 90s.
You know, a sarcastic/random sense of humor, the culture wars, alternative rock/fashion, teen pop for the younger girls, third-wave feminism, plain and casual fashion, 'less is more', hip hop, those are all keystone 90s things that are equally applicable to 2012 but were barely existent at all in 1985.
Now with all that said, I have finally started to notice pieces of a new aesthetic, a new pop culture, come into formation since about 2008. For one thing synthesizers in music have become dominant again. It's cool again to be a keyboard player, which probably has to do with the resurgance of interest in the '80s. Fashion is more colorful, you see more bright colors especially teal and pink, more men with long hair, the conventional military man look of men in the early 00s and the revealing look women had in the early 00s is starting to die out. It actually looks pretty weird now to see a girl showing her belly button, at least where I live, though then again I live in a fairly cold climate.
Rock music is pretty much completely dead, all the new indie bands are synth based. Rap is still around but it's no longer as insanely popular as it was 5 to 10 years ago and it is more about the beats than the rhymes themselves, it's also switched from being trademarkly homophobic to adopting a lot of homosexual fashions. Music in general has a more innocent sound to it, I've also noticed on TV the kinds of shows that really try to push the envelope, like Family Guy and South Park have began to decline in popularity since 2010 or so.
The movies of the 2010s seem a bit different too. The Cabin in the Woods, Kick Ass, Scott Pilgrim, I would say they have a vibe pretty unique to this decade; I couldn't imagine them being made any earlier than say 2006.
What things have you noticed that seem unique about the twenty tens and not just recurring artifacts of the nineties or whatever?
90's music didn't really begin until 1992, just like 60's music didn't begin until 1963 or so. I grew up in the 90's during the alternative craze which coincided with the rap music golden years. Those were great years for music, but are long gone. Alternative blew up around 1992 when Nirvana became popular and ran its course until about 2000. Since 2000, alternative has died out slowly and has been replaced by pop music. Alternative was removed from the airwaves. This was not by accident. I think what happened is that greedy music industry CEO's bought up all of the radio stations and killed alternative in favor of pop, because pop reaches more audiences of all races. Alternative was mainly limited to a white audience, but pop gets you listeners of all backgrounds.
Rap music also changed for the worse. What used to be gangsta rap back in the 90's with creative, witty, innovative lyrics, devolved sometime during the early 2000's into hip-hop. Since then, all of the rap you hear on the airwaves is about "the club" and dancing. The focus was taken away from street rappers in favor of top 40 artists. This again was the fault of industry CEO's trying to water down the product for greater listener audiences.
How do we define 2000's music? I don't know. It seems like it lacks identity. 2000's music is sort of like a mix of watered down, tired, re-hashed 90's music and some 80's music sounds mixed in. 2000's music cannot decide what it wants to be. No identity. I'm hoping a new era of music begins in 2012 or 2013.
If you want music of the double O's you can sum it up with this theme: "Yea, times are so hard, but we're gonna make it babe, we can do it!"
Pop music has changed A LOT. Notice how few songs are about having sex and living large like the 80's or doing drugs, brooding and being depressed like the 90's?
We're in our "Fourth Turning" mood and people are seeking more hopeful, upbeat tunes to offset a difficult reality full of perceived hardship... though they still don't know how good they've got it! Give me "The Great Recession" and the wars in the Middle East over the Depression and WWII any day!
And in another 10-15 years it will all seem so hopelessly naive and silly; counterculture will seem new and fresh and we'll swing back to music that's all about challenging the institution.
If you want music of the double O's you can sum it up with this theme: "Yea, times are so hard, but we're gonna make it babe, we can do it!"
Pop music has changed A LOT. Notice how few songs are about having sex and living large like the 80's or doing drugs, brooding and being depressed like the 90's?
We're in our "Fourth Turning" mood and people are seeking more hopeful, upbeat tunes to offset a difficult reality full of perceived hardship... though they still don't know how good they've got it! Give me "The Great Recession" and the wars in the Middle East over the Depression and WWII any day!
And in another 10-15 years it will all seem so hopelessly naive and silly; counterculture will seem new and fresh and we'll swing back to music that's all about challenging the institution.
90's music didn't really begin until 1992, just like 60's music didn't begin until 1963 or so. I grew up in the 90's during the alternative craze which coincided with the rap music golden years. Those were great years for music, but are long gone. Alternative blew up around 1992 when Nirvana became popular and ran its course until about 2000. Since 2000, alternative has died out slowly and has been replaced by pop music. Alternative was removed from the airwaves. This was not by accident. I think what happened is that greedy music industry CEO's bought up all of the radio stations and killed alternative in favor of pop, because pop reaches more audiences of all races. Alternative was mainly limited to a white audience, but pop gets you listeners of all backgrounds.
The quintessential 1990's occurred from 1992 to 1997. And rock music in general is being marginalized, not just alternative. Why can't big rock hits like "Face To The Floor" or "Bully" be heard on Top 40 stations? They're no heavier than Green Day or Nickelback, who have gotten plenty of pop airplay in the past. And if you need a memorable hook to have a good pop song, the guitar riff on "Face To The Floor" is exactly that. I think the deterioration of popular music began near the end of the 1990's, and might have something to do with the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nolefan34
Rap music also changed for the worse. What used to be gangsta rap back in the 90's with creative, witty, innovative lyrics, devolved sometime during the early 2000's into hip-hop. Since then, all of the rap you hear on the airwaves is about "the club" and dancing. The focus was taken away from street rappers in favor of top 40 artists. This again was the fault of industry CEO's trying to water down the product for greater listener audiences.
After 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G. were killed, the preferred vice in popular hip-hop became sex. I was actually shocked by the content of many rap songs that got heavy Top 40 airplay, particularly in the first half of the 2000's. (Go read the lyrics to "Oochie Wally" by QB Finest, and while you read them, keep in mind that the song got moderate Top 40 airplay in 2001.) The audio pornography tamed down somewhat in the second half of the decade at least, but it was hard to get any more tawdry and perverted than it was in the first half.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nolefan34
How do we define 2000's music? I don't know. It seems like it lacks identity. 2000's music is sort of like a mix of watered down, tired, re-hashed 90's music and some 80's music sounds mixed in. 2000's music cannot decide what it wants to be. No identity. I'm hoping a new era of music begins in 2012 or 2013.
2000's : 1990's :: 1970's : 1960's
Music of the 2000's was a pale imitation of music from the 1990's, and music of the 1970's was a pale imitation of music from the 1960's. Both the 2000's and the 1970's have a specific subgenre of music that is very polarizing: "crunk" hip-hop and disco, respectively. There was a lot of good music in both decades, but there was also a lot of music that we'll all look back on from each decade and ask ourselves, "What the **** were we thinking?"
There are also going to be social and cultural aspects of the 2000's that we're going to keep hidden from our children for a long time, much like with the 1970's. I didn't learn about how sleazy the 1970's really were until I was an adult, and I imagine that many children born in the 2000's won't know until they're older about how sleazy things were when they were born either.
As for the 2010's, the music so far has been defined by "electro-pop." Lady GaGa is a double-edged sword. I sincerely thank her for putting an end to all the pornographic hip-hop of the 2000's, but I also curse her for creating a sound that everybody's begun to derive. On the other hand, the sudden popularity of Adele shows me that it's still possible for music that won't be played in nightclubs to be popular, which is a very good thing, and gives me hope that American pop culture is salvageable. I also believe that Adele is putting an end to AutoTune, even though it's not totally obvious yet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chango
Pop music has changed A LOT. Notice how few songs are about having sex and living large like the 80's or doing drugs, brooding and being depressed like the 90's?
You didn't listen to hip-hop at all during the 2000's in order to make a statement like that.
Last edited by Craziaskowboi; 05-20-2012 at 03:20 AM..
I never quite understood what 'alternative' meant. Alternative to what, pop, rap?
"Alternative" was a form of rock music that emerged in the early 90's. I was called Alternative because it was an alternative to the dried up 80's hairband music that eroded by 1992. Alternative was a fresh sounding rock like nothing heard before. It became popular around '92 when Nirvana hit it big. A bunch of other alternative bands suddenly burst onto the scene. Greenday, Pearl Jam, REM, Sublime, Rage Against The Machine, The Offspring, Oasis, etc. I could go on and on. It was a short period from '92 to '97 where there were tons of great hits, then after '97 alternative slowly began to die. It is similar to 60's music. You had a sudden burst of great music from '63 to '68.
Where I live pop culture seems to consist of bad music and TV shows and movies about zombies and vampires. It's pretty hard here to find anything but New Country music on the radio, and I got burned out on that back in Alabama before I moved here. To me it's just bad rock & roll sung with a twang, and one song sounds pretty much like another. Of course there's also rap and hip-hop thrown into the mix, and I do my best to keep it out of my ears. I really hate the sound of that garbage.
There's a video site I have been going to for a while now, and I went through all the movies on there, recently, finding that about 88% of them were horror/slasher/gangster movies, and the rest were about sex and drugs. Yuck! To the credit of the site they do have a large number of good documentaries.
I'm not at all inclined to participate in what passes for popular culture, and I'm hardly surprised that an intelligent conversation is impossible to come by here.
In short, I don't think that in 10 years anyone is going to be looking back thinking "Now, those were the days".
Picture a "culture" of depression.
Yet, Weimar era Germany was one of the culturally richest places of the 20th century despite those things or their equivalents, and it continued to culturally influence the rest of the 20th century even if its influence got stamped out on its home turf.
The 1930s in general was a very culturally rich time despite all those things existing globally (or their equivalents). Today we do not live in a culturally rich time. I think there are other factors, like the concentration of media ownership, homogenized culture, social engineering, and if anything too much timidity...
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