Fun Stuff > BAND
Golden Oldies, or Dusty Relics
rynne:
On one hand, I think that ignoring older music is pretty stupid; I don't think anyone is so naïve to think that only the X-number years of their lifetime produced good music.
That being said, in thinking about my response, I realized that the majority of music that I listen to that predates my birth are artists that directly or indirectly influenced modern bands that I like: Bowie, Eno, Suicide, King Crimson, Tubeway Army, Modern Lovers, Love, Throbbing Gristle, Kraftwerk, Can, Neu!, etc., etc. The only exceptions I can really think of are 60-era girl groups and bluegrass (which I don't have any albums of, but it’s pretty much the only music I listen to on the radio: thanks, NPR!).
I don't know if that's 'cause I'm disinterested in things that didn't influence the "living" music I've directly experienced in my lifetime, or because it's simply easier to evaluate older the music in the context of what I know (i.e., it's easier for me to determine that I'll probably like Kraftwerk because they've influenced so many bands I already like than Sinatra, who as far as I can tell, hasn't had much influence on bands in my collection).
JimmyJazz:
Music should be judged on whether or not it's GOOD, not the decade it was made. The older people who dismiss music after "the good ol' days" or kids who assume all music made before they were born sucks are both incredibly ignorant. My favorite bands tend to be older ones, but I'm not one of those people who put the "classics" on a pedastal and call everything else crap; those people piss me off.
BrittanyMarie:
I think I'm in the (maybe?) unique position of having the "old" music constantly around me as I grew up. My first favorite song was by Hank Williams Sr. I lived with my grandparents on the weekends and the summer, and my grandpa loved AM country, so that's what I listened to.
Even when I got into middle school and high school I hated most everything that was on the top 40 radio. From having grown up with old country music to parents who listened to late 70's/80's music when we went anywhere, I never had the connection to music from my own era at all until I started listening to the more underground music that was happening at the time around Athens GA and Vancouver/Victoria and Olympia WA. And even a lot of that was early 90's stuff I was listening to in the early 00s.
Lately I've gone back and pretty much listen to only old school country music again.
A Wet Helmet:
I've actually thought about what weds our tastes to certain music for quite sometime. 85% (at least) of what I listen to is music that was recorded pre-1990 or so. Some of it considerably pre-1990.
I was a teenager in the 80s and listened to what was, at the time, very current music. Although I believe we continue to mature throughout life, (I'm certainly not engaging in the same behavior I was when I was eighteen, or even 25 for that matter) I think our personalities and tastes are basically 'set' by the time we're in our early twenties. So though I realize that music today is talking about the same things that music was talking about 20 years ago, it just doesn't stir the level of excitement in me that it did then. Is the music from my teenage years nostalgia? Maybe. I just finished listening to Black Flag's Loose Nut in its entirety, but I doubt that something contemporary could evoke the same emotions. I remember buying that on vinyl when it hit the record stores, and it was a big deal, you know? Hell, I remember listening to TSOL's Dance With Me and considering it a life-changing album (still do!)
That time period was also when hair bands and shitty synth pop was king. Any kind of underground music then felt like it was something special. I was in college when Smells Like Teen Spirit hit MTV and Peal Jam's Ten hit record stores a month later, so I was already fairly grown before "alternative" really became the new pop. I think there may be a certain amount of snobbery inherent in me --though not deliberate nor intended-- that feels like everything that has come since has been a fairly shitty rip-off of the music I grew up on. And I don't say that with the intent to belittle musician's today. There are some great, sincere bands out there. I just don't feel like any of it is new, fresh, exciting, or particularly ground breaking. As I grow older and my musical tastes broaden, I've even come to realize that the stuff I listened to in the 80s wasn't really all that new either... but it felt like it to me.
Besides the punk that fueled my teen years, I also listen to a lot of classic rock. At the time I'm typing this, Skynyrd is coming through my headphones. Jazz has become a bit of an obsession lately too. Yesterday at work I was listening to Wes Montgomery and Django. I've never particularly gotten into any country for the past 40 years or so, but earlier than that... I'm a huge fan of country blues --Lightnin' Hopkins is one of my favorite artists of all time-- and the original Sun records stuff. Much of which was really pretty twangy. :-D
KharBevNor:
--- Quote from: KickThatBathProf on 18 Mar 2009, 23:08 ---That is simply not true at all.
--- End quote ---
Exactly.
There's never been any good Jazz.
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