Defining the Music of the "Naughties"

[murlough23]

When I think of "The music of the 50's", I think early rock & roll, doo-wop, and that sort of thing.

When I think of "The music of the 60's", I think of classic rock.

When I think of "The music of the 70's", I think of soft rock (early 70's) and disco (late 70's).

When I think of "The music of the 80's", I think of new wave and, uh, U2.

When I think of "The music of the 90's", I think of cheesy faux-urban dance pop music (early 90's) and alternative rock and the effect it had on pop music (late 90's).

When I think of "The music of the 00's", I think of... ?

Now obviously, not all of the genres I named for previous decades were the only things to find mass appeal during those years. They're not even my favorite kinds of music to come out during those years. But those are the kinds of music you'd probably be most likely to run across if you were watching a movie set in that decade, or where somebody traveled back in time or whatever, and they needed some music as an "establishing shot" to make it clear what year it was. I was realizing, that with our current decade (the "naughties") about to end, I can't really look back and pinpoint a defining "sound" that would immediately go, "Oh yeah, it must be the early 2000's" if it cropped up in some nostalgic movie or TV show later. I can identify tons of songs and bands with the era, obviously, but when thinking of musical genres, they're either way too broadly defined (like "indie rock", which sounds like about ten thousand different things and often joyfully reprises musical ideas from decades farther in the past), or they seem to only have been truly prominent for one to three years (the boy band stuff, the post-grunge Creed stuff, the garage bands whose names started with "The", the synthesizer-happy 80's-revival bands, etc.)

Is it just me, or does our soon-to-be-past current decade lack a unifying musical identity? Or am I just oversimplifying past decades since this is the only one I've truly "lived through" in terms of being aware of the variety of stuff that was out there?

[spacebrat311]

Ringtone rap (a la crunk and hyphy movements), Autotuned RnB, glitzy/futurist pop/hip hop (a la Kanye, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland), Coldplay and piano rock (a la Keane, The Fray, any one hit wonder band of the decade)

These are the things that already make me go "that's SO 20__."

[murlough23]

Ringtone rap (a la crunk and hyphy movements), Autotuned RnB, glitzy/futurist pop/hip hop (a la Kanye, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake), Coldplay and piano rock (a la Keane, The Fray, any one hit wonder band of the decade)

Tack all those onto the list I already came up with. Just further proves the lack of identity. Seems like the pattern was, one artists hits it big by bringing a particular style to prominence, then the next few years give us a deluge of imitators, and it takes another "next big thing" to wipe out that wave and start a wave of bands imitating someone else.

These are the things that already make me go "that's SO 20__."

Recently dated music seems to attract more scorn than long-dated music (i.e. we're all about reviving the 70's and 80's nowadays, but play something that was a hit 5 years ago and eyes will roll). I'm not sure if this is a new phenomenon, or if the 00's have just given us a larger-than-usual glut of trendy imitators. (Maybe it wears out faster because so much of it is new bands with nostalgia for past decades anyway.)

What music has been invented that's truly new to the 21st century? I know it must exist, but I feel like whatever it is, it hasn't been prominent in pop culture.

[bloop]

I think of classic and prog. rock for the 70s myself, but that's because I mostly excused myself from disco.

For the 90s, I think of alternative and grunge mostly (again, mostly ignoring Ace of Base and so forth)

The 00s, I think, is just really hard to define right now, but it seems that which was popular is not going to be the way I choose to remember the decade.  It's a decade that I personally branched out a lot, so it's hard to pin any particular genre to it as the most memorable.

[murlough23]

I think of classic and prog. rock for the 70s myself, but that's because I mostly excused myself from disco.

I thought of prog, but not being around for most of the 70's and not being aware of popular music for the part I was around for, I wasn't sure how prominent it was compared to your Eagles and Bee Gees types. Had I been around, my listening priorities probably would have been (A) prog rock, (B) soft rock, (Z) disco.

For the 90s, I think of alternative and grunge mostly (again, mostly ignoring Ace of Base and so forth)

"Alternative" is pretty broad - "Alternative rock" brings to mind the grunge types, but there's a whole class of "alternative pop" artists who were coming into their own just as I was discovering music. (Jars of Clay would be the best CCM example of this.)

There's also all of those Lilith Fair types. That might fit into alternative pop, I guess.

The 00s, I think, is just really hard to define right now, but it seems that which was popular is not going to be the way I choose to remember the decade.  It's a decade that I personally branched out a lot, so it's hard to pin any particular genre to it as the most memorable.

I don't think you're alone here. It was a decade of "branching out", not just because of musical genres, but because of technology. The Internet happened and Napster happened, and suddenly we could all try just about anything for free, and it took the RIAA forever to even try to embrace that (they're still bristling), while a lot of artists came to embrace it rather quickly. So the whole industry got decentralized, more or less - radio might have been immune, but some of those indie types eventually poked their heads through as major labels came courting. (How long that high-level exposure lasted might be another story.)

But the main point is that the palette got massively expanded for anyone with reasonable download speed and a little curiosity. That increased the number of players on the playing field, so whoever was most prominent probably didn't seem prominent at all compared to big names from past decades. (Then again, there's a bigger population now. I wonder how the math works out.)

[spacebrat311]

I don't know, the things I stated feel very unified and very tied to the times to me. You might be expecting a level of unity that doesn't make sense based on what you already admitted about perhaps oversimplifying earlier decades.

[Wildcatblue7]

I can pinpoint specific styles to two or three year periods--I'm thinking nu-metal and the like here, kind of as spacebrat said.  I think a unifier will emerge as more time passes; still being in the moment makes it more difficult to see the whole picture.

[RedcoatJones]

I also think Hair Metal for the 80's and Gangsta Rap for the 90's 

In terms of defining sounds, I think we'll need to get a few years our of the naughties first. I was talking with my dad about this, and he said the 60's and 70's had just as many one-hit wonders and crappy songs. But as time has gone on, people tend to remember the best and forget the worst.

This is already happening with the 90's. I'll listen to Sirius's 90's channel every now and then, and I'm stunned by how many bad songs I had already "forgotten" about. But the best of the 90's I'd put up with any decade.

In fact, did you know the #1 song of 1996 was "The Macarena"?!?!  That's not what I would define as the sound of the mid-90's!

[murlough23]

I also think Hair Metal for the 80's

I should have thought of that. I find that genre amusing. Though didn't it enter its heyday in the 70's? (Not that these things can't cross multiple decades.)

and Gangsta Rap for the 90's  

Ha ha. If I ever found myself in a Quantum Leap sort of situation and I had the inkling that I'd ended up in the 90's, all I'd need to do is wait for a car to go by with its windows down and the latest gangsta rap hit booming from the speakers to be told which year it was. (And the name of the artist. Bonus!)

In terms of defining sounds, I think we'll need to get a few years our of the naughties first.

You're probably right. This is obviously a bit premature, it still being the middle of 2009 and all. I was just trying to see what we could conjecture ahead of time. (Sticklers for accuracy will actually point out that the end of the deacde is actually December 31, 2010, but conventionally, we think of decades as years ending in 0-9 instead of 1-0.)

I was talking with my dad about this, and he said the 60's and 70's had just as many one-hit wonders and crappy songs. But as time has gone on, people tend to remember the best and forget the worst.

Every decade has one-hit wonders, but it seems to me that when something's brought back from the 60's or 70's, it's usually something more enduring or classic, and yet when something's brought back from the 80's, it's often one of those campy novelty hits (or maybe the popularity of new wave at the time just makes it all seem like campy novelty to my ears). The jury's still out from the 90's. We had tons of forgettable music then, but it hasn't really experienced a resurgence yet. It'll be interesting to see if the folks who were kids in the 90's and who are just getting out of college now and who will hit their quarter-life crisis phases in the 2010's will bring us a wave of alternative rock/grunge revivalism (owing more to the early stalwarts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, sans the rap/crunk style that took over rock at the turn of the century), we'll start seeing MC Hammer and Boyz II Men posters being sold for irony's sake at whatever mall stores capitalize on 80's nostalgia now, they'll revive the Lilith Fair (which will cause Sarah MacLachlan to actually put out her only new album of the entire decade), and they'll do a movie remake of Friends with Seth Rogen in it.

In fact, did you know the #1 song of 1996 was "The Macarena"?!?!  That's not what I would define as the sound of the mid-90's!

I think that one got extra play because of its novelty value and its general obnoxiousness. After a while, there was something fun about getting that "Oh no they DIDN'T!!!" reaction when playing it at a party. Plus nobody probably wanted to buy an entire album by Los Del Rio or whoever the infernal artist was that came up with that thing, so the single moved a lot more units because of it.

I could totally see "Macarena" being played as an "establishing shot" for a film or TV show set in the 90's. That and "Who Let the Dogs Out". We may have all hated it, but we sure as hell recognize it.

NP: "Safe to Land", Jars of Clay

[Wildcatblue7]

^two things:

Hair metal definitely had its heyday in the 80s.  you might be thinking of arena rock, which was a late 70s/early 80s thing (i.e. early Van Halen, for example).

And I know you drive around town pumping "Gin and Juice" and "Nothing but a G Thang" on the regular, David.

[murlough23]

Hair metal definitely had its heyday in the 80s.  you might be thinking of arena rock, which was a late 70s/early 80s thing (i.e. early Van Halen, for example).

Damn. That Quantum Leap episode where he becomes the lead singer of a Kiss ripoff band led me astray, then.

And I know you drive around town pumping "Gin and Juice" and "Nothing but a G Thang" on the regular, David.

Nah, when I'm driving through the hood with my windows rolled down and my bass turned way up, there's nothing quite like old-school dc Talk.

[Wildcatblue7]

Nah, when I'm driving through the hood with my windows rolled down and my bass turned way up, there's nothing quite like old-school dc Talk.

I say this as a member of the pasty nation:

This might be the whitest statement I have ever read.

[murlough23]

I say this as a member of the pasty nation:

This might be the whitest statement I have ever read.

Ha ha. I was this close to saying Andrew Peterson instead.