[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> Mark, I'll certainly not address the latter statement (;~D), but I
> will say that it is difficult and time-consuming to chase down good
> new music. Here in SC it's damn near impossible to hear any good new
> tunes on the radio, although thanks to the NPR station I DID pick up
> on Ani!
For me, 2000 marked the year when I became truly dislocated from
mainstream UK chart music. The good stuff is still around, but can't
usually be found by listening to national radio stations or watching
terrestrial music TV. The chasm between what's relentlessly promoted as
being popular, and what I consider quality pop, has grown almost too
wide to satisfyingly come to terms with.
> So what do I do? Well, I read a lot of reviews, I listen to what my
> Joni-pals are saying, and sometimes I flat out take a chance when I
> walk into the record store. I do feel a sense of obligation to pursue
> new music.
Same here, Bob. I think all music sluts behave and feel this way :-)
Keeping up with new stuff really is time-consuming, as I constantly
discover. The means by which I come across it now focuses heavily on the
Internet. Word-of-mouth, recommendations from fellow listers on the
various e-mail groups I belong to, and internet stores like amazon.co.uk
who stock a lot of US releases.
Some of the albums I've discovered via these routes include Goldfrapp,
David Gray (pre-breakthrough), Dido, Dusted, Lene Marlin (before she had
a hit single), the Magnolia soundtrack, and Delerium. These are what I
mainly listen to nowadays, in place of the same-old-same-old
conveyorbelt pop.
> Most from my generation do not, and that's why artists like
> Joni become forgotten commodities. From what I see, the majority of
> boomers are just re-stocking their collections with 20 & 30 year old
> music. Waiting for the Eagles boxset or something.
I went through that phase of replacing my favourite classic music with
CD copies, and simultaneously inverstigating some of the greats who were
around bfeore I really got into music as a teenager. Now, I'm more or
less done with that....all the 60s, 70s and 80s music I want is in my
collection.
> But the good news is, even people of our generation can buy "new"
> music from old favorites! Joni, Patti Smith, Neil Young, Joe Jackson
> (the live in NY one, not the putrid "Night & Day II) and many more all
> had releases out this year.
Indeed. Personally, BSN just wasn't for me but Don Henley certainly came
up trumps with Inside Job. I also just got Randy Newman's Bad Love from
amazon, an album which I somehow overlooked last year (probably because
most UK stores don't stock much Randy Newman). I'm looking forward to
playing that one.
> And the even better news is that each year there are debuts by artists
> who will have their kind of staying power.
Hear hear! Always tricky to tell exactly which new acts are gonna stick
around, but we've had some good-to-great debuts this year from Dido,
Toploader, Kelis, Coldplay, Goldfrapp, Badly Drawn Boy and Jill Scott.
> Perhaps the most difficult thing is to let go of the belief that the
> music of "our generation" was the best ever and can never be
> duplicated. I think every generation falls into this trap. Matter of
> fact, I read in the paper this morning that the burgeoning radio
> format is a "retro-80's" format, now that the folks who grew up with
> Madonna & Boy George and Wham are at the age where they want to
> recapture those years.
I agree. I've also been making some 80s compilations recently, and what
strikes me is not that the music itself was better then, but that more
good stuff actually made the Top 40 charts compared to now. The nature
of mainstream songwriting appears to have altered as well. The sounds of
the 80s had a very distinctive formula, a neatly-structured song format
that barely exists today. A succession of left-field, inventive and
challenging artists have moved the goalposts...sometimes for the better,
sometimes not.
I love my 80s music, and some of the 90s stuff wasn't so bad, but
there's nothing like hearing a brand new track that really excites and
gives you a buzz which only something fresh and unheard can.
If anyone is interested, there is a chance to vote for my website's
music awards for the year 2000. Details can be found on the "What's New"
section, or else you can simply e-mail me off-list and request a voting
form. A one-of-a-kind CD compilation is also up for grabs, to the person
who most closely mirrors the site owner's choices :-)
Jason.
http://www.the-slipstream.co.uk
