Music

[Navarre]

I can't stand when people get famous when they shouldn't be.

This happened some in the 80's and 90's due to MTV. There were some artists who wouldn't have succeeded on the merit of their performance but achieved a lot of fame because MTV pushed the videos at us.

Now we get "crossover stars" constantly from MTV that have no talent whatsoever. Miley Cyrus (no disrespect...but I'm about to anyway) can't act, can't sing, isn't funny, isn't even attractive really...but she could burp a Hungarian folk tune and it would sell 100 million copies.

Disney has this pension for taking all of the actors from their hit television shows and pushing them into releasing albums. Backed by their own videos on the monolithic Disney Channel as well as motion pictures and every available form of merchandise, these kids will make billions for Disney...yet so far I haven't heard one of them who has truly significant musical talent.

[Beta Ray Bill Cosby]

Does this decade seem to have passed without an artists, or even genre, being the standout for the last 10 years?

this sort of thing is largely decided retroactively, like "Oh look at how many people were influenced by Roy Orbison, he must have been a guy who did things." 15 years from now there'll be a dozen acts that can be described as dangermousesque and people will say, "That Gnarls Barkley sure defined the sound of a generation."

[Navarre]

That is very true. There are many forces whose impact we only see later.

But it is indisputable that Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Madonna were so famous at the height of their career that they were practically gods. And that legend has carried on.

There are some artists who are prominent at the height of their career that, ultimately, are rather unimportant. So we find out about their fate down the road. And yes, some receive great acclaim beyond their actual time in the sun.

But, looking around, I don't see any artist or band who gets anything close to the frantic fan frenzy that Elvis, The Beatles, or Michael Jackson got in their time. ... I mean, what, The Jonas Brothers? Really?

[campaigner]

Regarding the discussion on which bands are the most important of the current decade, Pitchforkmedia has put out their list of the 200 most important albums of the years 2000-2009:

http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7710-the-top-200-albums-of-the-2000s-20-1/2/

[Navarre]

I am far, far from a music expert but I have only heard of three of these artists. Who is Pitchfork? Do they have a particular bent toward any type of music?

[The_Julian]

meh... Pitchfork is kinda the review board that everyone loves to hate. They tend to lean towards more independent style of thinking. While I do love the news and features they put out, I think their reviews are some of the most poorly written things I've ever read. Like, they never enjoy metal. Ever. And they constantly put reviewers up on certain albums that hate the genre of the album their reviewing, so they always end up getting bad scores.

[Otter Disaster]

They tend to lean towards more independent style of thinking.

That was my take upon skimming the list...and those lists are so subjective. 

I used to read Rolling Stone regularly, and they published a 100 Best Whatever list a couple times a year.  I am a huge metal fan, and their 'best of' lists often only included metal albums (or tracks) that were colossal successes in a top 40 kind of way...not taking into account the actual intended fan base.  I don't really listen to indy rock so the Pitchfork list may be very representative of that genre.  I wouldn't even put that much stock in a Best Metal Albums of the 2000s list put together by a metal website.

Because of the deep personal nature of music and how it impacts us individually, there are very few objective approaches to ranking what is best or worst.  I do like some of these lists for their ability to spawn conversation and/or debate, but they are generally pretty useless, and reflect the opinions of the writers, who usually reinforce the opinions likely to be held by their readers. 

[The_Julian]

Yeah but the main problem with Pitchfork is that their style of reviewing is so all over the place.

Like they start their review with something totally off topic and gradually work into reviewing the album.
To summarize their review of the flaming lips album:

"I was waking up in the middle of the morning and was feeling miserable. I slowly made my way out of bed and out to my miserable day job. Turns out my co workers were spreading rumors of me not enjoying my work and hating my job. I got called into my bosses office where he fired me. I went home to sulk and forgot that I was supposed to call Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips. I'm sure he wasn't too sad though, because he has made the album of the year."

What? And what makes it worse is that each of those sentences I just transposed went on for -I'm not joking-at least a paragraph before he got to reviewing the music. That's just... bad journalism.

A lot of the time their reasoning for hating albums is dumb too and they give BS answers like "still though, like all ska, it tends to get old fast" Well gee, could that be because that you DON'T LIKE SKA?!?!  It really is... insulting.

[uglyhooker]

You cat's should check out http://www.absolutepunk.net/.

They have a lot of good reviews and post a lot of news. Punk, Rock, Pop, Metal, Hip hop + more. They have staff for the main styles that are popular in music.

[JoeMcAwesome]

Yeah there's a blog for every genre these days and it's easy for anyone to find one that gives them stuff to like.  Here's a couple that I like:
http://loadown.blogspot.com/
http://stereogum.com/
http://gorillavsbear.blogspot.com/
http://www.punknews.org/
So there's plenty of sites, and I don't always like what each of them put out, but it's usually worth sifting through crap to find the bands that resonate with me.  Unless you're just taking every musical recommendation at face value, you should have your own unique tastes.  I kinda have a problem with the "I listen to cooler music than you" mentality that comes across a lot now days.

[That Ninja]

     Well my music choices are rather random, and as such I think it would be a lesson in futility to try and list everything in my playlist, but let’s just say it’s about 200 hours long and I have it set on random and repeat, AND I hit skip a lot. 
     I will say however all my radio presets are for “classic rock.”  I use to listen to CDs but since I don’t like switching CDs while driving and regularly drive for over an hour at a time, I get tired of repeating the same album more than once (usually).  That and “angry” music tends to make me drive more aggressively and while I have not been in an accident, I could see it happening, so………… Ramstein and Puddle of Mudd are out.  Oh well.

[HunterDan]

I was born in a household that listened to rock, so it was Queen during my formative year.
Then I discovered the hair metal of the 80's,
Poison
Motley Crew
Warrant
Little Angels
Warlock
ACDC - I mean can you believe that Back in Black in nearly 30 years old?

Then the album that changed everything was The Real Thing by Faith No More (1989) - I'm fanatical and with them re-forming my head is about to explode!

For me,  my musical renaissance was the 90's.You have follow up FNM album Angeldust  (1992) as near perfect as you can get, from the storming beats of Midlife Crisis (IF you've played GTA:SA you've heard it) to the lounge lizard drawl of Midnight Cowboy.

You want a band that reinvents themselves? Radiohead?  PAH! I give you Faith No More ;-P

Nine Inch Nails released Broken and Fixed EP'S
Rage Against The Machine released their debut album
Garbage -Garbage and Version 2.0

The whole rap/metal cross over happened and introduced me with rap (not the gangsta kind - the real deal) with Public Enemy (Bring the Noise)and Run DMC setting my record deck ablaze.

On top of that I'm going through a soundtrack phase, from Grindhouse to the Dark Knight.

I'm currently living in New Zealand at the moment, and for such a small nation they've got some amazing artists
Shihad - metal
Supergroove - funk
The DAtsuns - Metal
Miriam Clancy - folk

I'm always up for something new, I have been reading your recommends and look forward to checking them out.