The Great Music Debate...

[Redex R]

I caught up with an old friend over Christmas before he emigrates over to Oz (taking three cars as well !) , the thing is we had one of those late night drinking/talking and music things and when we got into talking about music and he suddenly proclaimed "Nobody has made any really great music since 1979" at which point we had to try and prove him wrong , at one end you had stuff like U2 , Radiohead etc then you have all the other more lighter pop stuff both areas of which are very subjective taste , anyway the upshot of it all after going into his exstensive library , we all nailed down the age old favourites like Blondie , Queen , Bowie etc and the painful truth is he is right but to within 2-3 years , those 5-6 years seem to have been the golden era for popular music , I wondered what your thoughts were ?

[Harsh]

ooooh, one of my favourite subjects!!

ok, i tend to agree that the 70's held a lot of talent (much like the 60's)

The 80's were more about fashion and a backlash from the drug alcohol fuelled punk, rock, disco era that was the 70's.

however, there has still been some decent music made after that point.

i'd say bands like Mettalica, Guns and roses, Nirvana and Muse have taken rock music forward.

while rap emerged as a genre in its own right in the mid 80's
Dance came out of Disco and people like Moby, Fat Boy Slim have taken that on.

the thing is, that music has diversified to the extent that very few bands now make the same sort of impact globally that has happened in the past.
music lovers stick to their own genre so taste become polarised.

[satchbot]

Must be my broad taste in music but there has been great music created all the time and still ongoing. Pop music was a bit rubbish in the 90s but seems to be getting better these days. Rock is back in the mainstream which is nice and I can still find new bands to add to my list and mp3 player.

[Redex R]

Don't get me wrong I love some of the modern era stuff , recent additions include Elbow,Ting Tings and Goldfrapp , I don't tend to like the mainstream manufactured stuff - the thought of lining Simon Cowells high waisted pockets is just too much ! I also liked some of Fatboys stuff - made a great backing track to Driven the movie (great music but cheesy film with a lot of sampled real indycar race footage) I do tend to like the indie stuff - Ash,Garbage, Sleeper etc but will we still be playing our favourites in 20 years time as we do with the classic era pop ?

[Harsh]

out of that list, i think Ash will stand the test of time..

i still listen to their stuff from over 10 years ago.

fatboy slim and Moby will last as well imo

[Porscha]

Well being born in the early 80's for me the first CD I remember buying was Performance and Cocktails by the Stereophonics haha. However looking on the scale of things and as noted above bands like Nirvana, GnR's and Bon Jovi still do it for me even though there is a lot of new talent about, I do think bands of recent times sound all the same and bands come and go over a period of just a few years. For example the Darkness, good few singles then vanished really.
However a band that has been around a long time are the Goo Goo Dolls, formed way back as a punk band called the Sex Maggots they changed their name to play a gig so as to not cause offence and they are still releasing singles today.
My taste is quite varied though, I like anything that sounds good.

[Redex R]

Hi Porscha
The Darkness - - follow the link for Justins best work LOL
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HmMkRkDHbKo&feature=related

I suppose for a lot of people it is the music they grew up to listening in their teens upwards so I suppose personally I owe a lot to John Peel , Annie Nightingale etc when Radio One was worth listening to , I don't count myself as an old Hippie but I always catch the Glastonbury highlights on TV , a combination of old and new but what I do find worrying is the current trend just to cover old songs , sorry guys but if your not putting enough of yourselves into it there really is no point , it'll just sound like a poor imitation eg FIVE doing Queen if you remember that one ? I still like that Cheap Trick cover of Elvis - Don't be cruel though :sifone: and The Sex Pistols did a cracking version of C'mon Everybody didn't they ? Any thoughts on cover songs guys/girls ?

[Porscha]

haha Top Gear on stage, not quite the Darkness, more like the Lightness ;p

One cover that I always liked was the song Word Up by a band called Gun, and a close second would be Easy by Faith No More, or even Handbags and the Gladrags by the Stereophonics.

The worst cover, by far of any in the whole universe....including Yorkshire :) is Ronan Keatings cover of Iris orginally composed by John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls.

[Harsh]

i like the Gun cover of Word up...i've even got the Album1

actually have a look at this for a cover....

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7zxokVpWQ4

i think it's fantastic.
we're off to see them in milton Keynes at the end of the month.

Johnny, you may recognise the bass player.
he was driving the purple Chevy at the Ace on Monday

[Porscha]

The chevy was awsome. The band look really good, probably my kind of rock band and a very cool name. I also have the 1 Album, and its the only place I have heard the band Gun.

[Redex R]

I found the Cheap Trick video
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hxvP96Lddko
its a blast from the past and deliberately cheesey and I think you'll agree it has a certain apeal , I've always wanted a chequered room like that !

oh and if you remember Edward Tudor Pole (Tenpole Tudor) heres what he's up to these days -

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WlaxQ6fntgY

[Harsh]

my god, Tenpole Tudor!

i remember him well, a little bit crazy but fun all the same.

going back to covers, in general i'm not aq fan unless they are done sufficiently differently as to make them stand out in their own right.

a good example of that is the version of firestarter done by jimmy eat world
or mad world

generally though i think i'm a product of the 70's and 80's and like the slightly more simple stuff.

maybe there are just too many genre's now?