My first experience with liking music came during summer camp came in the summer of 1999, where at 2 P.M, a group of about five of us gathered around the one communal TV to watch TRL on MTV. Yes, the one Carson Daly hosted when we was actually relevant. My first day watching was when my first favorite video got “retired”. Retired to those unfamiliar with the old TRL format meant that once a video made the countdown 65 times, it would never be played as part of the countdown again. That video was clearly a brilliant song by a legendary artist. Yes, you are correct it was “Bawitdaba” by Kid Rock; which somehow made VH1’s top 100 hard rock songs ever, EVER!!!
Throughout this decade I started to move closer and closer to figuring out what separates good music from the garbage that by and large dominates the mainstream radio airwaves. My first experience with indie was either hearing singles by either the Hives or the Strokes, and it continued to slowly blossom from there. Having dial up for most the decade did not help and not until college did I really start to get into indie and critically acclaimed music.
Looking back at the decade, I felt it was really a strange time for music. Back when Kurt Cobain died, it was one of the biggest stories for quite a while. While in the 2000’s that story belonged to Michael Jackson. So I began to wonder what death of a modern artist would conjure up the same reactions as Cobain’s did in the 90’s. This means that it would have to be a beloved artist to not just the indie community but all over. The artist’s music would have to be personal and emotional. It would also have to be someone actually critically respected who was active during that current decade.
I think back in the 90’s it would have at least been a handful of people besides Cobain. Bono comes to mind, as does Billy Corgan, Trent Reznor, Thom Yorke, Michael Stipe and maybe even Rivers Cuomo. This also goes along with the tragic deaths in hip-hop with the loss of Notorious Big and Tupac, and to a lesser extent the loss of Big L and Big Pun. Now, I am not sure anyone would have that effect except for Thom Yorke and Trent Reznor, although they are popular in large part due to what they did the previous decade. (I’m not counting Ben Gibbard because he married my dream girl, Zooey if you’re reading this it’s not too late to change your mind. Also, I do really like The Postal Service.)
I had to exclude three artists that I truly enjoy and wish more people did as well, but I do not feel they meet the criteria in one of the three ways. Jeff Tweedy is the leader of the well renowned and respected band Wilco. He is a beloved face in the music community and each of his albums with Wilco has sold over 200,000 copies. However I do not think I have ever heard Wilco on the radio. Considering I have listened to alternative radio throughout this entire decade, that is a statement about the overall relevance of the band. Another thing about Wilco and in part Tweedy’s former band Uncle Tupelo is that their relevance and influence to the music community is more firmly planted in the previous decade based on what they did to form alternative country as a more popular genre of music.
The same reasoning goes for Isaac Brock and his band Modest Mouse. Until their big hit in 2004 “Float On” Modest Mouse were relatively unknown indie darlings. For much of their early existence as a band, Modest Mouse toured and slept in vans. This does signify any sort of mainstream success, and though they are a much larger band now, their success pales in significance to a band like “Kings of Leon”.
Jack White differs from the other two artists that just missed the cut. White has made amazing records this decade and has achieved a larger fan base than the other two artists. However, unlike the deeply personal lyrics that both Tweedy and Brock write, White generally avoids such songs and tends to focus more on the instrumental side of things. He definitely has some songs that are poignant and touching, but by and large White tends to avoid such songs. Meaning his songs may not have the same impact on people, that his absence would mean more to people than just the loss of a brilliant musician and overall funny and charismatic person.
As a note both Dave Matthews and Chris Martin were disqualified, partly due to my disdain of their music and a large portion of their fan base, and partly due to the fact that despite their popularity they did not really make any critically acclaimed records. I will admit A Rush of Blood to the Head is a decent album, but I refuse to give Martin the benefit of the doubt. As for Matthews, even his biggest fans tend to admit that his records are inferior to his live show.
So what does that say about music in this decade? First I think there are so many bands that it is hard to pick out the bands that really matter to so many people like it was in the 90’s. They say the music industry is dying, but I just think it’s changing. Quality music is definitely out there, it is just not on the radio as often as it was in the 90’s.
For example, the headliners at Lollapallooza this previous year (Tool, Jane’s Addiction, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Killers, Kings of Leon, and Depeche Mode) included three bands whose height of popularity was in the 90’s. Only one of these bands, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, has made more than one acclaimed album this decade. Yet by judging the biggest bands in the music community by who headlines a major music festival, there is not much hope that a new band can become both popular and still make solid albums.
So who do I blame for this? I place blame largely on two entities: The internet and ClearChannel Broadcasting. The internet has made it possible for any band to have their music heard across the world. Meaning there are so many more bands with fan bases that there are less diehard fans for the bigger bands. Ed Droste and his band Grizzly Bear reached #7 on the Billboard Charts with their album Veckatimest, success that Droste credits largely due to the leaking of his album on the internet and the word of mouth that followed its reception, before the record even hit stores.
In a certain way I appreciate what the internet has done for music; Clear Channel however is a cancer to good music everywhere. Clear Channel owns most of the larger radio stations across the nation and has a large say in what music does and does not get played. This means that a large corporation has a bigger say in what bands get bigger fan bases than any other music source. So, in order to attain larger ratings, stations play safer and in turn more bland rock. I blame Clear Channel and tone deaf Americans for the success of Nickelback. Yet I am not sure what can be done to prevent the machine from further promoting such bands to attain main stream success.
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