the best songs ever: the lost years

[David Horn]

(03-26-2019, 09:02 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote: Late 2000s and 2010s music simply lacks something.

… or has something that doesn't connect with you. Musical taste is highly personal. I've found music to my liking in all eras, but some eras are bellwethers, and others are lean to the point of being nearly bare. In some cases, the audience selects-out my preferences, and I have to find them where I can.
Often, the music genre is the fault factor. Rock music got stale and hip-hop pushed it aside. Old-time country got pushed aside by rock-derived country. Fusion was hot for a while, then it just disappeared. Neo-folk seems to making yet another run. The same can be said for other roots forms. These too will pass. FWIW, Rock is returning in a neo-form too. Who knows?

[Bill the Piper]

(03-26-2019, 10:38 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(03-26-2019, 09:02 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote: Late 2000s and 2010s music simply lacks something.

… or has something that doesn't connect with you.

Excellent point

[Eric the Green]

(03-26-2019, 09:02 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote:

(07-28-2017, 02:04 AM)taramarie Wrote: Gen xers in America make fantastic music. For those who are not blinded and deafened by their own standards and ideology of course.

I tend to agree. Many of my favourite songs are from 2000 to 2005, which I consider the last years of the 3T.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl8mpAvTm_Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soa3gO7tL-c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw17-BEFb3Y

Late 2000s and 2010s music simply lacks something.

The entire period since the 3T began lacks something. It's a downcast time, as the T4T authors said, and the music has reflected that, and not for the better. Generally-speaking, of course, and mostly concerning the pop mainstream of the USA, of course.

[AspieMillennial]

(03-26-2019, 09:02 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote:

(07-28-2017, 02:04 AM)taramarie Wrote: Gen xers in America make fantastic music. For those who are not blinded and deafened by their own standards and ideology of course.

I tend to agree. Many of my favourite songs are from 2000 to 2005, which I consider the last years of the 3T.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl8mpAvTm_Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soa3gO7tL-c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw17-BEFb3Y

Late 2000s and 2010s music simply lacks something.

My theory is that for this 4T the best is underground. This 4T is the era where everything dies but underground lives on. It's exactly why Hipsters see mainstream as an insult. My theory is whatever becomes mainstream in this 4T is typically garbage. It's an era where the worst is rewarded and the best isn't noticed. I don't have any regard for mainstream awards because they don't really mean anything.

[Eric the Green]

I agree again with the AspieMillennial.

But I do give a thumbs up for the first link by Bill. Moloko, The Time is Now. And I have always said I liked Green Day.

The most popular music of the 2000s, however, tended to be oversexed and under-musical.

Nothing in pop or rock in the last 45 years beats the song in my siggie though. Four point counterpoint of awesome melodies at the end, with vocals expressing heart-felt dedication to ideals and the people. Can't beat that in a pop song!

[gabrielle]

A nice album from the Shins, from 2001: Oh, Inverted World.

The Shins are based in Portland OR, but formed in Albuquerque NM.  James Mercer (born December, 26 1970 in Honolulu) is the singer, songwriter, and guitarist.

[Eric the Green]

I'm glad to rediscover this one from 2006, which won an Academy Award for "An Inconvenient Truth," the only documentary ever to win an Academy Award for best original song. "I Need to Wake Up" has the musical qualities so lacking in the music of those of her contemporaries who indulged in heavy-metal screaming and screeching. Melissa Etheridge demonstrates in her songs the musical skill and soulful competence that reminds me of The Who, and of JB at his best, as in "Pray." I have to tag this one as one of the best songs from late in "the lost years." She is a borderline BoomerXer, and certainly shows in this song more than the cynicism attributed to Xers.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Etheridge

This song also reminds me of this fine movie song from the same time period, from The Ultimate Gift, which the artist said was inspired by her desire and actions to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the people of Rwanda that year:

https://youtu.be/-aZ6C1S8K-s

[Ragnarök_62]

(09-02-2019, 04:14 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: I'm glad to rediscover this one from 2006, which won an Academy Award for "An Inconvenient Truth," the only documentary ever to win an Award for best original song. "I Need to Wake Up" has the musical qualities so lacking in the music of those of her contemporaries who indulged in heavy-metal screaming and screeching. Melissa Etheridge demonstrates in her songs the musical skill and soulful competence that reminds me of The Who, and of JB at his best, as in "Pray." I have to tag this one as one of the best songs from late in "the lost years." She is a borderline BoomerXer, and certainly shows in this song more than the cynicism attributed to Xers.




This song also reminds me of this fine movie song from the same time period, from The Ultimate Gift, which the artist said was inspired by her desire to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

https://youtu.be/-aZ6C1S8K-s

Hurricane?  Oh yeah, Ole Dorian is spinning around Mar-a-Lago Club, West Palm Beach Fla.  Hurricane Dorian should be renamed to Hurricane Trump because he's been very hard on the forecasters because he was supposed to peter out in the Carrib, and didn't, meandered off track a bunch of times and is now stuck over the Bahamas. So, hurricane Trump is just stalled out, probably playing some golf with a few feeder bands. We'll have to see if he wants to visit Disney;and or will go fishing.

Oh, and dropping a nuke isn't a very good idea 'cause the fallout will go round the round the storm's rotation and hurricanes will take that extra heat as a nice snack. 

ring around the stormy, pockets full posey
the storms will still mosey,
nukes ashes, nuke ashes
from the hurricane outflow, they all fall down  

Round and round, ah yeah, let's have it.  A song for today!

[gabrielle]

Quote:Dick Kovacevich, former CEO of Wells Fargo bank, thinks most Americans should return to work in April, urging that we “gradually bring those people back and see what happens”.

Lloyd Blankfein, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, whose net worth is $1.1bn, recommends “those with a lower risk of the diseases return to work” within a “very few weeks”.

Tom Galisano, the founder of Paychex, whose net worth is $2.8bn, believes “the damages of keeping the economy closed could be worse than losing a few more people. You’re picking the better of two evils.” ...

“We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem,” the president said last week, announcing that America would be “open for business” by Easter.*

[/url][url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/29/bankers-trump-economy-coronavirus-deaths?fbclid=IwAR1U_Xi3sIleiv_rFANabNuL65HHK7IiGuAiWT1H1asygjovYv7JjbEXhxQ]Ignore the bankers – the Trump economy is not worth more coronavirus deaths -- Robert Reich

*Just today, the president has extended social distancing expectations to the end of April (while congratulating himself on his ratings vs The Bachelor and Monday Night Football.)

[Eric the Green]

This favorite from 2006 was posted 11 years later. It shows that despite the over-emphasis on annoying music, superficial pop, over-sexed, too loud and screachy, too angry and lacking musical subtly and sophistication, that most (if not all) of 3T music had, still, on the fringes, such as in the new age genre (although it also was frequently too superficial) and in electronic and folk-songwriter music, lots of it indie music, some gems were made that are just as precious as those made in any other period.





This track made it all the way up to #5 on my all time list of favorite new age/ambient pieces from my DJ days. "Midwinter," from the Winter album by Kevin Kendle (b.1966). It could be called "Theme from a Winter Place" because of its vague resemblance to the famous Percy Faith oldie. The majestic winter scenes evoked and shown in the video envelope the listener. I wonder though whether there shouldn't be some lovers rowing on one of those still lakes. It's such a romantic piece that it seems to also be about love, and helps me to remember the mood. In spite of its conventional melodic appeal, it's an elaborate electronic piece with a repeating underlying motif, and it seems to grab me and stick in my mind. For some reason, I just love romantic pieces like this.

[gabrielle]

There are times when quiet reflection are appropriate, and times when anger and outrage are appropriate. Ministry, posted above, suited my mood today.

[Eric the Green]

(09-02-2019, 04:36 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote:

(09-02-2019, 04:14 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: I'm glad to rediscover this one from 2006, which won an Academy Award for "An Inconvenient Truth," the only documentary ever to win an Award for best original song. "I Need to Wake Up" has the musical qualities so lacking in the music of those of her contemporaries who indulged in heavy-metal screaming and screeching. Melissa Etheridge demonstrates in her songs the musical skill and soulful competence that reminds me of The Who, and of JB at his best, as in "Pray." I have to tag this one as one of the best songs from late in "the lost years." She is a borderline BoomerXer, and certainly shows in this song more than the cynicism attributed to Xers.
https://youtu.be/JUVqUz8m2PQ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Etheridge


This song also reminds me of this fine movie song from the same time period, from The Ultimate Gift, which the artist said was inspired by her desire to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

https://youtu.be/-aZ6C1S8K-s

Hurricane?  Oh yeah, Ole Dorian is spinning around Mar-a-Lago Club, West Palm Beach Fla.  Hurricane Dorian should be renamed to Hurricane Trump because he's been very hard on the forecasters because he was supposed to peter out in the Carrib, and didn't, meandered off track a bunch of times and is now stuck over the Bahamas. So, hurricane Trump is just stalled out, probably playing some golf with a few feeder bands. We'll have to see if he wants to visit Disney;and or will go fishing.

Oh, and dropping a nuke isn't a very good idea 'cause the fallout will go round the round the storm's rotation and hurricanes will take that extra heat as a nice snack. 

ring around the stormy, pockets full posey
the storms will still mosey,
nukes ashes, nuke ashes
from the hurricane outflow, they all fall down  

Round and round, ah yeah, let's have it.  A song for today!

Our music director at my Unitarian-Universalist church introduced me to this early-3T song from the new agey culture of the time, and he performed his own arrangement of it. There may be a connection to this later Ratt song. This Shadowfax song "What Goes Around" below is performed in a style I like better. The Ratt song is performed in the typical heavy metal with the guitar style I don't like, but is not as bad as some others in that style. It has its moments. This Shadowfax song from 1986 bears resemblance to Sting/The Police in "Every Breath You Take," a fine song and huge hit from 1983.





As for anger, when I speak about angry, I mean the style and not the subject matter. Of course there's a time for anger, but that does not mean there's a time for lousy style-- at least in my way of hearing music. Sorry gabrielle that I don't relate to 3T pop/rock styles very often. People like different things. Some decent songs do break through the screams and screeches, in my opinion, but nothing comparable to the great peak of pop around 1966. 

However, although I say this, that does not mean there weren't also pop music and songs from the 1966 period that I consider just as trashy as those from the 3T, or today! I claim that my taste is not tied to my age or the time I grew up. I am not a herd conformist, and when music from my youth was trashy, I did not go along with my peers. For example, in 1965 one of the biggest hits of the year was "Wooly Bully". NOT in my list of favorites! Big epic fail! The same goes for 1966's mega-hit "96 Tears". Never made it with me, and still doesn't. I didn't go along with the crowd. Or 1964's epic tear-jerker "Last Kiss." No tears jerked from me. And no interest from me in 1970s bubblegum or disco music. It was FM for me. But NOT "Free Bird!"

The greatest expression of "anger" in pop/vocal music may be by what Time Magazine just called America's greatest songwriter. It's high up on my all-time Top 400-plus. Now this is just as angry, without the need to scream and screech. Pure epic poetry and musical grandeur, and more feeling in the vocal. He knew his songs well, because he was an artist and a poet. This is from the late 1T, an era of much humanitarian awareness under JFK, and fear of nukes after the Cuban Missile Crisis. And still relevant today.

[Eric the Green]

From the Justin Bieber of organists, youtube star and concert organist, pure charm and genius from The Netherlands (speaks in Dutch and in English), Gert van Hoef (b.1994) plays 3 of the all-time best pieces from my classical and organ-music lists, and some charming Dutch/original pieces too. But I don't know what the prelude is.





The Carillon piece by Louis Vierne was the theme music for my radio program (1986-2010)

[Eric the Green]

(04-24-2020, 12:44 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(09-02-2019, 04:36 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote:

(09-02-2019, 04:14 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: I'm glad to rediscover this one from 2006, which won an Academy Award for "An Inconvenient Truth," the only documentary ever to win an Award for best original song. "I Need to Wake Up" has the musical qualities so lacking in the music of those of her contemporaries who indulged in heavy-metal screaming and screeching. Melissa Etheridge demonstrates in her songs the musical skill and soulful competence that reminds me of The Who, and of JB at his best, as in "Pray." I have to tag this one as one of the best songs from late in "the lost years." She is a borderline BoomerXer, and certainly shows in this song more than the cynicism attributed to Xers.
https://youtu.be/JUVqUz8m2PQ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Etheridge


This song also reminds me of this fine movie song from the same time period, from The Ultimate Gift, which the artist said was inspired by her desire to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

https://youtu.be/-aZ6C1S8K-s

Hurricane?  Oh yeah, Ole Dorian is spinning around Mar-a-Lago Club, West Palm Beach Fla.  Hurricane Dorian should be renamed to Hurricane Trump because he's been very hard on the forecasters because he was supposed to peter out in the Carrib, and didn't, meandered off track a bunch of times and is now stuck over the Bahamas. So, hurricane Trump is just stalled out, probably playing some golf with a few feeder bands. We'll have to see if he wants to visit Disney;and or will go fishing.

Oh, and dropping a nuke isn't a very good idea 'cause the fallout will go round the round the storm's rotation and hurricanes will take that extra heat as a nice snack. 

ring around the stormy, pockets full posey
the storms will still mosey,
nukes ashes, nuke ashes
from the hurricane outflow, they all fall down  

Round and round, ah yeah, let's have it.  A song for today!

Our music director at my Unitarian-Universalist church introduced me to this early-3T song from the new agey culture of the time, and he performed his own arrangement of it. There may be a connection to this later Ratt song. This Shadowfax song "What Goes Around" below is performed in a style I like better. The Ratt song is performed in the typical heavy metal with the guitar style I don't like, but is not as bad as some others in that style. It has its moments. This Shadowfax song from 1986 bears resemblance to Sting/The Police in "Every Breath You Take," a fine song and huge hit from 1983.





As for anger, when I speak about angry, I mean the style and not the subject matter. Of course there's a time for anger, but that does not mean there's a time for lousy style-- at least in my way of hearing music. Sorry gabrielle that I don't relate to 3T pop/rock styles very often. People like different things. Some decent songs do break through the screams and screeches, in my opinion, but nothing comparable to the great peak of pop around 1966. 

However, although I say this, that does not mean there weren't also pop music and songs from the 1966 period that I consider just as trashy as those from the 3T, or today! I claim that my taste is not tied to my age or the time I grew up. I am not a herd conformist, and when music from my youth was trashy, I did not go along with my peers. For example, in 1965 one of the biggest hits of the year was "Wooly Bully". NOT in my list of favorites! Big epic fail! The same goes for 1966's mega-hit "96 Tears". Never made it with me, and still doesn't. I didn't go along with the crowd. Or 1964's epic tear-jerker "Last Kiss." No tears jerked from me. And no interest from me in 1970s bubblegum or disco music. It was FM for me. But NOT "Free Bird!"

The greatest expression of "anger" in pop/vocal music may be by what Time Magazine just called America's greatest songwriter. It's high up on my all-time Top 400-plus. Now this is just as angry, without the need to scream and screech. Pure epic poetry and musical grandeur, and more feeling in the vocal. He knew his songs well, because he was an artist and a poet. This is from the late 1T, an era of much humanitarian awareness under JFK, and fear of nukes after the Cuban Missile Crisis. And still relevant today.

Round and Round by Ratt. The new GEICO commercial!

[gabrielle]

 

Examples of his influence on 3T pop music:
"Exit Music for a Film" --Radiohead
"Over" --Portishead
"Lovely Head" --Goldfrapp

[Eric the Green]

I liked his song from 1966, the peak 2T year: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. But I'm listening

[Eric the Green]

Kate Bush, The Sensual World (Sept.1989). This is good witchy stuff that goes into the real territory of this era, beyond mainstream commercial pop. A bit like Loreena McKennitt, but wispier and breezier; enchanting.

[Eric the Green]

(07-07-2020, 04:36 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: GEICO commercial! We have a Ratt problem! What comes around goes around.




I see from the wikipedia page that the Ratt song, a hit in 1984, actually came before the Shadowfax song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_and_...Ratt_song)

The commercial actually caused the song to chart again in June 2020! (see wikipedia page above)

[Eric the Green]

I linked Lenny Kravitz's famous 1998 single at the end of my essay " Fly Away ", and I decided today to look him up on wikipedia, and it said the song " It ain't Over 'Till it's Over " (1991) was his best-seller, and I like it, so I'm posting it here.





I notice that the first 4 notes of the theme are the same as the Leonore Overture and Won't Get Fooled Again that I discuss in my Fly Away essay and Reverberations post here.

[nguyenivy]

Going to toss my favourite genre in here from the rave scene:

Paul van Dyk - For An Angel (E-Werk Club Mix) - 1998