The soundtrack to your life

MookJong

MookJong

MookJong

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So looking back through the late 80's all of the 90's and into the start of the new millennium there were certain albums and music that defined and still transport you back to that time.

However since around 2007 this just slowed down to a point where it has stopped for me. I no longer feel like I am in a time and place where the music is defining part of it.

I'm not sure if this is because I just got older or if it is down to my listening habits or that mp3s changed the way it was consumed. But something changed.

What do you think? Anyone else feel the same way?
 
For me music is just growing for me. I didn't start get into music properly until a year or two after I finished college. During college I did find the metal music (thanks to a girl I was really into) and then from there it have been progressing. It started with Metallica and then by random circumstances and happenings I got to know more people with a similar taste in music, people that not only liked music but also played music themselves.

So from them I did pick up a lot of new music, and from this new music I have explored even further into new dimensions of music. However, I do tend to go towards the rock/metal music mostly, but I do also listen to quite a bit of classical at times (specially Ludovicu Einaudi). In the last months I have also started to go into postrock a bit, it started with Explosions In The Sky, and from there I found out who had inspired them, or been inspired by them, so I dwelved into those artists too.
The last couple of weeks have been spent on exploring Anathema, a band I didn't know anything about except recognising the name, but thanks to a friend linking one of their videos on Facebook I got listening to them.

I did grow up with albums on cd's, even though my parents had some vinyl albums but we didn't tend to play them that often, but they had quite a bit with Thin Lizzy, Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen etc.
For me the mp3's and Spotify is superb as it helps me discover more music without having the get an actual physical copy of the album. I would love to have a lot more albums as physical copies, but space and storage limits me as I am flat sharing.

I do try to listen through the albums from start to finish a few times when I get a new album or find a new artist, just to get a feel of them and because quite often my favorite songs won't be the singles from a particular album.
 
yes i feel the same way its seems in the late 90s there was a decent or worth listening too album out a least once a month now nothing.

I don't know if this just because I am getting older or there are no decent bands around

where have our rock n roll stars gone?
 
I think the question there is a lot to do with media. Nowadays the music is mass-produced by artists that people don't really connect to as with artists of the past.
In the past artists grew big due to a word of mouth, "dude, you gotta check this band out, they are awesome" or due to intensive touring.
Artists would start playing gigs in tiny pubs and work their way up.

Nowadays it's all mass-produced and quickly produced and with the eye on a quick quid or two, not on a longer term.

Pretty much all my music I listen to are bands that have built their careers from the bottom over a long time.

The people that now are our times rock stars are unfortunatly (at least in my opinion) in rap and hiphop.

What music do you guys usually listen to though?
 
I think the fact there is no ITV chart show, Top of the pops or any real interest in the Top 40 or who is number 1 makes a difference too.

I was always into more fringe stuff, but I think music is just not talked about in mainstream popular culture as much. It is more about celebrity gossip and twitter now and not being transported off by the music or being part of an identifiable group.

I'm sure there is something to this as others clearly agree. Or maybe not, maybe a 12, 16 or 18 year old will remember the soundtrack to 2016 in years to come in just the same way.
 
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I know what you mean, like how Nirvana and Oasis instantly bring you back to the 90s for example, because they were everywhere and pretty much took over.

When I think of this decade and last, not one artist or band comes to mind. There's no big cause or musical movement or anything. It's just a big blur of everything.
 
Where do people think it ended, for me I see the 00s Nu Metal and the Emo era as like the last big music movement that you could actually see and feel in society.
 
MookJong said:
Where do people think it ended, for me I see the 00s Nu Metal and the Emo era as like the last big music movement that you could actually see and feel in society.
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Yeah, I hated that stuff but even I can see that was the last thing to have any traction.

I don't think the OP's observation is imagined or age, I agree totally. Seems strange that from the 60s right through to the early 00s there were always movements and scenes in music. Now it's all so diluted it's hard to get your teeth into anything.

Great music is still out there, it's just harder to find I think, which means there are no collective happenings. Just remember how massive the Madchester / Britpop things were. Admittedly much of it was shallow and media driven but there were almost too many decent bands around to follow them all. Nowadays the average ones from those days are reforming to massive ticket sales and accolades.
 
MookJong said:
Where do people think it ended?
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The moment you could download music.

With that came instant acquisition of all music, from big name right the way down to bloke in a basement. You could have it all and you could distribute your own. The market became oversaturated and instead of one mainstream, well-known metal band screaming and roaring about how they're raising the devil or whatever, you now had thousands doing it with varying degrees of talent.
The next nail in the coffin was televised 'talent' shows that give million-pound deals to whoever wins the series each year. X Factor, The Voice, Pop Idol, etc...

Nowadays anyone can be a star... You get 30 seconds of fame and then you're forgotten just like all the others. I couldn't tell you who Today's artists are, now. I couldn't even tell you what kind of music something is because, in their struggle to do something new, everyone has mixed just about every style with all the others.
I'd probably have to Google just to know the difference between DubStep, Drum & Bass, Trance, House and "Garridge"...

And people ask me why I'm "so stuck in the 80s"... !!
 
Agree it was the advent of music downloads. Music is so instant now that it has far less emotional value.
 
you got old.

this is a conversation had by every single generation ever.

There are plenty of defining bands/artists its just you are out of it and it doesn't evoke the same emotions as the stuff you grew upto thinking was "original"

Oasis and blur are nothing but rehashes of 60s and the 70s as you well know.
I was indy clubbing during the whole brit pop and grunge era and it was pretty awesome but that has to do with being a teenager and coming of age/liberation etc etc.
 
Efour said:
you got old.

this is a conversation had by every single generation ever.

There are plenty of defining bands/artists its just you are out of it and it doesn't evoke the same emotions as the stuff you grew upto thinking was "original"

Oasis and blur are nothing but rehashes of 60s and the 70s as you well know.
I was indy clubbing during the whole brit pop and grunge era and it was pretty awesome but that has to do with being a teenager and coming of age/liberation etc etc.
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So what band did the same as those in the 2000s? I'm not a fan of blur but I know they were huge for the period and the thought of them takes me back instantly. I genuinely can't think of anyone from the 2000s that did anything truly decade defining.

I think I'd say even TV shows take me back to that period more than music.
 
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Efour said:
you got old.

this is a conversation had by every single generation ever.

There are plenty of defining bands/artists its just you are out of it and it doesn't evoke the same emotions as the stuff you grew upto thinking was "original"

Oasis and blur are nothing but rehashes of 60s and the 70s as you well know.
I was indy clubbing during the whole brit pop and grunge era and it was pretty awesome but that has to do with being a teenager and coming of age/liberation etc etc.
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Prove it, name the bands and music movements of the last 15 years.
 
"American Crap" has dominated the 00s Gangster rap, Eminem, Snoop dog. Im clutching at straws here but id say that was pretty defining genre sadly.
Freaks like Lady GaGa... Black RNB Beyonace, Jenny from the Block, Rihanna? Whatever she is called

Ill call it Skate music but stuff like Linkin Park, Blink 182 generic crap like that.
Metal and Rock Marlyn Manson, Slipknot.

X factor and Other generic **** became the norm in the 2000s producing a steady stream of genetically engineered BS.
One direction, Hideous but world conquering. for me its a sign of the 00s

yes it is utterly grim compared to the 80s and 90s but its deffo all there

Adele? and that awful whingey woman voice type music Amy "Whine"house, god the sooner that goes away the better.

Justin beiber, timberlake, kate perry oh jesus kill me now.... These are the reasons i stopped keeping up with music.
 
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I was listening to some 80s tracks and reading comments on YT the other day and was surprised to read teenagers comments saying 'this actually sounds like music how come today's stuff does not sound as good as this', it was just on random tracks like duran duran and aha etc

Hope for old farts or was it just written by people in their 30s,40s !
 
We all said the same about pink floyd. The doors jimihendrix the stones when I was 16/17
 
The year 1990 had quite a special place for me. There were basically 3 albums that were the soundtrack for me that year. The Sisters of Mercy - Vision Thing, The Mission - Carved in Sand and Depeche Mode - Violator. These are still among my favourite albums :)

Just realised Fields of the Nephilim - Elizium was also released in 1990 :)
 
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Efour said:
We all said the same about pink floyd. The doors jimihendrix the stones when I was 16/17
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When I was 16 we loved those but were also listening to The Prodigy, Nirvana and Wu-Tang and didn't rate the new or old music as being better.
 
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