Comments on: Rolling Stone vs Triple J

By: Stubborn Mule

Stubborn Mule — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:23:17 +0000

Evan: despite my own affection, you may well be right that 80s represents a bit of a hiatus in rock as opposed to pop. There was, however, quite a lot of alternative/indie stuff going on, not to mention the explosion of rap. Here in no particular order is a quick (and far from complete) list of artists that I think helped make the 80s interesting (some I like, some I don’t, some are well-known, some are not):

Sonic Youth
The Fall
Public Image Ltd
Talking Heads
The Smiths
New Order
The Pixies
Psychedelic Furs
The Church
REM
U2
Prince
Husker Du
Metallica
Public Enemy
Yello
Violent Femmes
Depeche Mode
They Might be Giants
Shriekback
XTC
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Cocteau Twins
Simple Minds
Siouxie and the Banshees
Cabaret Voltaire
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Run DMC

and here are some that started earlier than the 80s, but were still going strong:

The Police
Elvis Costello
The Clash
David Bowie
Bob Dylan
Wire

By: Evan

Evan — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:59:41 +0000

I love the 80s too, but I’d be hard pressed to find the rock equivalent to Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who or, for the 90s, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, and so on.

The 80s were huge, but more in a pop sense – Michael Jackson, Madonna, U2, and so on. Sure, there’s probably generation bias in there, but I’m also pretty confident that at least some of the oversight is because of genre preferential bias – the 80s just didn’t have the prog rock or grunge rock pedigree of the 60s, 70s, and 90s.

By: Stubborn Mule

Stubborn Mule — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 10:47:15 +0000

Simon: I do prefer those pre-20th century classics in the original rather than the covers….but it’s so hard to find the CDs these days ;)

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:06:45 +0000

While tipping my hat to the point made by Dr Jack – the songs featured during Dennis Potter’s singing dectective and pennies from heaven are the most often hummed around this house – I feel the explanation for the asbence of 1980′s music is that many of the X-Generation spent much of the 1980′s working through the record collections of uncles, older brothers and sisters etc. Combined with the various other problems facing Gen-X (sniff sniff) including being a demographic minority, boomers who wont retire gracefully etc, those Gen-X’s who did listen to 80′s music at the time have had difficulty in pressing their tastes on a broader audience, beyond some usage in the sound tracks of romantic comedies.

By: Simon Rumble

Simon Rumble — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 05:46:05 +0000

I dunno Jacqui, I’m not sure listening to cover bands rehashing the same old stuff doesn’t float my boat ;)

By: Jacqui

Jacqui — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 05:33:15 +0000

I agree with Dr Jack – my most hated ‘personal’ question is ‘What’s your favourite piece of music?’

As an early music graduate and performer, but also a ‘young person’, my taste in music spans from 1200 to 2010… Perhaps Triple J and ABC Classic FM so should do a combined top 100 of all time CD collection?

By: John Carmody

John Carmody — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 02:15:55 +0000

The Mule advances the plausible hypothesis that these claims of “greatness” are skewed by the repertoire of the youth of the compilers, focussing, in particular on Radio JJJ. Of course, the same point applies to those from “Rolling Stone” — note that there’s really nothing earlier than the 1950s in that list. Yet many might consider that some of the greatest American popular songs (because “popular” or “pop” music is what is really being considered here) were written in the 1920s, 30s and 40s.

Showing my own age and tastes, I’d suggest that it the definition of “songs” were broadened to include Arias in operas, then music by Henry Purcell, Claudio Monteverdi, JS Bach, WA Mozart, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss, Edward Elgar should also be included. My regret about a concentration only on what I might (admittedly disparagingly) term “mass-media” material, throws up the challenge of this question: to what extent to many people’s musical tasted remain essentially determined by what they heard (and liked) in their adolescence, by contrast to their artistic and literary tastes which have, mostly, significantly developed since them. Not to say their political judgements and understanding of the wider world, as well?

By: Simon Rumble

Simon Rumble — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:59:30 +0000

I have the book for the Pitchfork 500 and it’s a very good read. And there are torrents so you can listen along.

By: Stubborn Mule

Stubborn Mule — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:58:29 +0000

Simon: That is an excellent idea, not least because I have a soft spot for insufferable hipsters!

By: Simon Rumble

Simon Rumble — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:43:23 +0000

Another data set you might like to look at is the Pitchfork 500, compiled by insufferable hipsters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitchfork_500