those of us in our 20's, who is the quintessential artist (musical) of our era?

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Pulsar

Diamond Member
Mar 3, 2003
5,224
306
126
Interesting...best selling albums by year

Pretty entertaining when I can break it down like this:
70's - Good
80's - Good
90's - Mostly Crap.
00's - Total Vomit.

Of course that's just averaging. Eminem's release in 00's was a good one. He can do things with speed, pace, and vocabulary that are simply amazing. I'm not a rap fan, but I have to give a nod to way he can write music.
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,908
2,141
126
Lol. You crack me up and it is so true. I am 30 now but I've kept up with new music enough to know the majority of it sucks.
I guess I'd have to say Lady Gaga. She's the modern day Madonna.

Been warning of this for years. The last decade has saw music going from "people that play instruments and sing" to "guy in a suit writes lyrics that market research shows 14-25 age range likes, find a face that fits a gimmick, and if the person can not sing use autotune to make it sound like they can."

My era has bands like led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Def Leppard, AC/DC, Metallica, Queen, and Van Halen. Your gen has Britney Spears, Justin Beiber, Jonas Brothers, The Black Eyed Peas, Kid Rock, and a zillion other terrible stereotypical corporate music makers.

The 2000's had it's chance. There were good people out there, and they were ignored. The White Stripes, Velvet Revolver, Wolfmother, Muse, Jet, The Strokes...all were awesome artists that made fantastic albums, and they mostly got raves from the music community, but no popular votes. They could have been this generation's Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and EVH, but synthesized drum tracks with clips taken from 30 year old songs mixed with bad rhyming took precedence. It could have been much different.

This is all you damn kids' fault! ::shakes cane::
 

Drako

Lifer
Jun 9, 2007
10,697
161
106
Interesting...best selling albums by year

[edit] 1980s

[edit] 1990s

[edit] 2000s


Wow, all down hill since 1997 :(
 

Kev

Lifer
Dec 17, 2001
16,367
4
81
I just wonder what the musical scene will look like in 10-15 years when my kids are teenagers. Music subscriptions (Rhapsody) and "a la carte" purchasing (iTunes) has largely killed the album format. Think of through the years there were a bunch of "must buy" albums for each various genre.

G'nR had Appetite for Destruction
Pink Floyd had Dark Side of the Moon
AC/DC was Back in Black
Dre had The Chronic
Nirvana had Nevermind
Greenday had Dookie
Metallica had Master of Puppets & Black album
Jackson had Thriller & Bad
Zeppin had IV

These were albums that almost every person who was a fan of particular music style or age group had. And even if you weren't a major fan you still might have owned it.

In the last 10 years have there been any major album releases like those? I'm blanking if there is....

I'll throw a couple out there...

Tool - Lateralus
Green Day - American Idiot
System of a Down - Toxicity
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (I think this band has definite staying power)

I don't really listen to rap but I'm sure you could throw an eminem and jay z album in there.

But yeah, it's pretty sparse.
 

Murloc

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2008
5,382
65
91
I'm not 20 yet and I listen to synthetized electronic music.
It's not the usual trash with samples from songs that are 30 years old and shitty rhytms though, I can't stand that.
I frankly don't believe it's shit, it's just that the musician stops at the creation stage, there is no way to measure how good he is because he doesn't play an instrument, there's no execution.

Are you sure that in the good ole times there wasn't shit music?
maybe the music we hear now is always shit because we remember just about the best from the past, and we can't find the good ones of the present so easily.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,418
1,599
126
I'm not 20 yet and I listen to synthetized electronic music.
It's not the usual trash with samples from songs that are 30 years old and shitty rhytms though, I can't stand that.

I put Deadmau5 on Pandora the other day and concluded that EDM hasn't progressed AT ALL since I left it a decade ago.

I would dare say it's significantly worse now than it was before, with everybody and their mom copying that Guetta/Benassi sound (instead of the Oakenfold vocal trance sound)
 

Anubis

No Lifer
Aug 31, 2001
78,712
427
126
tbqhwy.com
At least Metallica still releases music. Many of the bands listed in this thread aren't really from a 20 year old's era. Nirvana for example hasn't been around in 17(?) years?

I'm surprised to see that so many people in their 20's listen to older music/bands. This says a lot for today's music. :\
.

it does, i do listen to some newer music but most of it is not main stream

http://www.last.fm/user/Sibuna
 

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
7
81
I'm 29 and I've got to say, this is an impossible question. I mean, Tool and Nine Inch Nails were a huge part of my life. Nine Inch Nails even crossed into one of my 'quintessential' hobbies with things like Video Game soundtracks. Then I've got Daft Punk and Aphex Twin, and to see how far they've come, Daft Punk did an amazing soundtrack for Tron 2. Megadeth certainly, even more so than Metallica I'd say and if I were to pair that with anyone it would be Helloween.

Then there are artists like Simon Posford, who did Hallucinogen when I was in college, but then went on to also do Younger Brother and Shpongle. It took me years to realize I was listening to the same dude. There are a number of other artists that does a lot of work under various artists, which can usually be an eye opener when you start connecting all of the dots.

After some more thought, I'm going to give the nod to NIN. Not only because the music has been prevalent through nearly my entire life up to this point, but also because I can still listen to nearly every CD without going "Oh this didn't age well". On top of that, the sound has transformed so many times and followed me throughout my own life. Don't get me wrong though, I like a lot of music.
 
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vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,483
8,344
126
I'll throw a couple out there...

Tool - Lateralus
Green Day - American Idiot
System of a Down - Toxicity
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (I think this band has definite staying power)

I don't really listen to rap but I'm sure you could throw an eminem and jay z album in there.

But yeah, it's pretty sparse.

American Idiot came to mind after I made that post. And yeah I lost track of the rap scene around '92.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,418
1,599
126
After some more thought, I'm going to give the nod to NIN. Not only because the music has been prevalent through nearly my entire life up to this point, but also because I can still listen to nearly every CD without going "Oh this didn't age well". On top of that, the sound has transformed so many times and followed me throughout my own life. Don't get me wrong though, I like a lot of music.

Pretty Hate Machine did not age well in it's CD state, but it aged GREAT as a live album.

And yeah, PHM/Broken/TDS/Fragile/WithTeeth/Ghosts/his current shit sound close enough to know it's NIN, but different enough to show evolution.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,418
1,599
126
Dave IS Foo.

But Foo is only Foo, whereas Dave is Foo + Nirvana + sidebands.

Which is why Foo is not quintessential but Dave is. The man (DG) is a multi-talented artist. Foo Fighters feel like a template rock band now
 

glenn1

Lifer
Sep 6, 2000
25,383
1,013
126
i'm having trouble coming up with a list...

it seems like we grew up in an era of teeny bop, boy bands and synthesized "electronic" music.

For someone your age, probably Britney Spears or Norah Jones. Sorry, but music in the last 10 years or so has not been a hothouse of innovation.