Most Influential Band of Last 20-25 years

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IanB I
IanB May 1, 2008 09:24:58
Replying to Dog 3000

I am with you on Kraftwerk and, as per above I would put Moroder and Larry Levan in the same pot.

Despite all indications to the contrary on this board, most of the innovative music from the last 25 years has been from the 'dance' 'scene' and hip hop rather than from guitar music.

We're still largely in an era of rock recycling itself with the hipper artists recycling the most obscure artefacts from earlier generations and / or putting a cynically post-modern spin on old crap.

Where is the truly adventurous rock and roll is to be found?

Not a clue but I've heard nothing made with guitars in the last 20 years that went anywhere close to going as far out out of the AABA structural box as Matmos or Boards of Canada or FSOL have been. These artists are rarely on my proverbial turntable as I can get all that I can get from them, and get it in spades, from Reich and Adams and Ligetti but I can see their importance and live in hope that rock and roll will at some point stop settling for drinking its own piss and get out a bit more.

Like jazz, it's a fantastic museum to explore but that's what rock and roll is now. Fully embraced as a mainstream art form and utterly flumoxed by its own lack of cultural relevance.

D Dog 3000
Dog 3000 May 1, 2008 16:14:42
Replying to IanB

Jazz seemed to go into "museum mode" when Miles retired in 1976.

Rock went into "museum mode" I suppose whenever Jann Wenner built his actual "rock and roll museum".

Hiphop is an interesting case -- it doesn't seem to have followed the same path as past popular music paradigms. Perhaps since it was literally built on bits and pieces of every preceeding music (the pomo bricolage thing.) There are a lot of important artists in this realm, but no one jumps out like "The Beatles" for rock or "Miles Davis" for jazz. The styles change so fast that it's nearly impossible to be a relevant rap artist for more than 2-3 years. All the stars of 10-15 years ago are either struggling nostalgia acts or turned into TV and movie actors. Eminem's one flop album away from going the same route (or maybe he already is?)

I think technology is a very big driver of changes in music, so I assume the computer / sampling is going to be the central "instrument" for the next few decades, as guitars were to rock and saxes to jazz.

S shanshee_allures
shanshee_allures May 1, 2008 16:51:04
Replying to IanB

IanB wrote:
Despite all indications to the contrary on this board, most of the innovative music from the last 25 years has been from the 'dance' 'scene' and hip hop rather than from guitar music.
Oh too true! Wonderfully true in fact.
I've been in an electro daze the past few months. I regularly find myself doing that infact.

Electronic music is still evolving and it's limited only by human imagination. But of course like anything it has its duffers too.

Innovation though doesn't always lead to influence, (probably because in this instance, most of the great electro is too unique/complex), which in a way I'm glad of.

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