The influence of the decades
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Topic: The influence of the decades
Posted By: aapatsos
Subject: The influence of the decades
Date Posted: December 15 2008 at 16:48
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I would really like your thoughts on this one: It seems to me that the two major decades of influence in today's music are the 70's and the 80's. While the 60's have undoubtly produced many influential bands and real innovators in music, it seems the latter music decades are repeating the past. The 90's introduced a nostalgic return to the 70's, more progression in music and spacey sounds. Bands that were born in this decade borrow elements directly from the 'golden age' of 70's, not strictly in prog rock, but other rock and prog-related movements. On the other hand, the current decade seems to be a return in the straight/hard sound of the 80's, simplifying music patterns and bringing back this 'raw' feeling of a decade that many people believe it was a 'drawback' in the music evolvements (including prog). I don't say that there were no influences from all decades to the last 20 years, but I get this overall feeling... Do you find any pieces of truth in these statements? Agree or disagree in a way? |
Replies:
Posted By: Petrovsk Mizinski
Date Posted: December 15 2008 at 17:04
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I don't totally agree. Speaking in terms of metal, something I know a fair bit about, the 90s saw a great progression within metal, spawning many new sub genres. In terms of 'rock' though, I think bands are more likely to repeat the sounds or at least have a great amount of influence of the sounds that were successful during the 60s/70s. ------------- 
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Posted By: Philéas
Date Posted: December 15 2008 at 17:49
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There are a lot of bands trying to emulate sounds of the past these days, however, it's usually very easy to distinguish which bands are old and which are new. Stuff like production, album art etc. easily sets most retro bands apart from the old ones they're copying, regardless of style. It's nearly impossible to produce exactly the same music now as 20, 30 or 40 years ago, because the world is different nowadays; technologically, politically, economically, you name it. My point being, that while the current trend is copying the past, the music still sounds different, meaning some sort of evolution has taken place. |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: December 15 2008 at 18:01
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I don't believe music moves in decades, or is confined to a single phase within a specific timeframe - the transition from one phase to another is gradual and lasts as long as it needs to. The 60s lasted 6-months, the 70s lasted 7 years (from 69), the 80s 16 (from 78), the 90s has had several phases that lasted well into the 00s (probably until 2002), and I don't think the 00s are finished yet so will probably run into the 10s without too much problem. Running concurrent with all these primary phases were a multitude of secondary phases that moved at different speeds. Each subsequent phase draws on all preceding phases, so the influence of the first permeates through to the last - what changes is the level of influence and whether it is direct or indirect. However, the largest influence on any decade has always been the from within decade itself - bands are more influenced by their peers than by the previous generation.
I think this "decade" will prove to be a decisive and important one in the future, bands do seem to be looking in all directions and pulling influences from all quarters. What we are seeing now that has never occurred before on this scale is cross-subgenre influencing from within Prog itself - bands are jumping subgenres and influences between albums (and sometimes even between songs).
/edited for spelling
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Posted By: A B Negative
Date Posted: December 16 2008 at 16:44
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Those who do not learn from the eighties are doomed to repeat them. ------------- "The disgusting stink of a too-loud electric guitar.... Now, that's my idea of a good time." |
Posted By: aapatsos
Date Posted: December 16 2008 at 17:51
I think you have made two rather interesting comments here and I tend to agree. Many bands are influenced from other bands within the same ''time-frame'' and also the diversity of influences in some bands/albums that tend to blend sounds from many prog genres. I think these are points that some of us are aware but never realised in depth... (including me)  |
Dean wrote:Posted By: The Pessimist
Date Posted: December 16 2008 at 19:21
I'll have to agree with you there. The trio of Death, Atheist and Cynic that emerged in the early 90s were pioneers to say the very least. Opeth are innovators in my book, as they do their own thing, regardless of what anyone thinks of them. I can't think of a band that were of Opeth's genre before them. Same goes with the mighty Meshuggah. Grindcore, which I'm getting into quite a fair bit lately (I know, I'm disgusted as well), is an entirely new genre of metal developed in the past decade or two. Actually, I think the past two decades have been the most influential as far as metal is concerned. ------------- "Market value is irrelevant to intrinsic value." Arnold Schoenberg |
Posted By: JLocke
Date Posted: December 19 2008 at 22:55
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Nah, I think musicians are inspired by whatever they like listening to, and who says that modern musicians are only listening to 70s and 80s music? Even if the 90s imitaded the 70s, they were still the 90s, therefore unique in their own sound and influence.
I myself find the music I write to be influenced by many older bands of the sixties, not just the later stuff.
So it's really a case-by-case basis, I believe. You can't pigeonwhole an entire generation of songwriters in that way.
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Posted By: prog4evr
Date Posted: December 25 2008 at 00:22
Touche! (I was just on the 80s appreciation thread before this, too. Do people really exist that like Duran Duran?) |
Posted By: mithrandir
Date Posted: December 25 2008 at 12:07
I agree, I think Metal's most progressive and experimental years were during the time when the mainstream was writing Metal off as a dead genre, approx 89-mid 90sish |