Is There As Much Creative Energy Now As There Once Was? I'm Talking From Boomers To Zoomers Here... (1 Viewer)

[massraider]

Summer TIme is still my jawn. Parents Just Dont Understand? Nightmare on My Street?

Yes - I was a kid listening to them. However, I would put it ahead of Sugar Hill Gang and on par with Run DMC

 

[Northern Voice]

Anyway, apologies for anything that felt personal. I was not really taking myself seriously but I see it doesn't come across that way.

That's great to hear. I thought you were legitimately pissed at an old man, but then I read it as a friend exasperated and offering a contradictory opinion and wasn't sure. Honestly, I didn't know.

No problem. At all.

My apologies for waking up this morning with more of a "**** that" attitude. I should know better.

Nah it's cool. It doesn't read well going back and as a result the posts like the idiot one and the very online guy that were funny in my head just don't make sense while the others are just dicky.

I think the technology discussion goes both ways. There are so many more "creators" these days because of apps like Tiktok. Now the merit of what's been created... I don't know how to judge and evaluate that but the volume is greater than ever.

Also 100 gecs are amazing.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

crank up some Fontaines DC!

I can see my work here is done. Thumper Rule in effect for me.

 

[Northern Voice]

The Fresh Prince was dope

The Fresh Prince was a kid's rapper, actually. He appealed to pre-pubescent kids of all races.

His daughter Willow is actually a decent example of someone who is quite young and full of creative energy. She has played in a few different genres already and has a pretty unique sound in them. And has the young Tiktok cred with her song as part of The Anxiety "Meet Me at Our Spot" a radio hit with the emo "Transparent Soul" and of course had the early R&B "Whip My Hair". She's still only 22 and I think was under 20 when all of the above were recorded.

Of course she had some advantages...

 

[massraider]

I think the technology discussion goes both ways. There are so many more "creators" these days because of apps like Tiktok. Now the merit of what's been created... I don't know how to judge and evaluate that but the volume is greater than ever.

The tech makes it so accessible. Fifteen year old me is very jealous of Spotify, and Soundcloud, and YouTube.

Because in order to find good, non-mainstream, fifteen year old me relied on my Spin and NME subscriptions, my faithful VHS recording of 120 minutes, oh and college radio!! Thank God for college radio.

It's awesome to hear some random indie pop track, create a radio station and go down a rabbit hole on Spotify, hearing similar stuff. That is an amazing thing to be able to do.

There is great art being created today, but you have to look for it. Which frankly, I thought 30 years ago. People misremember their youth. They act like they turned on the radio, and heard The Smiths and Social Distortion on the radio, when it was actually Debbie Gibson and Escape Club.

 

[rockaction]

They act like they turned on the radio, and heard The Smiths and Social Distortion on the radio, when it was actually Debbie Gibson and Escape Club.

This is very true and a self-criticism I have. Am I not getting stuff that's buried and not bubbling up to the surface? But I do do those deeper dives on Spotify and I'm not impressed with what I hear. That said, there's payola going on with Spotify and other places that has been recently exposed.

It's not that different from the old payola that kept the good **** from being heard over the airwaves, only the airwaves are now bandwidth.

 

[massraider]

Am I not getting stuff that's buried and not bubbling up to the surface?

You might not be getting it, or you just might not be getting it.

This might not apply to you, but this thinking always ran through my mind when I was young:

Old people think **** was always better when THEY were 16-20 whatever years old. I hated the way Boomers ran down any new music, and I thought it was a combination of two things. 1. World was passing them by, they wish they were still young, they resented the young, and thus ran down any art they made. 2. They aren't young, so they don't understand young music. It doesn't speak to them, so it's crap. I'm not explaining Rage Against the Machine to my dad.

As I get older, I haven't changed my opinion, and everytime I shake my head at KPop, and their stupid choreographed dances, I try and maintain perspective.

 

[JAA]

Summer TIme is still my jawn. Parents Just Dont Understand? Nightmare on My Street?

Yes - I was a kid listening to them. However, I would put it ahead of Sugar Hill Gang and on par with Run DMC

Parents Dont Understand > My Adidas

That said, 'Christmas in Hollis' is one of the best Christmas songs ever, and a dang good song in general.

I will close with some controversy - Im not impressed with Run DMCs overall catalogue and believe they are pretty overrated.

 

[rockaction]

You might not be getting it, or you just might not be getting it.

This is also fair. Perhaps new innovations are passing me by. I guess the thing is that I'm not a generational chauvinist -- my favorite stuff tends to come from Boomers and Millennials. Why is that? Why not the youth? The Millennials were younger than me, so it's not an anti-youth bias. Though I get why it might be Millennials (I'm only six or seven years older than the youngest Millennial) but then why the Boomers? It's not like I have a special affinity for them. Quite the contrary. I think they irrevocably damaged America in certain ways.

What is it today about our current youth that leaves me so uninspired by their creative output? Usually I'm a sucker for both youth output and creativity, so why is this passing me by? That's what I want to understand.

 

[rockaction]

Im not impressed with Run DMCs overall catalogue

Like The Sugar Hill Gang, Run DMC's big calling card is how original they were. It's impossible to understand DMC without context and/or being there (in urban areas where they were as big as anything) at the time. Nothing can really compensate for that.

 

[JAA]

I think the technology discussion goes both ways. There are so many more "creators" these days because of apps like Tiktok. Now the merit of what's been created... I don't know how to judge and evaluate that but the volume is greater than ever.

The tech makes it so accessible. Fifteen year old me is very jealous of Spotify, and Soundcloud, and YouTube.

Because in order to find good, non-mainstream, fifteen year old me relied on my Spin and NME subscriptions, my faithful VHS recording of 120 minutes, oh and college radio!! Thank God for college radio.

It's awesome to hear some random indie pop track, create a radio station and go down a rabbit hole on Spotify, hearing similar stuff. That is an amazing thing to be able to do.

There is great art being created today, but you have to look for it. Which frankly, I thought 30 years ago. People misremember their youth. They act like they turned on the radio, and heard The Smiths and Social Distortion on the radio, when it was actually Debbie Gibson and Escape Club.

One benefit is just that. Prior to this technology basically recording labels gated what we heard. While I believe we hear too much crap, it's much better than the CD printing oligarchs only giving us Whitney Houston and Guns and Roses.

Did everyone get their $50 from the CD printing lawsuit?

 

[JAA]

Im not impressed with Run DMCs overall catalogue

Like The Sugar Hill Gang, Run DMC's big calling card is how original they were. It's impossible to understand DMC without context and/or being there (in urban areas where they were as big as anything) at the time. Nothing can really compensate for that.

I get it. They were transformative. That doesn't make their music good.

Ill take Chuck D and Flavor Flav over DMC as comp. Once the late 80s it though, I feel like DMC got left behind.

 

[massraider]

I get it. They were transformative. That doesn't make their music good

You were a kid when Parents Just Don't Understand came out.

That doesn't make it good.

 

[JAA]

I get it. They were transformative. That doesn't make their music good

You were a kid when Parents Just Don't Understand came out.

That doesn't make it good.

yea but!

well formed argument. you win

 

[rockaction]

Once the late 80s it though, I feel like DMC got left behind.

They surely did. "Down With The King" was an attempt to re-establish their dominance over rap, but it failed a bit. By then, people were into different acts with different raíson d'êtres.

 

[rockaction]

But I certainly didn't think we'd be addressing Will Smith's creative output in this thread.

Hey, never know where it might go.

 

[JAA]

Once the late 80s it though, I feel like DMC got left behind.

They surely did. "Down With The King" was an attempt to re-establish their dominance over rap, but it failed a bit. By then, people were into different acts with different raíson d'êtres.

I like that song like 1 outta 10 times I listen. I put it on my workout list and ended up FF it most times.

Christmas in Hollis though!

Let me add, the crossover with Aerosmith was novel and great. Love the mashup (and video)

 

[JAA]

Once the late 80s it though, I feel like DMC got left behind.

They surely did. "Down With The King" was an attempt to re-establish their dominance over rap, but it failed a bit. By then, people were into different acts with different raíson d'êtres.

I like that song like 1 outta 10 times I listen. I put it on my workout list and ended up FF it most times.

Christmas in Hollis though!

Let me add, the crossover with Aerosmith was novel and great. Love the mashup (and video)

Just rewatched the music video. I wish more artists could learn how to share the stage. Such a great video and performance.

 

[Northern Voice]

@rockaction have you listened to Zach Bryan at all? He's somewhat of a phenomenon in my opinion. He's gone from unknown to headlining major festivals in a super short period of time. He's young and ridiculously gifted as both a songwriter and performer IMO. His concerts are something to see.

From Austin (live)

Revival (live)

 

[rockaction]

@rockaction have you listened to Zach Bryan at all? He's somewhat of a phenomenon in my opinion. He's gone from unknown to headlining major festivals in a super short period of time. He's young and ridiculously gifted as both a songwriter and performer IMO. His concerts are something to see.

No, I haven't. I suppose I should. I'll give it a whirl.

eta* My God, the album on Spotify is thirty-four songs long. "American Heartbreak"?

eta2* "From Austin" isn't bad. If it's new country, then at least it's reasonably good new country. I think your tastes and mine differed a little bit in what we listened to growing up. You seem to have embraced new country as a youth; I have less pleasant memories of it because I always associated it with Northern American rednecks who truly were racist and somewhat terrible. So the music always makes think of that. I like old country and white country blues, but the radio stuff they played in the nineties was sort of anathema to me.

Which is a long way of saying that I probably am not the best person to judge Zach Bryan, but it's not because of age or anything--it's out of my wheelhouse which is based on my experiences as a youth.

He's very listenable, though.

Case in point: The Spotify algorithm skipped from Bryan to "Sam" by Sturgill Simpson, and I immediately perked up and liked it. I didn't like Metamodern by Simpson, but I just dug that one.

 

[Northern Voice]

@rockaction have you listened to Zach Bryan at all? He's somewhat of a phenomenon in my opinion. He's gone from unknown to headlining major festivals in a super short period of time. He's young and ridiculously gifted as both a songwriter and performer IMO. His concerts are something to see.

No, I haven't. I suppose I should. I'll give it a whirl.

eta* My God, the album on Spotify is thirty-four songs long. "American Heartbreak"?

eta2* "From Austin" isn't bad. If it's new country, then at least it's reasonably good new country. I think your tastes and mine differed a little bit in what we listened to growing up. You seem to have embraced new country as a youth; I have less pleasant memories of it because I always associated it with Northern American rednecks who truly were racist and somewhat terrible. So the music always makes think of that. I like old country and white country blues, but the radio stuff they played in the nineties was sort of anathema to me.

Which is a long way of saying that I probably am not the best person to judge Zach Bryan, but it's not because of age or anything, but it's out of my wheelhouse which is based on my experiences as a youth.

He's very listenable, though.

Well, he was in the news last week for calling out Travis Tritt over Bud Light-gate, so he may share some of your dislike for some of that traditional "new country" redneckery. He also has a live EP called All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster and is only touring in places that can actually get tickets into fans hands without all the bots, fees and hassle.

 

[Northern Voice]

Bickering aside, I feel nobody can stay on task here. I love Alvvays, the lead singer is 35 years old. Not even close to a zoomer. 100 Gecs- late 20s. Not Zoomers. Wet Leg- she’s 30.

Is this about Zoomers or just modern music?

In terms of the younger side of things, I feel like there is an incredible group of female singers that are all in a similar-ish style - I'll call it indie leaning pop-rock partially informed by hip-hop which is too reductive but whatever. Lorde was the first and patron saint of the group and was 16 years old when Royals came out but also

Olivia Rodrigo is 20
Billie Eilish is 21 (18 when "bad guy" came out)
King Princess is 24
girl in red is 24
Lydia Night (The Regrettes) is 22
Lindsey Jordan (Snail Mail) is 23
Holly Humberstone is 23
Soccer Mommy is 25
beabadoobee is 22
Willow is 22
Clairo is 24
Mallrat is 24
The Linda Lindas are 12-18

Women are continuing to own rock music over the past few years. And add to that, all the girls in BLACKPINK who just headlined Coachella are under 30, all the boygeniuses, etc, etc...

 

[Dr. Octopus]

26 years old.

The 21-35 year olds are what I'm concentrating on here. Say the Late Millenialls and Zoomers. Like the late Silent Generation and Boomers. Imagine it as that.

My album of the moment is HMLTD's rock opera The Worm about a giant worm that swallows England. It was released 10 days ago. I think the band is in their late 20s. If you find the time, I challenge you to listen to it and assess its creativity. You might think it sucks (we all have different tastes) and that's a fair opinion, but I can't fathom someone calling it uncreative.

I listened while I walked my dog. I liked it quite a bit and will listen again. I would say it was “creative” but it also reminded me a lot of some of Frank Zappa’s music.

 

[Juxtatarot]

I listened while I walked my dog. I liked it quite a bit and will listen again. I would say it was “creative” but it also reminded me a lot of some of Frank Zappa’s music.

I’m glad you liked it. It’s certainly an album that rewards repeated listens.