An Oldies Forum?

That's true. But By that definition, there are never any bad years. But, I've actually thought about this -1990 was a very weak year for popular music. The top 40 was terrible, unless you have a fondness for Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul, New Kids on the Block and the lovable Phil Collins.

Outside the top 40, the two releases that topped the "best of" lists were Ragged Glory and Fear of a Black Planet. Both are great albums, although not as good as the records that preceded them (Freedom and It Takes a Nation of Millions). Take a look at the Village Voice poll for 1990 - a pretty rough year, especially for rock fans. Then in 1991, the tables turned completely, which was a relief.

 

Obviously but look how it's evolved. The new members joining tend to be here to discuss Classic Rock, irrespective of SQ.

 

nut and shell
there may be some masterpieces out there, but i wont listen to a crushed, ear splitting version of it. ive tried many recommendations, but have never gotten past the first listen.

 

Couldn't agree more. And you and I like a lot of the same kind of music. I'm just a 70's guy and The Beatles and Dylan didn't speak as strongly to my generation, at least not to me. I wish I could love any of my favorites as much as people here like The Beatles or Dylan. I do see that they produce quality music, and Dylan IS growing on me, but perhaps if you didn't grow up with them it's harder to get into it. There is just no way my kids are going to get into the Bee Gees from the 70's, or ABBA, and probably not The Eagles though they have certainly, imo, aged better. I do find I get used to some newer artists more than I do getting used to 60's artists that I don't already enjoy. That's the beauty of this place, and to your point: there are hundreds of threads. I'm just as guilty sometimes of writing snarky comments on a thread I don't agree with and I really don't know why. When people here can start Olivia Newton John or ABBA threads and get some respect, I think that shows there is something for everyone and we all should perhaps watch the negativity. Myself included. As you said, there are plenty of fun threads...why rain on other people's parade.

 

So you're John Peel?

 

Well, I do like Paula Abdul's first two albums...

 

Only because the search engines started picking up this forum. had that not happened, I doubt a lot of non-audiophiles would have found us.

 

The thread I'm following closely right now is Rod Stewart album-by-album.
So the answer is:

 

Talking of JP that reminds me. In the spirit of... BBC 6Music radio is a great mix of old and new. The DJs actually know a quite bit about music. Iggy Pop was doing a stint on there (haven't checked whether he still is). I am sure this has been mentioned before elsewhere and I may be preaching to the converted...
BBC - Radio 6 Music - Home

 

nice. i live in states now, but was never a hardcore peel fan. he just seemed to consume it all, no matter how crap some of it clearly was. some gems came through though.
much preferred the evening session during the britpop years. id never have heard stuff like kenickie...

 

I always liked to save the best til last, so that album by album thing often doesnt work for me (listening in ascending chronological order). Maybe if it was in reverse, could at least be motivated by the thought of listening to Early Rod and the Faces towards the end!

 

I didn't grow up with Bob Dylan's music, either. I'm only a couple of years younger than you, so we come from the same basic musical era. Our opinions may differ about some of the music of our era, primarily the 70s, but neither of us were spoken to by Dylan. Funny thing: it wasn't until I got his early mono albums that I finally understood his music. Some of it still grates on my nerves, but I get it now. A lot of it spoke to the struggles of Black people in the early 60s, which I can relate to, so that was a starting point.

The Bee Gees, ABBA, Eagles, Earth Wind & Fire, Chicago, Rufus, Ohio Players...that's all my (our) music! Barry White, America, Spinners, even Lobo...all ours, and I love it! It really annoys me when I see a-holes crapping on these artists, and threads about them, always talking about how some s****y punk music "saved" them from the evils of England Dan & John Ford Coley and the Carpenters. They should start their own threads.

 

It's simple. If someone does not like the thread topics, they should find another forum where they do.

If the new music is really good, there has to be a forum for it somewhere. It's not exactly hard to get people to post threads on the internet. So, actually, the new music probably does not have to be really good. It can be so-so like a lot of the music discussed here. Of course, that's all subjective.

 

When somebody enters a Steely Dan thread to yap about The Monkees, it makes me wish he'd been pushed into lockers more frequently during high school and with greater force.

 

Several artists don't really start finding a groove until album number three. Half the time the first LP is unrecognizable and not "as we know them."

 

That's very true, many examples of that. One thing that I am not sure about is whether there is any artist of considerable longevity that got consistently better with each release. Nearest I can think of is Tom Waits. Maybe in the jazz there is / was?

 

Apparently some Beatle fanatics are signing up for cryogenics and have arranged to be thawed out for the definitive 100th anniversary.

 

that doesn't count. its always there

 

And indeed that's what I'd say--there are no bad years for music. For any year I can easily name well over 50 albums I love and wouldn't want to be without. (And that's a very conservative estimate because I don't want to start arguing about how I could be familiar with a certain number of albums from each year, haha)

 

love? 50? that's a tall order. I couldn't think of 5 from 1992 that I 'love'. unless van morrison released more than one that year, more power to you, I might be too persnickety

 

I think Lamar can be a first name, or is that a family or "made up" name. I just think it's got a better ring to it. Just sayin'...

 

Basically everything that just happened is now in the past (as was brought up later, I see) - so that includes last weekend's new releases.

So not really sure what that has to do with the OP's question about decades-old artists dominating the top threads here.

 

Playing music brings it to the present. That's the great thing about it. Like the Genie that comes out of the lamp! Jimi Hendrix LIVES!!! - until I have to turn the record over anyway...

 

People have to keep remembering (because one apparently has to keep pointing out), one canNOT judge what music was like, based on what got played on a radio station in your past that was targeted specifically to your demographic of listener. Radio is not an "entertainment" medium, it is an "advertisement medium"; it does not exist to play music, as much as it exists to crowdsource a group of listeners that would be in the range of customers a certain advertising client wants to reach.

Even beyond the notion that country people like country so they're a good fit for a leather clothing dealer, and soccer moms like adult contemporary so sell them housewife-y products, consider the political decisions a program director and his damned ever-present consultant would have to go through to create a playlist. So many of these songs have to be up-tempo, but so many others have to be ballads, and there's flavors of new artists and established ("catalog") stars that must be present. That's why, in the early age of MTV when teens' whole music world changed, there were still plenty of Kenny Rogers, Billy Joel and Rick Springfield, to balance out The Motels, Scandal and The Police. A programmer couldn't JUST focus on the stars that were getting the heat from the cool kids.

Remember artists who seemed to hang around way past their freshness date on your favorite radio station, long after that hit album was happening? Your Steve Winwoods, your Rod Stewarts and Lionel Richies? These were entrenched in a category called, "Recurrent", meaning the song no longer charted, but the station wanted to hang onto it a little longer. These would be the songs you'd hear at the top-of-the-hour, right after the station ID, or coming up first out of a commercial break. Oh GOD, will they ever stop playing that Phil Collins song? Well, not really, but the one thing that would keep it from playing so much...is that newer Phil Collins song. He did have his hands in the production of other people's hits, though: Howard Jones, Eric Clapton, Freida...duets with David Crosby, Philip Bailey, Marilyn Martin... "Islands In The Stream", by Kenny & Dolly - okay song, I guess, but why was it there...? Because the Bee Gees were already too ever-present on the station, and this was essentially a Bee Gees song coming out of other people's mouths...like brother Andy. It's not called, "variety"....it's called "the illusion of variety".

Yeah, there have been trends, and sensations, and many sorts of zig-zags in music you hear on the radio that lead you to believe "rock is dead", or "disco is all that's being made right now", or "it's all boy-bands and pop-tarts". But in an age when everybody can afford a studio, a guitar, a synthesizer...and drugs...do not think there isn't somebody out there making just the kind of music you crave. You only have to take the blinders off, and look around the corners of the charts, the formats and the "music business". No, I'm not talking about XM, Spotify, your dance club or the local roller rink...I'm talking about what these music professionals listen to, when they go home at night. What the music reviewers hint at, when they're supposed to be writing about stuff people recognize but they don't have the stomach for it anymore. I'm talking about what the guy in the head shop used to play over the store stereo while the record store in the mall was pushing the newest thing by the newest artist that's the newest phenomenon because the record labels said so.

You don't really know what's out there...until you figure out, why it's "not".