Yes, but you shouldn’t feel to bad, as it wasn’t a change in what’s on the radio. Instead, the internet and all the marketing and distribution mechanisms that come along with it have opened up at least part of the long tail to the average listener. Now we don’t all have to listen to the same things.
I don’t know if there’s anything on the level of jazz/Bigband, rock, and hip-hop, (and electronica, probably) though that’s happened in the last few years. There have been little shifts in music, and there’s always been bands pushing the envelope, like in Scandinavian black metal or electronic shoegazerism in the stylings of M83 or pop weirdness like Xiu Xiu… But I haven’t heard anything that’s truly going to change the face of pop music.
And maybe you have a point (although I’m expounding on it a little). Maybe something on that level can’t happen because we are afforded a freedom of choice when it comes to music and we don’t all have to listen to the same things. That said, however, you can’t escape pop culture, and most casual listeners won’t seek out music actively like we do.
To me, that’s the more interesting question: not the revolutions that are happening on the fringes, but those that are so overwhelming that they shape pop culture. Rock, hip-hop, and electronica are the last three shifts I can remember that are this profound. Nirvana was a revolution in the sense that it completely changed the type of rock that was played on popular radio stations. Nirvana was not a revolution stylistically–they were just another outgrowth of rock.
I agree with Pulykamell. Nirvana? Rawk. The ‘difference’ was largely marketing (saying this as a grunge fan. It’s just 70’s metal with off-key singing). I think electronica is the closest thing to ‘different’ in semi-popular music, but even The Orb, Orbital, William Orbit. . . is just a variation on what Eno/ Numan/ Kraftwerk et al were doing already. I do genre-surf on shoutcast and such, though, and there is a lot of interesting genre-expanding and fusion stuff going on, if you turn off the FM radio.
This is a whoosh, right? Rave music would be unbearable if it weren’t for ecstasy. Raves themselves were unbearalbe even with ecstasy.
If you want a “shift” you can probably program your computer to shift a song in A major to B flat minor.
Or you can take a short sail off the Florida Keys to a mysterious place they call “Cuba.”
I would think not. There’s a big EDM culture out there. Maybe the best act I’ve ever seen live is Daft Punk.
Maybe so, but Daft Punk is house. Fingering rave as a seismic shift is bizarre, particularly considering it was preceded by the American-born Techno and House. Placing a premium on rave curiously and meaninglessly emphasises the British pop music industry.
I realize that, and I admit to my ignorance of Daft Punk.
But I’ve attended a free Los Van Van concert in Havana, (Te pone la cabeza mala), and when I compare it to a rave the rave just seems dopey.
You can “shift” anything by just moving it a little to the left or right. Now Cuban women, they move all over the place. (And to good effect.)
Seems to me that Limp Bizkit-style rock/rap fusion is a force to be reckons with, if not a full shift. I suppose you could say Aerosmith & Run DMC sarted it, but rap over heavy guitars didn’t really catch on until ~2000, and it’s remained prevalent and has grown since then.
Surely we’re talking about pervading influences? OK, so maybe I’m talking about the breaking into the mainstream of various electronic genres, but there’s little around nowadays that isn’t in any way influenced by them.
(Oh, and in true rock-and-roll style, late-80s rave did manage to get a law passed in an attempt to stifle it…)
Can I make a guess based on the specifics mentioned in the OP, actually, just for amusement/ hoots? Msmith537-- I am guessing that you were born between the years 1971 and 1975. Am I close?
Has anyone else here had that horrifying moment where you’re listening to electronica/ house and suddenly realize that it’s. . . it’s disco?
I think they’re called “indie”.
Ska, like electronica is one of those genres that wants to be big and probably should be bigger but never quite takes off. As soon as any ska-influenced band (No Doubt, Bostones) becomes big enough, they simply go pop and are no longer ska.
capybara - You are correct about the age.
House is actually a direct descendent of disco, just with a higher BPM.
I had a horrifying moment in the late 90s when Britney Spears and N*Synch were at their peak, thinking “this is the music of the future and it shall suckith”. Fortunately that does not seem to be the case.
Perhaps if we’re only talking about British music.
Well, yes and know. Some house sounds disco-ish maybe, but electronica, in general, doesn’t sound like disco to me. Take somebody like Daft Punk or Squarepusher or whoever, and, other than the fact that they’ve got a clear beat, I don’t think it sounds very much like disco at all. And I do appreciate the occassional disco tune (ABBA being one of my favorite pop bands.)
I’m not sure the rock-rap hybrid will be a big stylistic shift. It’s been going on since, as been mentioned, Run DMC and Aerosmith at least, and perhaps as far back as Blondie. Rage Against the Machine has been around since the 90s, Anthrax and Public Enemy did the influential “Bring the Noise” in 1988, you had Suicidal Tendencies, Faith No More, even a lot of Chili Peppers tunes that meld the two styles together. The hybrid (rapcore, or whatever you want to call it) will never be a dominant force in music, in my opinion, but it will always be a popular side genre.
Oh gee, I hope not. We’ve already had three major waves of ska, we really don’t need a fourth.
I’ve just been reading The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. there’s a corresponding blog [/url=http://www.thelongtail.com/]here.
I’m inclined to agree with Chris Anderson on the world moving from hits to niches, so the time of single works or genres defining an era is over. It will be interesting to see how it will affect markets that never went through the “hit” era, like China and India.
Well, not to get to GD about it, because I’ve always found rap to be too limited, musically. Its all lyrics, the music is just a computer/synth add-on.
And even the lyrics, they’re either oh-so over the top serious (i.e. pretentious) about how hard life has been, or they’re over the top indulgent about drinkin’, drugin’ and f***in’. Not that there’s anything bad about those things, but there’s only so many ways you can rap (i.e. talk) about them before it becomes ridiculous self-parody, almost novelty music. And that time has long since come.
And when I say ‘die’ I just mean I wish it would finally move back into the background and not be the top pop-music format.
A few generations ago, Ed Sanders of the Fugs sang, “When the mode of the music changes, the walls of the cities shake.” I believe it’s every generation’s duty to love music their parents can’t stand.
Thus, Baffle is too late in saying the major shift is hip-hop. When thirty-somethings are dancing to the same music as their kids, it’s time for a major seismic upheaval. I don’t know what it will be, but it’s coming, and nobody can stop it.
As Sanders implied, the music changes with the politics. Considering the rug-pulling that just took place in politics, the music will change any minute, now.
I see further splintering of the music scene on the horizon. With the Internet becoming the primary force in music, the music industry as we have known it loses more and more of its voice which radio used to provide. Really, it seems more like any kind of artist can make it today - though hip-hop dominates the U.S. top 40 for the moment. But has the top 40 ever mattered less?
If your looking for a trend I would say Latin music will become more and more predominate in the USA. Give it several more years for Europe to to go along with it. Then there will be an explosion of bands from the Midlands or somewhere consisting of white guys doing Latin stuff.
Nah, we’re more original than that 
Apart from pastiche outfits, the influence of hip-hop has been heavily mixed with more homegrown genres such as drum & bass, and also rises through black British culture. Even the influence of reggae on bands such as the Clash came from Britain, not abroad.